Marion Blumental Lazan

21 October 2010

       This week, instead of having class, we were required to go to Corey Union function room to hear Holocaust Survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan speak. I thought this was an awesome opportunity because I had never had the opportunity to hear a Holocaust survivor speak. Although I thought it was really awesome to be able to hear her speak, she hardly ventured from the stories that she tells in her memoior: Four Perfect Pebbles. I was anxious to come and hear the un-told stories, but it was quickly made clear that she had already told her entire story in the book. I think it's pretty cool that she was so honest in the book, but I think she should have left some to be told in person. Maybe that is just a personal opinion.

Text Issues

      I'm finding it difficult to prioritize reading the Keene text. So much of the context is personal stories of experiences that the author has had. Yes, I think these stories are inspirational, but they are her personal experiences. I cannot really relate to her personal endeavours. I would much rather prefer a text that incorporates teaching literacy throughout the curriculum. I want ideas and techniques to someday use within my classroom to help incorporate literacy in all subjects as well as use literacy to teach other concepts.
     I think that Four Perfect Pebbles is a good book. It's well written and can be incorporated in both literacy and social studies. I think that I would only be able to use the text if I was a 6th grade ELA or SS teacher. It is in 6th grade that students cover old world history. Although it is a good book, I think that we are taking entirely too long on the text. I think that most, if not all of the students have already finished reading it and have moved on to Three Cups of Tea. I, personally, finished the book over a month ago and just skim it over before class to refresh my memory on the context. I think that for such an easy reading level, the text could have been incorporated differently within the context of the class. I think that we could have covered a lot more material over the context of the course had we covered more content each week and less time reading children's picture books.