Brown Girl Dreaming

Theme in Brown Girl Dreaming

In this blogpost I will start by discussing one of the themes in the book “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson. Afterwards I will discuss why and how I would use this book in a teaching situation.

The theme I will discuss is how the book handles the notion of family and how Jacqueline sees her own family and her thoughts and feeling about them.

Naturally, Jacqueline´s family is a big part of her memoir, and we get to read about a lot of her family. During the book we read about the different memories of her family and a lot of different aspects of their life. Jacqueline´s memories are both negative and positive concerning her family, something we all can relate to.

Excerpt: ”You don´t need words

on a night like this. Just the warmth

of your grandfather´s arm.

This an example of one of the positive memories Jacqueline writes about in her memoir, in this chapter she is sitting on the porch outside her house with her grandfather.

In another excerpt from the book we get to learn a little about her aunt, that tragically dies at the end of the chapter. We also hear about her uncle who has gone to jail, and how her family copes with that.

The family is also later separated by geography, living in different parts of the country. Jacqueline writes about how her memory of some of her family members starts to fade because of how seldom she sees them. “In all our moving, we´ve forgotten our family in Ohio, forgotten our father´s voice, the slow drawl of his voice…”

Jacqueline sees herself in her own family, and often compares herself to the rest of her family. Quite normal for a young girl, pupils would most likely relate.

To conclude, in my opinion the themes of family in “Brown Girl Dreaming” is showed to be multifaceted.  Her family, like most other families, have their troubles and their difficulties. At the same time Jacqueline seems to have learnt a lot from her family, learning that she has kept her whole life. Lastly, I think that one of the crucial lessons Jacqueline learns is when her uncle goes to jail. When Jacqueline asks why he has gone o jail har mother answers: “It doesn’t matter. We love him. That´s all we need to know and keep remembering.” The lesson here is that we love our family, no matter what.  

How and why to use this text in a teaching situation

In this part of the text I will discuss how and why I think this book can be used in a teaching situation. I will start by discussing why I think that this book could be used in a teaching situation.

First and foremost I think that the way this book is written, short poems who together forms a narrative. I would think that this a quite unknown way of writing that the pupils are not accustomed to. By presenting this book and showing how poems can be written and used is in my opinion a good way to teach about poems to the pupils. At the same time the book is a memoir, a memoir could be quite a foreign type of text for the pupils.

Another reason I think that this book should be used in a teaching situation are the importance of some of the themes it discusses and brings forth. Some of the themes I believe are quite universal, i.e. family, friendship and growing up. But the themes discussing race and being a minority is something that not many Norwegian pupils can relate to. So this creates an opportunity to start a discussion and reflections about this theme. In my opinion the book could be used in a larger project teaching the pupils about the civil rights movement, as this book gives a quite unique look a how it a young child tried to understand the problems in the U.S. at the time. This could help a Norwegian pupil to better relate to the issue, because I would believe it is quite foreign for them.

This text offers first and foremost language input, new language for the pupils to learn. At the same time the text also offers a great deal of cultural input, and as mentioned before, creates a great opportunity to let the pupils learn more about the culture in the U.S. at this time. (Munden, p.106)

In this part of the blogpost I will write about how I would use this book in a teaching situation.

Goals from LK06:

English after 7^th grade:

·      lese og forstå ulike typer tekster av varierende omfang fra forskjellige kilder

·      uttrykke seg på en kreativ måte inspirert av ulike typer engelskspråklige litterære tekster fra forskjellige kilder

·      gi uttrykk for egne reaksjoner på engelskspråklige litterære tekster, film, nettkultur, bilder og musikk

The specific chapter from the book that I would let the pupils work with is “roman”, the poem where Jacqueline writes about how she felt when her new baby brother was born.

“But I don’t like the new baby of the family.

I want to send it back to wherever

babies live before they get here.”  

The fact that Jacqueline gets so jealous about her new baby brother is something I think a lot of pupils can relate to, and thus create some good discussions about this text.

1.     The teacher introduces the book “Brown Girl Dreaming” to the class. What kind of book is it, where is the author from etc. Have the pupils ever heard of a memoir or an autobiography? What is the difference between these two?

2.     The teacher reads one of the poems in the book aloud to the pupils. We discuss the poem afterward and talk about any difficult word. If there are questions about the meaning of the poem I think it is important to not say anything concrete to the pupils, but let them think for themselves. Munden has written about how a child can understand a written text better when it is read aloud by a skilled adult, instead of just read aloud by the childe. (Munden, Page 43) So to create a better understanding of the text for the pupils, I think it is important to read the text aloud first.

3.     Afterwards the pupils can read the poem for themselves. Depending on the groups some of the pupils could read aloud to each other or read silently. In some groups you can have some pupils that have difficulties with reading English, so these could perhaps read in pairs.

4.     When the pupils are done reading they can put into small groups, and start preparing questions for the “hot-seat” part afterwards. And one of the pupils are going to be chosen to sit in the “hot-seat”. Preferably it should be one of the more capable pupils that can withstand sitting in the centre of the group and also have a good understanding of the text itself.

5.     Working in a “Hot-seat” one of the pupils gets into the role as one of the characters in the text. The rest of the pupils then get to ask questions to the one in the “hot-seat” about their role, motives and thoughts. (Gamble, page 53)

6.     Finally, to end the session, the teacher and the pupils have a joint discussion about the text, and talk to the pupil about what they learned talking to the pupil in the “hot-seat.”


Sources:

·      Gamble, Nikki (2013): Exploring Children´s Literature: Reading With Pleasure and Purpose. 3^rd edition. London: Sage Publications.

·      Munden, Juliet (2015) Twinkle Twinkle. 3^rd. edition. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademiske.

·       Utdanningsdirektoratet (2013) English subject curriculum. Sourced 05.04.2016 from http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-7.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng

·       Woodson, J. (2014) Brown Girl Dreaming. Nancy Paulsen Books.