By Jeanne Gilliam Fain & Christina Davidson

As the fourth grade students move toward the end of the book, they begin to discover that the definitions of citizen, American, Mexican, immigrant, and illegal have multiple interpretations. The discussions include a look into Mari’s life, her status as an immigrant, and the lack of power that she has over her life. Fourth graders thoughtfully tackle the issue of immigration as they moved to think about the consequences of breaking the law within the United States. They begin to question the depiction of the border and implications of following and breaking the law. Students’ learning and discussion about the final chapters of the book focused upon a student that possessed many physical differences that made her stand out from the crowd. These features made it challenging for them to have positive words to say about her. This discussion then turned to noticing the diversity that existed within their community and that perhaps like Mari, this old friend deserved another look into her situation and some compassion.
Most students personally connected with the story. The above letter is from a student that made important connections but didn’t appreciate the emotion in the book. The writer takes a stance and supports his stance with evidence. In the middle of the letter, the writer tackles the diversity within his community. He notices that Mexicans are hard workers and that there is not a real sense of community among the diverse families. He then contends that a movie would really make a better format for this story. This writer sees the structure of his community and notices that there are barriers of difference that divide the families. Naming the structures that exist marks a beginning of recognizing the sociopolitical in and outside of literature.

Journey through Worlds of Words during our open reading hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To view our complete offerings of WOW Currents, please visit archival stream.

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• Themes: Christina Davidson, Jeanne Gilliam Fain
• Descriptors: Student Connections, WOW Currents