Synnamin Finley

ECE 260
19 July 2020
Multicultural Book Extension Activity

Book Title: Yaffa and Fatima, Shalom, Salam

Book Author: Fawzia Gilani-Willliams
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

1. Pre-K/CCSD K-2​nd​ Grade Core Standard

- Read and comprehend informal texts, including history/social studies
- Discuss the importance of culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse people in
building a strong and equitable community

2. Objectives
- SWBAT identify their personal culture
- SWBAT identify differences in their own and other cultures.
3. Materials and Equipment needed:
- Yaffa and Fatima
4. Teaching
- Read “Yaffa and Fatima”
- Journaling prompt or class discussion: What is culture? What are some parts of
your culture?
- Have children go home and discuss with their family what their culture is, have
students bring pictures or artifacts from home to share with the class.
- Discuss their importance of respecting other’s cultures, even if they’re different
than our own.
- Create a culture walk in your classroom: have children share with what they’re
comfortable about their home, family, and culture.

5. Closure:
- We learned what makes us different, but what is it that brings us all together?
- Discuss classroom/school culture, the culture of the city you live in etc.

Literature Review

Book Title: Yaffa and Fatima, Shalom Salam

Author: Fawzia Gilani-Willliams
Genre: Folklore
Illustrator: Chiara Fedele
Publisher/Year: Lerner Publishing Group, 2017

Style and Language:​ Using examples for the book, explain the following: Word
choices, dialogue, rhythm, rhyme and sentence length. Share unexpected insights or
interesting information the reader learns from this story.
- The sentences are fairly short in length, making this a good book for early
independent readers. It introduces vocabulary and practices specific to both of
the cultures of the characters in the story, which make it pleasantly informative in
a fictional book.

Character:​ With examples from the book, provide the following

Who is the main character?
- Yaffa and Fatima
How can the reader relate to the character?
- They’re both regular people who have friends that are different than themselves
Who are the supporting characters?
- Yaffa and Fatima are the only two characters named in the story

Plot:​ Summarize the major events of the story

Yaffa and Fatima both grow and sell dates. Yaffa is Jewish and Fatima is Muslim, but
they follow God in a lot of the same ways. One year when there was little rain and little
dates, both Fatima and Yaffa decided to help each other by sharing their food. They
were grateful when they found out that the other decided to help.
Setting​: Explain the place and time of this book.
- The Land of Milk and Honey (Israel)
Theme:​ What is the main message of this book?
- We have more in common with other people than we always realize, we should
show each other kindness

Illustration​: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style: Cartoon
Media choice: Ink, marker or digital
Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations:
Line: The use of lines in the illustration are deliberate and most of them serve the
function of allowing the reader to be able to easily identify the images.
Shapes: Much of the shapes are organic forms, that create a softness to the simple line
work
Color: Everything except for the figures in the illustration are full of color, which may be
a note to the unimportance of skin tone in friendships.
Texture: The texture is oversimplified, such as the very simple hashes that show the
hair on the animals.
Page design: The text appears in black on an empty space within the illustration. The
illustration on some pages appears in windows commonly seen in middle eastern
architecture.

Child Development Theory:

Emotional Development:
Age: 7-11 years
Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates
to the emotional level you chose:
- Children at this age develop the understanding of others emotional experience,
which is separate from their own, and they are beginning to be able to explain
others emotions, which comes with an increase in empathetic responses.

1 would not recommend 2 average ​3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 9

Why?
This book discusses two different religions and cultures and highlights the goodness of
people despite those differences. I think it's well illustrated and the images add to what
can be taken away from this book.