AAS 197J ClassWeb Magazine

Community Education: Student Empowerment

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Assignment 6: UCLA Students Share Their Stories with Wilton Place Kids

According to Wilton Place teacher Tony Osumi: "If UCLA students can create opportunities for the booklet to express the kids' voices and interests, it will be no problem getting them to write for it. Motivation comes from the meaningfulness of the work. My guess is that most of the kids have not read or seen stories or heard people talk about their lives in real ways. They may need models and examples from us. UCLA students should be writing stories now and sharing them with students. Students may also not really understand the concept of publishing and sharing their stories with a wide audience. Most teachers don't do anything like this — not even within their own classroom. If kids grasp the importance of wanting to share their own stories and receive support for doing it, motivation goes way up. UCLA students should think of ways to bring this understanding to a kid’s level quickly."

Taking Tony’s comments into account, write two short stories of about one-half page each about yourself based upon the following list or any other topic you think may be relevant to the type of work we are doing in Wilton Place classrooms. Remember, we are writing this for elementary students.

1. How you got your name and what it means.
2. How and why your family came to America or Los Angeles.
3. Your most memorable day — good, bad, exciting, scary, etc.
4. Your favorite family food.
5. A story that connects somehow to the Open Court theme, but takes it a step further and teaches a moral, message, or is more critical and probing.

Dean Saranillio, "My Home Is In Hawai'i"
Dean Saranillio, "I Am Filipino and Japanese"
Eriko Suzuki, "My Country, Japan"
Eriko Suzuki, "The Most Memorable Day"
Christine Tran, "My Name is Christine Tran and Tran Hoai Phung"
Christine Tran, "I Love Food, But What's My Favorite?"
Melissa Hilario, "My Favorite Food is Kare Kare"
Melissa Hilario, "Teamwork"
Cheryl Samson, "Short Biographical Stories"

I love food, but what’s my favorite?

By Christine Tran

What’s my favorite food? I have many favorite foods. I have so many favorites that I cannot tell you all of them. Since there are so many types of foods in the world it is hard to choose. Let me start with a food that comes from my parent’s home country, Vietnam. My favorite Vietnamese food is Banh Tam Bi Nuoc Cot Dua. It is rice noodles and shredded pork with coconut milk. It is served with a special Vietnamese fish sauce called nuoc mam. Nuoc mam is so special to the dish. It’s like the ketchup on your French fries or hamburger. I also like other Vietnamese foods, like Pho. Pho is beef noodles soup. I also like other foods from different cultures. I like French croissants, Italian spaghetti, Mexican tamales and burritos, Korean dumplings, Japanese sushi, and so much more! I told you that I like many types of foods. What are your favorite foods? Can you name them all?