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From ESL to Author
Junior Presentation Guide
About Rukhsana Khan
Rukhsana
has been writing for over fifteen years with seven books published, several of
which have been nominated and/or won various awards. Along the way she also
became a storyteller and has performed at numerous festivals. For more
information please see her website:
www.rukhsanakhan.com
Rukhsana was born in Lahore, Pakistan and immigrated
to Canada, with her family, at the age of three. She began by writing for
community magazines and went on to write songs and stories for the Adam's World
children's videos. She currently has seven books published and others under
contract. Rukhsana is a member of SCBWI, The Writers Union of Canada, CANSCAIP,
Storytellers of Canada, and the Storytelling School of Toronto. She lives in
Toronto with her husband and family. Rukhsana has four children, three girls
and a boy.
From ESL to Author
This presentation touches on
issues of literacy, racism, being different, learning to read, exploring books,
and creative writing journals.
Themes in the Performance
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Wanting to fit in
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Communicating through
literacy
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Seeing the story through the
words on the page
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With practice, reading gets
easier
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Dealing with rejection
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The importance of revision
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Perseverance
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The joy of reading and
writing
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Opportunities available to
all children in North America vs third world countries
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Difference between first
world and third world countries is that in the first world, knowledge is
free
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The importance of libraries
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Andrew Carnegie
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How to get published
Pre-Performance Discussion Topics and Activities
Discussion Topics:
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Discuss how it would feel to be around others who
speak a different language.
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What kind of manners should you observe in such a
situation if there are a whole group of people? What if there are only
three people and two are speaking a language the third doesn’t understand?
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The world is becoming ‘smaller’. Canadians are
doing business with other companies all over the world. This is called
globalization. Why does it make sense for the Canadian government to
encourage people to keep their original languages?
Activities:
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Invent your own language:
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In groups of five choose any
ten words that are commonly used in everyday speech and invent
substitutes for those words.
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Name your language.
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Take a passage out of a text book,
or a poem now translate the passage or poem into the language.
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Have one person from each group
read out their poems.
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Have the group members carry out a
conversation using the new language in front of the ‘visitor’
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Take one student from each group
and let them ‘visit’ another group where he/she does not understand their
new language
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Have each visitor report to the
class their feelings of the experience
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Look at a map of the world. Which countries would
not have the kind of library services you are used to? Which countries
would have the same kind of libraries?
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Through discussion and brainstorming, generate
ideas for writing a personal story about an aspect of your cultural
background; practices, religion, food, music etc
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Draw up a writing plan (ie. outline, diagram,
story map)
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Write an initial draft
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Discuss and revise the initial draft in order to
clarify ideas and improve organization
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Edit initial draft to improve writing style and
correct errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation
Post Performance Discussion Topics and Activities
Discussion Topics:
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What did the editor who rejected Rukhsana’s
picture book Waldo the Worm mean when she said that Rukhsana didn’t
deal with the themes of hunting and romance? Do you agree?
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As a class, read Believing in Books: The Story
of Lillian Smith, by Sydell Waxman. Discuss how life would be different
if children had no access to libraries and books?
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Discuss the difficulties of coming to a new
country where you don’t speak the language and working so hard till you get
published as an author in that new language.
Activities:
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Write your own adventure story for Waldo the
Worm. Or any other small creature you can imagine. Emphasize
creativity. The students should try to imagine the kinds of challenges
they, as the creature would face. Use ‘what if’ questions to create
interesting situations for your characters.
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Illustrate your story and publish it into your own
book.
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Make a creative writing journal. Write down one
thought every day.
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In groups of four to six, have the students
dramatize a situation where they could neutralize a bullying situation.
Remind the groups that the idea of the exercise is not to humiliate the
‘bully’ but rather to promote an inclusive environment.
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Stories are often grown from something that may
have happened but didn’t work out right. Write a story about an incident in
your past that you wish you had handled differently. Remember, you can
write the story, changing what really happened to what should have happened.
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How does the new ending change what they would
have learned from the incident?
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Take any folktale and write what happens at the
end of the story. Do they really live happily ever after? What if they
don’t?
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Research Andrew Carnegie and how he decided to use
his wealth to create public libraries. Do you think his money was well
spent?
Resource Material
Believing in Books: The Story of Lillian Smith,
by Sydell Waxman, Napoleon Publishing, ISBN 0-929141-77-6
(An excellent follow up to the presentation, this book
is a biography of Lillian Smith and chronicles the formation of the first
libraries in Canada.)
Website information about Andrew Carnegie (mentioned
in the presentation):
http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/carnegie.html
http://www.carnegie.org/sub/about/biography.html
A film about Andrew Carnegie:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/
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