Literature Catalyst Reading and Reacting to Reading for Advanced Readers The Year of Impossible Goodbyes Sook Nyul Choi What is a Literature Catalyst? A Literature Catalyst is a guide for teachers to use with advanced readers individually, within a small group, or as a whole class. The guide provides suggestions for helping advanced readers experience the elements of the World Class Reader Model: Loving to Read; Learning to Read; Reading to Learn, and Reading to Serve. A Literature Catalyst is not a book study unit, but is a set of ideas that can be used singly or in combination to help advanced readers read and react to their reading—focusing on reading as an emotional, practical, intellectual, and social experience. Book Description Content Summary. It is 1945, and the Japanese military has taken over Korea. Under the cruel occupation, ten-year-old Sookan’s world is torn apart. Sookan must wear a uniform and attend a Japanese school. When the war finally ends, North Korea is taken over again, this time by Communist Russia. Sookan and her family know that their only hope lies in a dangerous escape to American-controlled South Korea. Here is the incredible story of one family’s love for each other and their determination to risk everything to find freedom. (Excerpted from the book jacket) Interest Impetus. This book is a multiple award winner, including being named an ALA Notable Children’s Book. The story casts a girl in a heroic role while giving a unique view of Korean life and culture and the damage associated with military occupations. Special Notes and Cautions. The story includes a brief allusion to female factory workers being sent to the front lines to be “used” by soldiers to boost morale Book information Complete Title: The Year of Impossible Goodbyes Author: Sook Nyui Choic Publisher: Yearling; Random House Place: New York, NY Year: 1993 ISBNs: 0763680869 (paperback); 8427950020 (hardcover) Grade Level Recommendation For Advanced Readers in Grades 4-5 Lexile Level: 840 Leveled Library: W Criteria Checklists These criteria indicate with an “X” why this book is especially well suited for use with advanced readers in a multicultural word. The criteria are drawn from the work of Halstead (2009) and Ford (2011). Advanced Reader Criteria Multicultural Education Criteria Has strong characters with whom advanced Promotes equity (i.e., non-mainstream characters readers can relate or whom they can admire and X participate and contribute in substantive ways). X emulate. Includes plots structured in ways that are thought- Encourages cultural pluralism or intergroup provoking to advanced readers. X harmony. X Uses language that challenges and stimulates the Increases students’ knowledge regarding various advanced reader. X cultural groups, including their own. X Employs a variety of literary devices that stretch Corrects distortions about minority groups, dealing advanced readers’ perceptions. X with prejudice and stereotypes. X Introduces settings (e.g., times and places) that may be unfamiliar to the advanced reader. X Loving to Read By being introduced to highly abstract, complex, and challenging books that appeal to wide and diverse interests, advanced readers will develop enthusiasm for the intellectual and aesthetic experience of reading. Catalyst Suggestions 1. Grandfather teaches Sookan to paint the characters of the Korean alphabet (p. 41). Show students the Korean alphabet and let them try painting several characters using watercolors and paintbrushes. 2. Sookan shows great courage in her efforts to help Inchun in their escape to South Korea. Present Sookan as a character of great courage and ask students to describe the ways she displays that courage. 3. Sookan shows great concern for those around her. Discuss this question: In what way does Sookan show concern for the dangerous situation Kisa and Aunt Tiger place themselves while helping them escape to the South? ( p 122-124) Learning to Read Through exposure to and instruction with broad-based fiction and non-fiction literature with rich, varied language in open- ended and complex structures, advanced readers will gain entrée into the world of ideas. Catalyst Suggestions 1. Describe the conflict Sookan feels within as she wrestles with feelings of anger, hatred, and revenge, while trying to find any dated documents. Discuss how Sookan might express her feelings through song, art, dance, poetry, story, essay, or speech. Have your students use one of these media to express how she is feeling. 2. Make a synonym ladder for the words menacing and oppressive (p. 1). Locate other words found in the text with similar meanings, listing them from most intense to the least intense for each synonym ladder. Then discuss the point at which the two ladders would intersect. 3. List the sequence of main events from the time Sookan and Inchun are separated from their mother until they arrive at the Red Cross Station in South Korea. Create a timeline of the events. Reading to Learn Through the study of interdisciplinary materials that require cognitive activity by the reader to construct background knowledge, the advanced reader develops a desire to know more. Catalyst Suggestions 1. Evaluate the risks and benefits of paying for the guide’s services before he leads them to freedom. Would you ‘trust your life to a greedy farmer’ (p. 128)? Would you take the risk? Explain why or why not. 2. Have the children compare and contrast the lives of Sookan and her family during the Japanese and Russian invasions. How are they similar? How are they different? 3. Help the children define the word propaganda. Consider these questions: Why are the village people required to watch the same movie (p. 108) every night and sing the same song each day? Sookan describes her day being filled with activities every minute leaving “no need to think” and encouraging children to spy and report on family members, using cookies and prizes as rewards (p. 112-114). What are the Russians trying to achieve using these methods? Are these methods ethical or unethical? Explain why or why not. Reading to Serve By using reading to discovering problems facing the individual, community, state, nation, or world and to explore and implement solutions to those problems, advanced readers gain a personal sense of mission and responsibility. Catalyst Suggestions 1. Sookan worries about the emotional change in her mother after Grandfather’s death (p. 45-46). Explore the emotional needs of trauma victims, research services offered in your community, and make a plan to help teach others about those needs. Finally, carry out your plan. 2. Sookan found out that their guide was acting as a double agent, working for both sides. They have “no mother, no money, and no passport” (p. 137). Form the children into a group of refugees to decide whether they go on or go back as directed? Create an alternative plan for Sookan and Inchun to find their family and freedom. 3. Sookan and her family became refugees in South Korea. Research and make a plan to help local refugees meet their physical, emotional, financial, and social needs. Credits and References Images downloaded from http://www.123rf.com/ Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/ profile_urfingus'>urfingus / 123RF Stock Photo</a>. Used by permission. Criteria adapted from Halstead, J. W. (2009). Some of my best friends are book: Guiding gifted readers (3rd ed.). Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press and from Ford, D. Y. (2011). Multicultural gifted education (2nd ed.). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press. Funding for the Literature Catalyst Project provided by the Utah State Office of Education. Opinions expressed are solely those of the writers and do not necessarily express the positions of the Utah State Office of Education. Suggestions for this Literature Catalyst written by Lyn Manning. .