Marie Barker

CIL 740-Monday
November 24, 2008

Curricular Plan-Global Studies

Central Focus: Global Studies
The focus of my curricular plan is global studies. The school I work at is a Global
Studies school; each grade level is responsible for teaching students about the world.
The role of the primary grades is to introduce students to the countries, languages and
different cultures from around the world. I used this curricular plan to explore: culture,
language, immigration, family and friendship, along with responsibility.
My curricular plan is focused towards primary, but can be used in intermediate
elementary. The cornerstone text I chose was Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything. I chose
this as my cornerstone text because my students will easily understand it. This book
allows students to see what it is like to move to a new country where things are very
different. It also lends itself to exploring the sub-themes I chose for my plan.
Annotated Bibliography
Picture Books
1. Bunting, E. (1999). A picnic in October. Ill. Carpenter, N. Orlando:
Harcourt.
A Picnic in October is about a family that takes a ferry over to Liberty Island every
October. The boy in the book doesnt want to go to the Island. He thinks it is dumb, cold
and embarrassing. This time he meets a woman who has just arrived in America and
starts to understand why going to the island is so important to his Grandma.
2. Takabayashi, M. (2001). I live in Tokyo. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
This book is about a girl who lives in Tokyo. As she goes through the
year she tells you about the Japanese holidays and the way her family
celebrates.
3. Cole, J. (2005). Ms. Frizzles adventures Imperial China. Ill. Degen, B.
New York: Scholastic.
Ms. Frizzle goes on an adventure through China. You learn a lot about
China, from battles to food to the Emperor.
4. Munson, D. (2000). Enemy pie. Ill. King, T. San Francisco: Chronicle
Books.
This book is about a boy who is not getting along with the new kid in the neighborhood.
To solve his enemy problem he and his dad bake a pie. Before the pie will work the boy
has to play with his enemy.

5. ONeill, A. (2002). The recess queen. Ill. Huliska-Beith, L. New York:

Scholastic.
Mean Jean rules the playground! When Katie Sue the new girl arrives she doesnt know
the rules. Katie Sue challenges Mean Jean, eventually Jean has to change the rules.
6. Bloom, S. (2005). A splendid friend, indeed. New York: Scholastic.
Bear is trying to read when Duck comes and interrupts him. Bear tries to write and again
is interrupted by Duck. Duck is really starting to bother Bear now, soon Bear finds that
Duck is a good friend, and is not mad with him any more.
7. Rathmann, P. (1995). Officer Buckle and Gloria. New York: Putnams Sons.
Officer Buckle goes around to school to tell students how to be safe, but no one listens.
When the department sends Gloria to him, he finds that the students are starting to listen.
Officer Buckle sees what Gloria is doing on stage and gets upset with her. Will Officer
Buckle forgive Gloria?
8. Millman, I. (2000). Moses goes to school. New York: Frances Foster Books.
Moses is starting school today, but it is not a regular public school it is a school for deaf
children. Moses takes us through his first days of school. The book shows you how to
sign some words and tells you about ASL.
9. Levine, E. (1989). I hate English. Ill. Bjorkman, S. New York: Scholastic.
When Mei Mei and her family move to New York Mei Mei doesnt want to speak in
English, she wants to speak in Chinese. Mei Mei goes to an after school center where she
meets Nancy, Nancy helps her get comfortable with English.
10. Recorvits, H. (2003). My name is Yoon. Ill. Swiatkowska, G. New York: Frances
Foster Books.
Yoon and her family move to New York, when Yoon starts school she does not want to
write her name in English, she doesnt like the way it looks. Yoon is feeling lonely and
wants to go back to Korea with encourage from her parents and finding a new friend as
school, Yoon starts to enjoy America, and writes her name in English.
11 Aliki (1998). Painted words. Spoken memories. New York: Greenwillow Books.
This book tells two stories about Maris experiences as an immigrant. The first story tells
about her life in her country before her family left and the second story describes what it
is like starting school in a new country.
12. Pryor, B. (1996). The dream jar. New York: Marrow Junior Books.
After immigrating to America, each member of a Russian family works hard to contribute
to the familys dream of someday owning and running a store.
13. Saltzberg, B. (2008). Stanley and the class pet. Cambridge: Candlewick Press.

Stanley finally gets to bring home the class pet. When he gets the bird home his friend
convinces Stanley that he needs some exercise, so Stanley lets the bird out of the cage.
The class pet does not come back. Stanley doesnt want to take responsibility for losing
the pet, but realizes that is the best thing to do and apologizes to his teacher and his class.
14. Lujn, J. (2006). Sky blue accident: Accidente Celeste. Toronto: Groundwood
Books.
In this whimsical poem, a little boy falls from his bicycle and crashes into the sky,
unleashing a series of amazing events. The poem is written in both English and Spanish.

Novels
1. Look, L. (2006) Ruby Lu, empress of everything. Ill. Wilsdorf, A. New York: Atheneum
Books.
Ruby Lu is a normal second grade girl, her deaf cousin Flying Duck and her family
emigrates from China to live with the Lus. Ruby takes Flying Duck to school and finds
herself doing all of Flying Ducks work. Over the summer Ruby goes to summer school,
loses one of her best friends and has a hard time coping with the changes around her
home.
2. McDonald, M. (2006).Judy Moody around the world in 8 days. Ill. Reynolds, P.
New York: Scholastic.
Judy Moodys class is going around the world in 8 days. She and her friends are taking
their class on a trip to Italy. While working on their project Judy meets Amy Namey and
they quickly become friends. Judys old friends are mad at her for spending so much
time with Amy Namey, and their class projects suffers because of it. Are they going to get
their class to Italy?
3. DiCamillo, K. (2000) Because of Winn-Dixie. Cambridge: Candlewick Press.
India Opal moves to a new town with her dad, the preacher. Being new to town she is
very lonely, one day while at the store she finds a dog and takes him home. She names
the dog Winn-Dixie, after finding the dog she sees that making friends in her new home
is easier than she thought.
Selection Criteria
When I was looking for books to use with my themes I tried to focus on books that would
interest my first graders. I looked for books with exciting illustrations; I also looked for
books with text that my students would understand. I wanted to find picture books that I
would be able to read to my students in one sitting. I wanted books with elementary aged
children in them, to relate with. Many of the books I chose can fit into multiple themes
within my curricular plan. It was important for me to find books that would fit into

multiple areas so that I could review them with my students and they would gain the most
information possible out of them.

Cornerstone Text
I chose Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything for my curricular plan because it fit with my
schools Global Studies theme. I also liked this book because it was about a girl in 2nd
grade, and my students would be able to relate to her. Another thing I really like about
this book is that there are other Ruby Lu books that I could read to my students, this way
they would get to know the characters. In the book Ruby has a lot to deal with, her
family from China has just moved in with them and she is trying to understand the
changes around her. I was able to use Ruby Lu as a global studies book because it deals
with immigration, speaking a different language, and different cultures. Many of my
students can relate to these issues because a lot them have family that has come from
somewhere else.
Response based experiences
When reading Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything I would have students keep a response
notebook. In their notebooks I would have them keep track of characters and things they
find important or interesting. In the book Rubys cousin Flying Duck is deaf and uses
Chinese sign language. I would have my students practice some of the sign language that
Flying Duck uses. I would encourage them to use the sign language in class.
Because of Winn-Dixie is a great book, and is used in the area of family and friendship.
After reading this book I would have my students create a trading card. For first grade I
would simplify the information side of the card. I would also provide them with a
programmed sheet for the information so all they would have to do is write the answers.
One of my themes is language another is immigration. My Name is Yoon fits into each
of these categories. For a response I would show my students the Korean Alphabet and
let them practice writing their name in Korean.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/411473/Korean-Hangul-Chart this is the best chart I could
find. Some of the letters are missing or the vowels are put together, but you could make
it work. Another response experience that could be done with this book is to have
students with the help of their parents find what there name means and its country of
origin.
Officer Buckle and Gloria is a classic book that teaches about responsibility. For this
book I would give each of my students a safety star and have them write a rule that they
will follow this year on their star. Students will share their starts with the class.
I love the book A Splendid Friend, Indeed. What I love the most about it is the
illustrations. This book is the perfect book to read to your students and they make

inferences about what is happening. The text is very minimal, but the discussion that
comes from the illustrations is what is so important. Not only can you have a great
discussion about the book you can have the students write letters to each other.
Immigration is something that a lot of students can relate to. My students know someone
or they themselves were not born in America. A picnic in October is a very touching
story of a boy and his family that take a picnic to the Statue of Liberty every year. This
book can spark great conversation about the Statute and what it means to people to come
to America. I would use this book to talk about the American Dream. I would have
students write and illustrate what they dream for themselves.
Assessment
Much of the assessment will be done informally thru discussions and buddy buzz. Each
of my students has a notebook where write the title and author of the book we read, then
they draw or write about the story. I would periodically check this to see if they are
keeping track of the books.
As a formal assessment I would collect my students response based experiences. I
would use these to check for understanding of the book.
My students will be creating character trading cards for the book Ruby Lu, Empress of
Everything. I will use these cards to assess my student knowledge of the book. They
will be graded using the following rubric:

Character Trading Card Rubric for _____________________________________

I chose a character from the book ___/1
My character is drawn on the left hand side of the card____/1
My character is big enough for the class to see_____/1
I included the characters name above the illustration_____/1
I answered all the questions about my character______/5
I presented my trading card to the class_____/1
Total ______/10
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