Throw away standards

The New Colossus

Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs, astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

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  Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island Story by Eve Bunting
  
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  Reader’s Theatre instructions
  
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  Script for Two Readers/Dreaming of America
  
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  Copies of “A Mill Worker’s Grievances,” “The Forefather Arrives,” “The New Colossus,” “You, Whatever You Are,” and Grandfather’s Journey
  

This activity introduces the concept of immigrants’ feelings and thoughts upon seeing Lady Liberty and America for the first time. The book is about Annie Moore, the first immigrant to actually be processed through Ellis Island on January 1, 1892, her fifteenth birthday. She and her two brothers had made the journey to America to be reunited with their parents, Matt and Mary Moore, in New York City. A statue of Annie and her brothers stands on the quay at Cobh (Cove), Ireland, where their journey began. Another stands on Ellis Island, where their journey ended. This activity uses the strategy called “Reader’s Theatre” to introduce students to Annie Moore. This strategy reinforces oral reading fluency and allows students to make connections with historical text in a variety of ways.

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  Use overhead transparencies to tell the story of Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island Story to class. (book is a little long too read in entirety)
  
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  Refer to Preparing Your Own Scripts. Go over instructions for preparing a script and point out example from As Far As Mill Springs.
  
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  Look at Dreaming of America’s Script for Two Readers. Talk with the class about how the narrative was changed into a Script.
  
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  Perform the Script for Two Readers for the class.
  
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  Divide the room into cooperative learning groups.
  
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  Give out different works to class to prepare a Reader’s Theatre Script for homework. Class will have some time to prepare, but will be given time the next morning to finish. These will be “A Mill Worker’s Grievances”, “The Forefather Arrives”*, “The New Colossus”, “You, Whoever You Are”, and Grandfather’s Journey.
  
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  Have groups perform the Reader’s Theatre scripts for the class.
  

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  GLE 0601.8.1 Read and comprehend a variety of works from various forms of literature.
  
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  GLE 0801.8.2 Understand the characteristics of various literary genres (e.g. poetry, novel, biography, short story, essay, drama)
  

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  SPI 0601.8.1 Distinguish among various literary genres (e.g. fiction, drama, nonfiction, poetry)
  
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  SPI 0601.8.2 Identify the setting and conflict of a passage.
  
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  SPI 0801.8.10 Identify the kind (s) of conflict present in a literary plot (i.e. person vs. person, person vs. self, person vs. environment. person vs. technology)
  

reparing Your Own Scripts

1. 
   Decide on the passage which will be used from the book or write your own passage. It can be short or long, depending on what the students want to convey.
   
2. 
   Decide on the characters who will speak.
   
3. 
   Decide on which characters will need narrators.
   
4. 
   Mark narrator parts with N1, N2, etc.
   
5. 
   Passages, words that indicate what the character is thinking, feeling, or doing can be spoken by that character. Of course, all dialogue will be spoken by the character. These parts can be indicated with first letters or letters of the characters’ names.
   

Pendergraft, Patricia. As Far As Mill Springs. Philomel Books, 1992.

R-Robert A-Abiah

/The orphans who lived at the Hixons’ were not fortunate children. In fact, they

R N1

were/ overworked, underfed and severely punished for small offenses./ It was

R N1

N2 A

you, “/ she pleads!/ “Anything would be better than going back to that place.”

N1 R&A

/Robert agrees, then they meet up with Mutt dog and together/ they head for Mill