Learning from Others Session 1: Introduction

Dear Adil

Materials

Arthur Character Cards

Vocabulary List (optional)

Objective: Students explore the interactive story with buddies to help them grasp an understanding of being open to learning from others by asking questions, not making assumptions, and being respectful to others. Book Corner

Ada, Alma Flor I Love Saturdays y Domingos Choi, Yangsook The Name Jar Dooley, Norah Everybody Cooks Rice Fox, Mem Whoever You Are Friedman, Ina How My Parents Learned to Eat Lin, Grace Dim Sum for Everyone The Ugly Vegetables Nye, Naomi Shihab Sitti’s Secret Parr, Todd It’s Okay to Be Different Ringgold, Faith Tar Beach

(see Appendix, Recommended Books for more selections)

20–45

minutes

L EARNING FROM OT h ERS BIG B UDDY S ESSION 1: Introduction

Preview the story

Tell students that Dear Adil is the last interactive story they will be working on with their Little Buddies. Introduce characters from the story: Arthur, Buster, and Adil. To explain the concept and main idea, you can say: In this story, Arthur is excited to begin exchanging letters with a new pen pal from Turkey named Adil. Arthur assumes what he read in a comic book about life in Turkey is true (even though it isn't). Arthur soon realizes that he has made a mistake and explains what happened to Adil. Once they learn the truth about each other, Arthur and Adil are able to become better friends. You will talk with your buddy about why it’s important to recognize and admit if we make a mistake about someone, and to be open to learning about other people.

Introduce and discuss: learning from others

Dear Adil helps students understand the dangers of making assumptions about other people and the importance of making sure information we learn about others is accurate. Explain to students what an assumption is, then you might say: What do you do when you want to learn something? You can look it up in a book or online, or you can talk to someone who knows more about the subject than you do. We ask questions and we listen carefully when we want to learn from others. We also need to make sure that what we learn from books or websites is true and not to assume we know everything about the subject just because of something we heard or read.

Talk with your students about the importance of being curious and open-minded, and willing to learn from others. Include these related issues in the discussion to deepen students’ understanding of the concept. •Recognizing and admitting when we don’t know something

• Being willing to admit when we made a mistake about someone or something

• Trying to learn from our mistakes

• Being curious about the world

• Being open to changing our ideas about someone or something

• Understanding that we can learn a lot from other people, even if we don’t agree with them

You can ask questions that will help your students explore issues related to making assumptions and learning from others, such as: •Why is it sometimes hard for people to admit they don’t know something?

•Do you have a friend from another place or culture? How do you learn about one another?

• Why do people often make assumptions about other people? What can happen when you make an incorrect assumption?

•Where do we get our information about other people, countries, or cultures? What are some reliable sources for information?

•How do you think you would feel if someone assumed something about you or your family or culture? What can you do?

You may want to end the discussion by connecting the concept to students lives by asking them to share a time they made an assumption about someone or something that was not accurate.

Explore vocabulary

Review any vocabulary words that may be unfamiliar to students and point out words that the Little Buddies may need to have defined (see Appendix, Vocabulary lists). In addition to the vocabulary in the story, encourage students to also use words to describe their feelings.

Review communications skills

Discuss any communication or other problems that came up during the previous sessions. Review solutions and strategies as needed. Ask students to share strategies they used to help keep the conversation going during the previous buddy sessions.

Explore Dear Adil

★Give students an opportunity to explore the interactive story. Have the Big Buddies pair up and give students time to go through the story together. Gather the class together to review the experience and answer any questions about the content or logistics of the story. ★ Have students notice things that are the same and different about Arthur and Adil as they go through the story and the email chat together. Allowing Little Buddies to see similarities (computers, clothes, living in a city) and differences (type of money, games they play) will help them understand that people and cultures are the same in some way and different in others.

★Focus on the email chat between Arthur and Adil. Have students notice how Arthur assumes things about Adil that are not true and by asking Adil he can find out accurate information. Big Buddies should prompt their Little Buddies to point out when this occurs as they watch the video. ★ Gather the class together to answer any questions about the content or logistics of the interactive story.

Practice Being a Big Buddy

Here are a few ideas your students can use to have students practice their Big Buddy roles: • Role play being Big and Little Buddies by asking and answering questions.

• Offer students playing Big Buddies a few tips such as: After your buddy answers a question, ask “Why do you think that?”; Add on more information to your buddy’s answer; Give your buddy positive feedback. • Have students discuss how they might relate Adil's experience to a classmate from a different culture. They might ask: How do you think we can learn about what school's like in <classmate's name> country? How can we find out how (s)he celebrates a special day?