Over the next three to four weeks we will read the historical young adult novel Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse. Students will use various tradebooks, software, and internet resources to support their reading strategies. They will participate in cooperative groups, work independently, produce projects, and respond to the novel through reading, writing, art activities, discussion, and research.

Your tasks will include the following:

1. Before reading, have the students make predictions about the story from the original (brown cover). They may read the back of the book. Then show students the cover from the second edition. Now students will compare and contrast and evaluate the decision to change the cover artwork in the second edition.
   
2. After reading pages 1-15, students will write a history of a move. This could be from another country, another state, another school, from one grade level to another. Students may search the internet or CD-ROM for a map to include in this personal narrative.
   
3. After reading page 31, students will search resources for a photograph of a Russian Cossack as described in the novel.
   
4. After reading page 32, students will draw a family tree of Rifka's family. Students may search sources for genealogical tree format.
   
5. After reading pages 47-50, students will write a short biography of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837). His poetry is throughout the novel and foreshadows each entry of Rifka's diary. Students may search the Internet and CD-ROM resources.
   
6. After reading pages 51-60, students will create a Venn Diagram comparing/contrasting the country of Belgium with the eastern European countries of Russia and Poland. Use resources to enhance information from the novel.
   
7. After reading page 88, students will describe an immigrant's experiences on the ocean voyage fro Europe to the United States of America. Describe the typical living conditions and length of the journey by ship.
   
8. After reading page 120, students will describe the first impression of seeing the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor. Then the students will describe the experience of the immigration process at Ellis Island relating it to Rifka's stay on the island.
   
9. Upon completing the novel, page 148, the students will write a prediction of Rifka's new life in America including any comparisons/contrasts to her former life in various European countries.

Tradebooks:

Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse

The Immigrants.by Russell Friedman

Ellis Island: New Hope in a New Land. by William Jay Jacobs.

Internet::

American Immigration HomePage-Created by a 10th Grade History Class

Ellis Island Immigration Museum

Glossary of Judaic Terms

History Channel

Letter to the Author, Karen Hesse

Library of Congress - American Memory Online Photo Collection

Russian History on the Internet

Russian Immigration-Yesterday and Today

Scholastic's Immigration-Stories of Yesterday & Today (free in September 1999)

U.S. Immigration 1820-1997

CD-ROMS:

Grolier's Encyclopedia for iMAC, 1999
150 Years of National Geographic

Our class will be working on the computer, searching the internet, and using books as resources. Use the list of websites in the RESOURCES section at this web site.

Students will be evaluated primarily on an individual basis with consideration for groupwork when researching and presenting.

 Using Internet and CD-ROM resources while reading the young adult historical novel Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse enhanced the reading experience for the student readers. Access to photographs and maps of the time period allowed the students to connect the main character, Rifka, to a time in history. This further developed their understanding of the conflicts she experienced and the courage she displayed.

 

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