BIBLIOTHERAPY LESSON

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BIBLIOTHERAPY LESSON

• Feathers Like a Rainbow
• An Amazon Indian Tale by Flora
• Dianne Potdevin
• SPED 620 Education in a Diverse Society

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Goals and Objectives

• Main Goal Students will develop awareness of and
  respect for cultural, racial, and ethnic
  differences.
• Objectives
• 1. Improving students self-confidence and
  self-
• acceptance by making connections between
• the selection and themselves.
• 2. Appreciating and respecting other cultures
  by discussing facts
• and fables about people.
• 3. Providing the opportunity for students to
• research about rainforest animals and
  develop their
• own animal tales (using facts and fable
  like the
• selection).

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Grade Level and Classroom Setting

• Grades 3-4
• This is an integrated Language arts, science and
  social studies lesson where students study about
  rainforest life in science and/or social studies
  class.
• 3-4 sessions of 45 minutes each.

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Themes explored in the story

• Appreciating and respecting others Each one of
  us is unique and different it is impossible for
  all people in a group to have the same qualities.
  Judgments cannot be made about whole groups of
  people unless every single member of the group is
  known
• Developing self-identity by building self-esteem
  and self-acceptance The more confident a person
  is in his own sense of identity and competence,
  the lower that persons degree of prejudice.

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Themes explored in the story

• Stereotyping and prejudice People spend a
  considerable amount of time and energy learning
  the norms of the groups to which they wish to
  belong. One consequence of this tendency is that
  individuals begin to think that the familiar
  behaviors of their group are good and natural and
  that those of others are less good and natural.
• Birds and folklore of the Amazon River Valley.

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Synopsis of Story

• Feathers like a Rainbow is an Amazon Indian
  tale that recalls the time when the birds of the
  rainforest had dark feathers. Jacamin, a
  gray-winged trumpeter swan, asks his mother for
  colorful feathers, so his mother sets off to find
  colors for him. She wanders through the
  rainforest and is joined by other birds. Soon
  they see a beautifully colored hummingbird who
  explains that he kisses the flowers, drops the
  colors into his bowl and uses them to color his
  feathers. Jacamins mother steals the bowl of
  colors, and all the birds use it to color their
  feathers. Only one drop is left for Jacamin, who
  uses it to make a purple dot on his breast. To
  this day, all the birds have some colors, but
  only the hummingbird has all of them.

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Introductory Activities

• Tell students that they will read Feathers like
  a Rainbow, an Amazon Indian tale. Tell them that
  some parts of the story are true and some is made
  up from the authors imagination. True
  information is called a fact, while information
  that is not true is known as a tale (or fable).
• Ask volunteers to name stories they have read
  that are true and some that are made up from the
  authors imagination.

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Introductory Activities

• Make a chart on a large sheet of paper similar to
  the following (see next slide). Poll students to
  see how many believe each statement is fact and
  how many believe is a tale or fable. Then have
  children brainstorm their own ideas about
  animals. Leave poster up while story is read.

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Introductory Activities
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Introductory Activities

• Some of the animals (birds) mentioned in the
  story may be unfamiliar to children. Provide
  pictures of hummingbirds, gray-winged trumpeters,
  toucans, macaws and other rainforest birds and
  animals along with information about each.

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Discussion Questions

• Jacamin notices his dark feathers. Why was
  Jacamin worried about the color of his feathers?
  What color did he want for his feathers? How does
  the first page of the story introduce you to the
  idea that we are all different?
• Jacamins mother sets off to find the colors for
  her son. What steps did Jacamins mother use to
  find the colors for her son? What were her
  feelings at this moment?
• The other birds want colors for their feathers.
  Why were the other birds worried about finding
  colors for their feathers?
• The birds see a colorful hummingbird hovering in
  the air flitting from flower to flower. Recall
  the way Hummingbird gets his beautiful feathers.
  Re-read the following passage with students and
  discuss the beauty and meaning of it Everyday I
  kiss the flowers of the rainforest. From each I
  take a dab of color and drop into my bowl. Then I
  splash a little of each color on my feathers.
  The other birds could hardly wait for the next
  day. They all wanted to copy Hummingbird!

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Discussion Questions

• Most of the birds are too heavy to hover in the
  air, and their beaks are too big to reach inside
  the flowers. Why couldnt the birds copy
  Hummingbird?
• Jacamins mother steals Hummingbirds bowl of
  colors. What are your thoughts about this? Why
  was Jacamins mother lead to do this? Do you
  agree or disagree with her decision? Why?
• The birds snatch away the bowl from Jacamin and
  bathe themselves in Hummingbirds colors. There
  is only a a dot of purple left which Jacamin rubs
  on his breast. What kind of ending does the story
  have? How does Jacamin feel at the end of the
  story? What did you learn? What would you have
  done differently?
• How did the illustrations help you understand how
  Jacamin and the other birds felt throughout the
  story?
• What part of the story might happen in real life?
  What part of the story could never really happen?

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Discussion Questions

• Refer back to the fact/tale chart. Ask students
  what are some common misconceptions they have
  about groups of people. Are there any groups of
  people you have feelings or thoughts about?
  Through the discussion, lead students to see that
  any ideas about whole groups of people are not
  true.
• Are there times when your self-confidence and
  self-esteem is low? Have you ever wished to be
  like others, as Jacamin did in the story? Did you
  ask anybody to help you? How did you feel at the
  end of your experience?
• Can you think of another way of explaining how
  the birds got their colors?

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Follow-up Activities

• After making sure that students have some
  familiarity with rainforest life, ask them which
  of the animals they might like to tell a story
  about and why.
• Have students work in groups of three to develop
  animal tales with animal characters based on real
  rainforest animals. Their tale may address
  physical traits of animals or behavioral
  characteristics. Have them decide upon the
  setting and the characters for their stories.
  Guide them in dividing the responsibilty for the
  story beginning, middle, and ending.
• Have students work together for at least two
  sessions, refining their stories as they go
  along. Help them use writing process steps to
  create a written version of the story.
• Encourage students to add pictures to each page
  of their book.

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Follow-up Activities

• Students will read aloud their stories during the
  last session.
• Encourage each group to point out curious or
  interesting facts they have discovered, share any
  fictional stories about the animal, and compare
  and contrast their books with Jacamins story and
  stories of other groups.
• Have students evaluate the groups performance.
  Have them talk about how working in a group made
  the results of their project better. Ask them
  whether they think their books would have been as
  special if they each worked separately.

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Resources

• Ferreira, Flora C. (1989). Feathers like a
  Rainbow. New York Harper and Row Publishers.
• Cushner, K., McClelland, Safford, P. (2003).
  Human diversity in education An integrative
  approach, 4th ed. Boston Mc Graw Hill.