New Guide: Engaging Children in a Conversation on Immigration, Welcoming, and Belonging.
I’M NEW HERE & SOMEONE NEW: IMMIGRATION ENGAGEMENT MATERIALS + READ ALOUD Best Users: Librarians, Educators, Home Learners, SEL Educators, Immigration Organizations Best Audience: Children Grades 00-06 These read aloud videos have been rereleased by Charlesbridge Publishing and are available during Welcoming Week, September 12-20, 2020. . . READ ALOUD & WITH THE AUTHOR / ILLUSTRATOR . . ABOUT THE ENGAGEMENT TOOLS In partnership with I’m Your Neighbor Books (home of the Welcoming Library), we can offer you this guide to having conversations on immigration, welcoming, and...
Read MoreCreating Welcoming Classrooms with Immigration Literature: NCTE
I’m Your Neighbor Books is honored to join DiversifiED Consulting in conversation with New Arrival and New American book creators at the NCTE 2019 Conference on “Creating Welcoming Classrooms with Immigration Literature.”. Watch this space for a growing list of resources on welcoming classrooms and the featured books. Louise El Yaafouri, DiversifiED Consulting Website Twitter: @ElYaafouriELD Featured Books: The Newcomer Student: An Educator’s Guide to Aid Transitions The Newcomer Fieldbook: A Workbook Companion to The Newcomer Student Resources: Teaching Resiliency:...
Read MoreReaders Theater for Welcoming & Belonging
I’m New Here and Someone New are companion picture books by Anne Sibley O’Brien (Charlesbridge) about three immigrant children and their new classmates. The books tell two sides of the same story. I’m New Here focuses on the first day in an American school for Maria, Jin, and Fatimah and their proceeding few months of adjustment. Someone New focuses on Jesse, Jason, and Emma, the long-term students who strive to connect with their new classmates. Anne Sibley O’Brien and I’m Your Neighbor Books created a readers theater script that combines the texts of the two books into a...
Read MoreEducator’s Guide on Cross-Group Friendship & the Syrian Refugee Crisis
The I’m Your Neighbor team was honored to partner with Louise El Yaafouri of Refugee Classroom on an extensive guide to help you teach and share the acclaimed middle grade novel, Nowhere Boy. While visiting her family in Saida, Lebanon, Louise added ELL and Enrichment Modifications, Teaching Resources on the Syrian War, and more to the extensive classroom and reader discussion guide. Each of these resources are driven by the project’s guiding question, “If a global crisis is a collection of thousands of personal stories, what do we all gain from knowing those stories and...
Read MoreWelcoming Library Webinar for Maine Libraries
Librarian Kate Cutko and Kirsten Cappy of I’m Your Neighbor will be sharing the Welcoming Library in a Maine State Library webinar for Maine librarians. Welcoming Library Wednesday, October 24, 2018 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Open to: Maine Library Community Libraries and schools all over the state are having pop-up community conversations about immigration. Those conversations are being driven by the Welcoming Library, a collection of acclaimed immigration-themed picture books with embedded discussion questions. The collection, its pop-up display unit, and programming and educational...
Read MoreThe Day War Came: Discussion Guide
I’m Your Neighbor Books was honored to be asked by Candlewick Press to produce a Discussion Guide for The Day War Came by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb (Candlewick Press). In 2016, the United Kingdom refused to welcome 3,000 children who had no families—children just like the girl you read about. The United States continues to lower the number of refugees it will accept into the country. There is no war in the United Kingdom or the United States, but the girl might say the “war had gotten here too.” Do you feel like she is right? Is it like war to not help? How can you...
Read MoreThe Secret Kingdom: Refugee’s Art Inspires Lessons Exploring Home
THE SECRET KINGDOM Art Lessons for Exploring Home Best Users: Art Educators, Classroom Teachers, ELL Educators, Librarians Best Audience: Children Grades 03-07 THE BACKGROUND Kirsten Cappy of I’m Your Neighbor and author Barb Rosenstock presented her picture book The Secret Kingdom: Nek Chand, a Changing India, and a Hidden World of Art illustrated by Claire A. Nivola (Candlewick Press) to a group of MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) Teacher Candidates at Maine College of Art (MECA). Nek Chand, a refugee from the partition of India, recreated the village he left behind in a...
Read MoreI’m New Here: Classroom & Community Guide to Welcoming Immigrants
View & Download I’m New Here: Creating a Conversation About Welcoming Immigrants & Refugees: A Classroom or Community Event Kit Reader Engagement Project: THE BOOK Maria is from Guatemala, Jin is from Korea, and Fatima is from Somalia. All three are new to their American elementary school, and each has trouble speaking, writing, and sharing ideas in English. Through self-determination and with encouragement from their peers and teachers, the students learn to feel confident and comfortable in their new school without losing a sense of their home country, language, and identity....
Read MoreI’m Your Neighbor Creates Video on Welcoming
By Anne Sibley O’Brien While the book trailer remains a popular way to promote picture books, Kirsten Cappy and I wanted to create a video that might matter to the mission of my picture book, I’m New Here. Could we model conversations with elementary school children on the universality of “feeling new” and on simple ways to be “welcoming”? It was such a pleasure to do this project with Fred Okot Ben, a young videographer whose work is mostly in music videos. Fred’s qualifications for this project include his own history; his Sudanese family came to...
Read MoreI’m Your Neighbor, Portland: Narrative Report
I’m Your Neighbor, Portland was a 2013 Portland, Maine community-wide read and series of public events designed to promote a sense of community among the diverse people who make the port city their home. READ the I’m Your Neighbor, Portland Narrative Report Want to hold your own community-wide read of New Arrival Children’s Literature? Explore book options and contact us!
Read MoreTeaching Tolerance on Contemporary Immigration
How is immigration taught in American classrooms today? Many of us are familiar with lesson plans of Ellis Island but while Ellis Island is an integral part to American history, it does not reflect the experience or demographic of immigrants coming to the United States in 2013. Additionally, with so much in the news about illegal immigrants and the debates in Congress, how do teachers approach this subject? Recently, the organization Teaching Tolerance launched a new series that seeks to address these questions, creating lesson plans that focus on contemporary immigration in the United...
Read MoreNew Teaching Resource for My Friend Jamal
We’re already thrilled with Anna McQuinn’s My Friend Jamal, a terrific children’s book about a multicultural friendship between two boys, one of Somali ancestry and the other of Polish ancestry. Celebrating commonalities rather than differences, it is the perfect addition to our list of I’m Your Neighbor books. We were especially thrilled to find this new teaching resource from Alanna Books, the UK publisher of My Friend Jamal. The resource links readers to definitions, resources and factual information behind the story. Teachers, parents and students can learn...
Read MoreStudents Send Greetings to Cambodian American Neighbors
This weekend, Cambodians Americans in Maine and Cambodians around the world, celebrate the New Year. In celebration of that holiday, third and forth graders from Canal School in Westbrook, Maine joined Peaks Island, Maine author/illustrator Anne Sibley O’Brien to listen to a reading from O’Brien’s book about Cambodians Americans, A Path of Stars. Together they created greeting cards with “Happy New Year” written in Khmer, the language of Cambodia, and hand-drawn lotus blossoms for the Buddhist temple in Buxton, Maine. Canal School librarian, Susan Brown invited Anne Sibley O’Brien to...
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