A Button in Her Ear

Litchfield, Ada B. A Button in Her Ear. Morton Grove, IL: Albter Whitman & Company, 1976.

A Button in Her Ear is a story about a little girl named Angela who is having a hard time hearing her classmates, teachers, and parents. Throughout the story, she misinterpreting what people are saying to the point that she is doing different activities wrong. Angela ends up going to the doctors who test her hearing and decide that she needs a hearing aid. One of the doctors calls her hearing aid, a make button, because it is tucked in her ear and will help her just like a button. She learns how to change the batteries and how to turn it on and off. She is nervous about going to school with the hearing aid, but when she gets there, Miss Hicks notices and asks her if she would like to tell the other students about it. Angela goes on to tell everyone about her "magic button."

This story was a very cute story and showed the person before the disability. Angela lived life normally and the book shows how people who are hard of hearing and misinterpret different sayings. The illustrations show a diverse group of children, the children are not of one race or ethnicity but of several different ones. Not only do they show different characters but the audiologist is an African-American woman. This is a nice aspect because it shows how all ethnicities can be extremely well educated and hold doctor jobs. Overall, this book shows how Angela who is hard of hearing lives life first but hearing words differently from what people are saying, to her receiving a hearing aid and being accepted for having the hearing aid. Students in her classroom see the hearing aid just like they see glasses as a way to help Angela hear.

The author seems to be an informed writer on this topic, she researched the topic and worked with a School for the deaf and even watched a demonstration on a hearing test, how to use and care for a hearing aid. She is also the author of several other books about people who are deaf and hard of hearing and other books about people with disabilities.

Confessions of a Closet Catholic

While reading the book, I had a hard time thinking of a question. The book presents some stereotypes and some generalizations about being Jewish. I was thinking of our class discussion and came up with the idea of: Do all children/teenagers challenge their beliefs or values in order to fit into what they see as the norm(what their friends believe/do)? The reason I picked this question is because it seems that Justine wants to be like Mac in order to fit in. Based on page 8, where she talks about being Catholic like Mac, do you think that this is something that she wants to do because she is testing what religion she wants to be or do you think that she is doing this just to be like her friend?

Another idea that is brought up is the idea of Sister Teresa Benedicta, do you think that this is there to show that more teenagers are trying to be like the norm in society so they do not get made fun of or stick out? Or do you think that Sister Benedicta was just brought up to show that other people in history have switched between the two religions? Do you think that Sister Benedicta is seen as a role model and a way to see how she fit into society?

Project Mulberry

One of the topics that my group talked about was the idea of Mr. Dixon and Julia's mom. Why do you think that the other thought the other person was white? A few people talked about just how people assume things about teachers and the families based on the composition of the students in the area.

Another big discussion was the idea of heritage and how does that affect what you want to do with projects. Do you think that your heritage affects what you want to do in school and how much you are willing to share? The reason this came up is because of her being Korean and how she didn't want to do a project. I said middle school is a hard time for any student to fit in and all they want to do is fit in so they are not going to other people a reason to exclude them in activities. What do you think?

Final Project

For my final project, I am going to use hard of hearing or deaf books. The reason is because I want to become a teacher for deaf or hard of hearing students. I want to see what this genre of books has to offer for teachers and students in this area. I also want to see if authors' portray this topic in a positive or negative light. It will also be interesting to see the difference of how available this topic is in a well-known book story like Borders compared to Everybody Reads or even the internet. I know when searching the internet that I have already found a ton of books on this topic, although several of them are informational books about being deaf or hard of hearing. I also feel that I will buy these books instead of borrowing them for a library because it is something I have a passion for and would want in a library for my future students.

Al Capone Does My Shirt

While reading Al Capone Does My Shirt, I kept thinking does this book portray the person or the disability first. At the end of the book, I came up with the idea that the book portrays the person, Natalie, and then the disability, autism because Natalie is described in detail with what she likes to do and a very little about her disability. While working on my paper, the only question I could think of is does this book portray traits of autism as generalizations or stereotypes? I based the question of the Cortes' article but also used Claiming Disability by Linton and also The Joan K. Blaska Collection of Children’s Literature Featuring Characters with Disabilities or Chronic Illnesses by S. Williams, C. Inkster, and J. Blaska. These articles all give background to what Gennifer Choldenko had in mind when writing Al Capone Does My Shirt.

After turning in my paper, I thought of another question, does the book portray the person then the disability or the disability then the person?

Also, how does having a person with a disability in your family affect what you can do? Moose many times has to give things he likes to do up in order to take care of Natalie. But at the same time, he builds a really strong relationship with her.

I personally like this book and think that it gives readers a positive view of a person with autism. I also think that it is a great book to go back and talk about values with students, because Moose has things in his life that he wants to do but slowly, he sees whats more important. I would recommend this book to others who want to bring in an underrepresented genre into their classroom.

The Middle East Book Award

The following information is paraphrased from the official website for The Middle East Book Award:
http://socialscience.tyler.cc.tx.us/mkho/MEOC/middle_east_book_award.htm

The Purpose:
MEOC established the Middle East Book Award in 1999 to recognize books for children and young adults that contribute meaning-fully to an understanding of the Middle East.

Selection Criteria:
Books are judged on the authenticity of their portrayal of a Middle Eastern subject, as well as on their characterization, plot, and appeal for the intended audience. (Awards are announced in November for books published during the period from January of the previous year through September of the current year.)
Eligible books are books for children and young adults that contribute meaningfully to an understanding of the Middle East. Award categories include picture books (for ages 3-8), literature for children or young adults, and reference books for children or young adults.Sponsor:
Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC) is the sponsor of the award. Established in 1981, it is a national nonprofit organization working to increase public knowledge about the peoples places, and cultures of the Middle East, including the Arab world, Israel, Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan. MEOC is a national network of educators dedicated to disseminating apolitical and nonpartisan information, resources and activities furthering understanding about the Middle East.

While researching The Middle East Book Award, there were only four websites that had helpful information. The information on each website was similar both in information and word usage. Information on the selection committee qualifications could not be found on any website. An interesting fact is that the book winners have no recognition on the cover of the book or on the inside of the book. All the recognition for the Award Winning Books is on the website. Some of the books that won The Middle East Book Award also won other awards; those awards were mention as "An Award-Winning Book" or "An Award-Winning Author" inside of the book jackets.


Other websites that were used are:
http://socialscience.tyler.cc.tx.us/mkho/MEOC/
http://www.outreachworld.org/article.asp?articleid=45
http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/outreach/news/meoc_2006

Bronx Masquerade

I really liked this book. I think Nikki Grimes did a great job getting issues that are hard for students and people in general to talk about. There are several interesting quotes in this book. While reading this book, I had several questions and wanted to get people's thoughts on them.

Question 1: Do you think that the title "Bronx Masquerade" and Open Mike Fridays had any correlation with the idea of inclusion?

My personal thoughts are that a masquerade is where people hind behind costumes so others do not know who you are. Open Mike Fridays was a way for students to express opinions and not really be judge. So in ways, I think that Nikki was really smart with the title.

Question 2: Has to deal with the insider/outsider debate. One of the major debates for outsiders was the face that they can break down stereotypes on the inside group. Nikki Grimes is an insider to this group yet she still used stereotypes in a way to break them down. Which type of author would you use in your classroom based on that finding?