Perceiving
My topic: Storytelling
Object: Can I play too?- Book
Perceiving: Perceiving is to observe through multiple senses. Take a step back and reflect, think deeper and reflect again. Perceiving is in the eye of the beholder, through different lens discovering something new.
Original Observations: Book- Mo Williams Can I Play Too?
Feels: hard/smooth cover, paper soft/smooth
Tastes: N/A- I would imagine rough/hard not appealing
Moves: moves with touch, glides, pages need to be turned, moves through one's hands, needs to be touched/held
Looks: simple colors, plain not a lot of detail, would not say colorful, blue/pink/brown/green/gray/white/yellow, drawing of an elephant holding a ball, a pink pig, green snake, on a hill, there are words on the front page (title and author/illustrator) Each page is white with characters and word blobs on them. Warn and used weathered pages
Sounds: sounds of flipping the pages, a hard book hitting the table, “blop” as it hits the floor, swwwwif as it glides across a hard surface, and the voice of whoever is reading the words
Smells: an old book that has been sitting on the shelf for years, the smell of a hardcover book
Background: This particular story is about a snake wanting to play catch. Elephant and Piggie are about to play catch and a snake asks, “Can I play too?”. The elephant and pig look concerned because the snake has no arms and he can not play ball. Well they try and just throw the ball at him and it just hits him, then they think they need more balls (this is where the kids laugh a lot) and more balls hit the snake. Snake realizes maybe he just can’t play ball, but Piggie is determined to have snake play. Piggie comes up with an idea and this story ends with them using the snake as the ball and throwing him back and forth.
Reimage: Poem
Book, book you funny book
How I wished I took a closer look
You have ideas I didn’t see
Your deeper concepts come for free
I will use you for lessons to teach
Of new concepts, my students can not reach
This will give them something to compare
Of when they see a student in a wheelchair
I am so glad I took another look
With help from perceiving I have a better outlook
Reimagined: As I reflect on this story I have read over the years to my students, I struggled on how to reimage this story. I always read these Elephant & Piggie books because they are funny and entertaining. The kids love them. However, there may be a bigger picture, deeper meaning to use with this text.
After thinking deeper about what is transpiring in this story, I realized I could use this same story I use for entertainment and make it meaningful for my students. A reimagining of this story is using this text to address people with disabilities. This story discussed a difference between the characters. This story poses a struggle for one of the characters (the snake) to partake in an activity everyone with hands can do. These characters are relatable to a bigger picture of understanding or being aware of people with disabilities. This has never crossed my mind. I can use this story to explain and discuss students with disabilities. This story is age-appropriate for my students to understand and compare kids (or anyone) with a disability. If anything, it brings up awareness and can start a discussion. It also shows student’s problem-solving skills and determination to find a way for them to play with the snake. This gives students a perfect example of how they can problem solve and determine a way to incorporate a student with disabilities into play too.
*This book to spark discussion about people with disabilities. Compare this story and relate it to how it is similar to someone with a disability. Problem-solve ways we could include/help students with different disabilities. Build on students conversations.*
New Understanding Impacts Topic: For this activity, I thought about how I could “reimage” a book. It took some time, like all day thinking about the book in the same way. I thought I was never going to represent this book. However, after I sat down and typed out what happened in the story (which I have read many times) I realized there were some deeper meanings and concepts going on. Such a simple book, “Can I Play Too?” could be represented to show students about people with disabilities. It can start a discussion and make students more aware of people with a disability. Even deeper, it shows problem-solving skills to help discover or test out different ways to allow them to participate.
This new representation of a story I have had for years really puts a spin on things. First, it is eye-opening to me to consider this simple children's book to help promote my student's awareness of people with disabilities. It really makes me reflect on what other simple stories have “hidden” meanings. As I keep saying I have had this book for years. I have not thought about any hidden meanings in this story, or any concepts I could use from this story other than “friendship”. I truly feel inspired after reimagining this book. What other stories could I reimagine into deeper concepts to help my students understand life around them? What am I missing from other stories? What other lenses could promote other discoveries in learning and teaching? This simple technique has sparked more possibilities.