Dear Teachers,
Reading ladders allow for students to be able to connect the same theme through multiple different kinds of text. Students are able to learn more about themselves as readers as well as become stronger readers when given opportunity to read different kinds of text to allow them to understand information in different ways. When you use different genres of text on the same topic it allows for students to explore that topic and make connections. This helps with vocabulary, language skills, and comprehension of different kinds of text.
With one central focus or theme presented in a reading ladder, the ladder here is based on social class. It uses multiple different kinds of books centered on the theme. It contains an anchor book to start the ladder which is Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. This books talks about a very wealthy girl from Mexico and her world is uprooted when she has to go to America and work on a farm. I chose this book as an anchor because it really shows social class and how it can change and how it is valued.
There are other books after the anchor ranging from easier text until we get to the end of the ladder and have the harder texts. There are 4 picture books, 3 young adult novels, 1 non fiction, 1 graphic novel. The reason the ladder is created in this order is because each book is on a different reading level starting easier and getting harder as you continue. The book summaries are below this letter. The text features, language, and structures get more and more complicated or complex as the ladder continues but each book would give more insight or expansion on social class for the reader.
Reading ladders can be very useful in the classroom for instruction whether they’re used in group, who class or even individually based. The only requirement is the have a central focus so if the student wanted to learn more about race then you can narrow down books that can fit into the ladder with that central theme to help the child expand their knowledge. It is a great way for readers to grow and is simple in form and use. It will encourage the students to become more open to other reading materials as well as individualize them and their needs as readers.
Book Summaries / Justifications
I feel that diversity and social class is something that needs to be taught and explained to our students to help them better understand the differences in people and in societies. I chose Esperanza Rising as my anchor book on the theme of social class/diversity. Esperanza is in high power in her own country and is viewing anyone below her as little. Until she herself is put in their position and has to work in America and help provide for her family. This helps teach students that everyone is different and that social class is a blurred line that is easily crossed because no one person is better than another based on what they have or who they are.
PICTURE BOOKS
One Green Apple by Eve Bunting
I chose this book because it is similar to Esperanza Rising. Farah is new to America where she doesn’t seem to blend in. She sticks out like her “one green apple. She soon realizes the similarities between her and he classmates and how they’re not all that different. This will show that even people that maybe not be of the same social class, culture, look like you do, can actually be just like you.
Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting
I chose this book also by Eve Bunting because I feel I can use this to show how when people view diversity as a bad thing or we try to make everyone the same and create the social divides and lines, this will show what could happen. It is a part of our history and how a certain type of people thought another type of people were lower class or not as important and shows how that can affect society. This books shows how the Holocaust played out but uses animals in a forest for a more child friendly explanation. It shows how different types were separated and how others didn’t care because it wasn’t them. It shows how a bad view on diversity can change society for the worse.
Amelia’s Road by Linda Jacobs Altman and Enrique O. Sanchez
I chose this book because it is similar to Esperanza Rising in how it is a young migrant girl who is working in fields with her family and feels she is on the bottom because she moves all over the place and never really has a home as well as goes to a school where no one knows her name. She is perseverant in her dreams to have a home one day where she can stay and be happy but knows to will take alot. It relates to the theme of social class because her family is working in the fields giving everything they have to try to have a better life and Amelia goes to school in a place where no one knows her name because she is just a field worker.
An Angel for Solomon Singer by Cynthia Rylant
I chose this book because I feel that it can show students that no matter how low you feel or what your circumstance is that you always have to see the good in people and that you don’t always have to consider yourself low class. I feel that people in society put a lot of weight on where you live or what you have to see where you place in society. This story is about a middle aged man name Solomon who lives in a hotel for men. He doesn’t have much but he found hope in a little cafe where he feels all his wishes will come true in his friend Angel.
YOUNG NOVELS
The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph (HarperTrophy, 2002)
I chose this book because the main character Anna is a 12 year old girl who has a passion to be a writer, in a country where “words are feared”. She wants to think outside of the box and not conform to what society whats her to be because she knows her words can change her community. This book would help show students that even in the most difficult situations, you can break societal lines and be who you are and maybe change society along the way.
Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan
I chose this book because it reminded me also of Esperanza Rising. A girl, Naomi, of hispanic descent in a place where she doesn’t have much, her clothes made by Gram, misunderstood due to her language, and at school she is “no one special”. It shows how a young girl even through thought of feeling left out, not normal, or even low class, and all these problems around her can find herself through it all.
A Friendship For Today by Patricia C. McKissack
I chose this book because it is based in a time of segregation where social class was based on how much you had and what your skin color looked like. I liked this book choice because I feel it shows how even a young girl, on her own, in a school of people who they’re better than her can befriend the worst of them and make it okay. She doesn’t let others define her and I feel this will fit in great with social class.
NON FICTION
A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff
I chose this book because it gives different points of view from the multicultural/minority groups of the US that have been mistreated through social class. I feel the fact that I even have to say the words minority puts a tarnish on their “class” in society because it means they’re “smaller” than the majority. I feel like anyone connected to that term is judged wrongly and students should understand its real meaning and how its been used over the years to play a factor in what social class is.
GRAPHIC NOVEL
Divergent by Veronica Roth
I chose this book because it is one of my particular favorites. I feel it really shows through Tris and her adventures what relying on social class can do to a society and how it can get out of hand. We as a community should not be grouped off or tested or labeled as anything other than human and this book shows how sectioning off groups of people and how social classes can cause destruction if taken too seriously.
http://www.easel.ly/viewEasel/3951747 ( the link to my Easel.ly )