Day of Remembrance

On this day in 1942, President Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which authorized the military to relocate over 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes to internment centers or relocation camps. In Canada, similar evacuation orders were established with over 22,000 people confined.

The SERC Library has a broad and comprehensive collection on multicultural education and diversity for a wide variety of cultural groups. If you would like to teach your children more about this period of American history we have the following items available for loan.

The Journey: Japanese Americans, Racism and Renewal - In this 40-page children's book, artist Sheila Hamanaka relives the history of the Japanese Americans and of her own family. During World War II, while her uncle was fighting in the American army, her parents were imprisoned, and her grandfather died in a U.S. concentration camp. The author/artist has created an extraordinary visual monument to the Japanese Americans, supplementing her original creation with prose that is unique and powerful. Grades 4 and up.

A Kid's Guide to Asian American History: More than 70 Activities - This 224-page resource by Valerie Petrillo offers over 70 activities that teach about the people, experiences and events that have shaped Asian American history. It has information on the culture, people, and history from various Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, India, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It includes a section on Japanese internment camps. Grades 3-7.

Baseball Saved Us - In this 32-page children's book by Ken Mochizuki, a Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an internment camp during World War II. In first person narrative, he tells how baseball gave all the boys a purpose while enduring injustice and humiliation and how their ability to play helps them after the war is over. Available in English and Spanish. Ages 8-11.

The Shadow of Hate: A History of Intolerance in America - This educational kit from Teaching Tolerance, with a 40-minute videotape, 128-page text, and 36-page teacher's guide focuses on events from three centuries in order to explore the history of intolerance in America and our country's ongoing struggle to live up to its ideals of liberty, equality, and justice. Through documentary footage and eyewitness reports, students are given a powerful perspective on historical events from the ordinary people who lived through them. Some of the events covered are the enslavement of African Americans, the Salem witch trials, the mistreatment of Native Americans, antisemitism, and the internment of Japanese Americans. Grades 6-12.

Please visit the SERC Library to look at these titles and more. Membership is free and we have a generous 3-week loan period.

Artwork by Henry Fukuhara, "Symbols of Manzanar, 2008"

Early literacy skills builder (ELSB). By Diane Browder, Susan Gibbs, Lynn Ahlgrim-Delzell, Ginerva Courtade, and Angel Lee, 2007. (IM 372.4145 BRO)

Have you met Moe the frog? This cute puppet with corresponding stories and activities make this program student-friendly. The ELSB language-rich literacy curriculum was developed for students ages 5 to 10 with moderate to severe developmental disabilities. It uses systematic instruction to teach both print and phonemic awareness to students with cognitive disabilities, autism, developmental delays, multiple disabilities and mild disabilities who are English learners. The ELSB is a multi-year program with seven distinct levels and ongoing assessments.

Poverty and Education

This morning The Middletown Eye (http://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/) posted a story on teen groups from ten Middlesex County churches who spent Saturday night outdoors in frigid temperatures to help them understand and empathize with the plight of the homeless. In Middletown, CT, youth groups set up tents on the corner of Main and Union streets to spend the night in solidarity with those community members who are forced to spend harsh nights without a home. Sue LaTourette, a church director from First Church, explained that the effort is an attempt to keep the plight of the homeless in the public eye after the generosity of the holidays has passed. This event has already motivated donors to drop off food & clothing for distributions to St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen & the Eddy Shelter in Middletown.

According to the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (www.cceh.org), 4,154 people were homeless in Connecticut on the night of January 28, 2009. Of these 430 were families and 801 were children in families. It is estimated that in our state over 33,000 people, including 13,000 children, experience homelessness over the course of the year. That equates to a lot of children, families, and schools that must continually cope with this tragic situation.

In the SERC Library we have over 150 resources that address poverty and education. A small sampling includes:

Invisible Children in the Society and its Schools - (2003) edited by Sue Books, this 258-page book offers a series of reports by some of the most passionate and insightful scholars writing in the field of education today on groups of children whose complexity, strengths, and vulnerabilities are largely unseen in society and its schools. Topics include homelessness, domestic violence, gay youth, children with social disabilities, teenage mothers, poverty, and much more.

Increasing Language Skills with Students from Low Income Backgrounds - (2008) by Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin.

Educating the Other America: Top Experts Tackle Poverty, Literacy, and Achievement in Our Schools - (2008) edited by Susan B. Neuman.

America Beyond the Color Line, DVD - (2003) with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In this 225-minute DVD, Henry Louis Gates travels to 4 very different parts of America to illustrate the splitting of African-American society into 2 distinct communities - the privileged and the disenfranchised. He examines the opportunities and obstacles still being faced and speaks to how a fifth of all black Americans are living below the poverty line and how many feel excluded from mainstream American life.

Keys to Success for Urban School Principals - (2007) by Gwendolyn J. Cooke.

A Framework for Understanding Poverty - (2005) by Ruby K. Payne.

The Kids Left Behind: Catching Up the Underachieving Children of Poverty - (2007) by Robert D. Barr.

Armando & The Blue Tarp School - (2007) by Edith Hope Fine. In this 32-page children's book for ages 4-8, Armando and his father are trash-pickers in Tijuana, Mexico. When Senor David brings his "school" - a blue tarp set down near the garbage dump - to their neighborhood, Armando's father decides that he must attend classes and learn. Based on a true story.

Closing the Poverty and Culture Gap: Strategies to Reach Every Student - (2009) by Donna Walker Tielston & Sandra K. Darling.

Please visit the SERC Library either online or in person to explore more resources on this subject. Stay warm and be safe.

(With thanks to Pablo Picasso for Poverty, 1903.)

Teaching math to people with Down syndrome and other hands-on learners by DeAnna Horstmeier. (IM 510.71 HOR)

Come take a look at this wonderful kit! The 400 page guide is full of lesson plans and practical suggestions and was developed to help students with intellectual and developmental disabilities of all ages in the area of math instruction. Each kit also includes a CD-ROM and a set of manipulatives. The SERC Library has the kits for both the Basic and the Advanced Survival Skills.

Award-Winnning Films At The SERC Library

With the winter break approaching and cold, wintery weather ahead, why not drop by and check out a few good movies to wile away the time and educate the mind. Here is just a small sampling of some of the wonderful movies at the SERC Library.

Accidental Hero - Room 408: 2001 winner of "Best Documentary" of the Ashland Independent Film Festival & 2002 Gold Eagle Award - CINE, this powerful film tells the story of an extaordinary public high school teacher who is changing lives by introducing his students to a little known academic sport called "forensics". This documentary has important messages about the tremendous potential that young people from diverse backgrounds can realize when they are given the support of good teachers and ample educational tools.

King Gimp: Winner of the 1999-2000 Academy Award for Short Documentary, this film follows Dan Keplinger (who has cerebral palsy) for 13 years as he moves from a special education school to the mainstream. Unable to communicate easily with words, Dan's emotional life explodes on to canvas when he discovers art.

Autism Is A World: Nominated for an Academy Award, this is a personal look at autism through the eyes of a young woman, Sue Rubin. It offers a rare and compelling voyage into Sue's mind, her daily world, and her struggles with autism. With the help of a new assistive technology technique, a letterboard, Sue was able to connect with the world. Now a junior in college with a top IQ, she is a tireless disability-rights activist.

Educating Peter: Down Syndrome In The Inclusive Classroom: Filmed over the course of the third grade year, this 1992 Academy Award-winning documentary vividly captures the achievements & frustrations of Peter (a child with Down syndrome) as he makes a place for himself among his peers.

Snowbound? Not to worry. The SERC Library has a generous 3-week loan period.

One child, two languages in action: A guide for early childhood educators by Patton O. Tabors IE 372.6521

Is your early childhood classroom linguistically and culturally diverse? Are you working with young children learning English as a second language? This 253 page book written for early childhood educators provides tools for working with the increasing number of young children learning English as a second language. Topics include assessment techniques for first and second languages, internationally adopted children, responding to linguistic and cultural diversity, working with parents and incorporating literacy practices that help all children.