"Quick Read, Write, Talk"

We will introduce the anchor text with this activity. In groups, students will read, write, and talk independently with their peers about what they see in the photo that will be shared as a common experienece.

These are the questions that the students will be asked to write about on their own for 3 minutes:

• What do you notice?
• What does it make you wonder about?
• Does this remind you of anything?
• What does this mean?

The students will be asked to talk about their perception of the photo with their small groups, as well as discuss anything they want to share from their writing for 2 minutes.

We will come back and discuss big ideas from groups for one minute after their discussion. We will then tell the students some information about the photo that they are most likely wondering about. This could include things such as:

• Who took/created this photo?
• Where is the photo from?
• What does it mean to the "author"?
• What are the author's intentions?
  • persuasive
  • informational
  • descriptive
  • to recreate something historical

Explanation/Rationale of White Bird

This book serves as an achor text for our text set for a multitide of reasons. These reasons are that this book provides us with cultural diversity regarding visual and verbal sensitivity, authenticity, accuracy, and ideologies.

• Visual and verbal sensititivity:
  • As a graphic novel, this book provides readers with more visual representation than a conventional text.
  • Verbal sensitivity is shown by providing the reader with a "white bird" instead of seeing Julian *SPOILER* die.
  • Verbal sensitivity is shown in this book by using language like, "Some of the younger children could not keep us with the group. Mademoiselle Petitjean stayed behind with them. The snow kept falling. Night came. Perhaps they lost their way in the woods. Or perhaps the Nazi's did not want stragglers. Either way, those little children never arrived in Pithiviers."
    • This is used instead of saying what the author is inferring- *SPOILER* the children died in the snow.

• Cultural diversity:
  • This book shows us a child friendly way of talking about the Holocaust (without completely ommitting the horror) and how people had to survive during it.
  • Palacio shows us cultural diversity through the different characters and the challenges they face such as a physcial disability, being Jewish during the Holocaust, and getting an education during that time as well.

• Authenticity and accurarcy:
  • Authentic areas of this book are shown in the beginning of the book with the gradual compilation of new rules and regulations for the Jewish community. This book shows an accurate representation of how the Holocaust began, as well as, the process of taking Jewish people which is seen when the Nazis come to Sara and Julian's school with a "list".
  • The accuracy in this book is honestly unmatched. Palacio really did her homework before writing this book and has a wide variety of resources. She has a suggested reading list, organizations and resources, as well as, the bibliography.

• Ideology:
  • This book challenges the Nazi ideaology that Jewish people were a problem that needed to be fixed.
  • The author's ideology is based on the idea that the religious intolerance during this time needed heroes and that voices of resistance were imperative for equality.

• Challenges and potential caveats:
  • Not own voice author.
  • This book does not show how the LGBTQ+ community, Slavic people, gypsies, or Jehovah's Witnesses were also discriminated against, only the Jewish population. In the end, it does show how people with disabilities were affected as well.
    • In the book, Julian has a physical disability. He is portrayed as a hero, which is a great aspect of cultural diversity. In the end, he is *SPOILER* taken and killed. The author uses this time to allude to the idea that people with disabilities were taken as well.
  • A visual challenge is that this book is a touch graphic so depending on your class, this could make students uncomfortable.
  • Only one perspective is shown, Sara: the main character.