What Color Am I? Thinking Like A Citizen Series

Transcription

1 What Color Am I? Thinking Like A Citizen Series By: Kathy Swan, S.G. Grant & Emma Thacker

2 Page 1 & 2 [2-page spread: An establishing shot: Kids coloring self portraits in class. They are using multicultural crayons and deliberating what shade to use: black, sepia, peach, apricot, white, tan, mahogany, burnt sienna others: cinnamon, sable, peach, toast, almond.] Meile: Hey Chloe, why haven t you started your drawing? Chloe: I can t find the right color! [Holding up different colors to her skin trying to find one that will match.] Seamus: I am using peach. [Holding up the crayon.] Maddie: You can t use peach, you re a boy! Naomi: I am using apricot for my skin and almond for my freckles! Grayson: I wish I were grey like my name Gray should be grey! Nathan: I wish I were green like an alien! Izzie: Aliens are blue not green, Nathan. Andy: Yeah, can we draw aliens?

3 Page 3 Chloe: [Zoom in on Chloe perplexed in front of a box of crayons] But none of these colors are right I am not cinnamon, peach or toast. So, what color am I?

4 Page 4 Andy: I know, let s get the glasses! Teacher: Great idea, Andy! We are really getting the hang of using these glasses. Let s circle up!

5 Page 5 [Left side: Students in a circle with the trunk of glasses in middle.] Naomi: I think we should start with the people lenses Teacher: Why do you think so, Naomi? [Right side] Naomi: Well, Chloe is a person and people come in different colors, soooooo Teacher: Good thinking. People it is.

6 Page 6 People Naomi: Why do people come in different colors? Nathan: My grandpa says I m a spitting image of my Dad. Seamus: Awesome. Spitting! I can spit really far. Teacher: Have you all ever heard the word genealogy? Izzie: Genie-what? Seamus: I know that word. My family is Irish and my Dad likes to look on the computer to see where my great-greatgreat-great-grandparents came from. [Bottom corner] Teacher: Seamus is on the right track. Why don t you grab your time lenses?

7 Page 7 Time Teacher: Genealogy is looking at people and where they come from. Like Seamus said, his family started in Ireland. Chloe: My mom says we came from Africa a long time ago, but that s all we know. Maddie: I wonder where my family comes from and how long we've lived here? Grayson: Like what continent? I just learned them there s Antarctica, North America, South America, Europe Naomi: I know what that means space lenses.

8 Page 8 Space Izzy: Has my family always been the same color? Nathan: What does your skin color have to do with where your family is from? Teacher: People that come from the same place do tend to look alike, but not always. Meile: I come from a different place than my Mom and Dad, and I don t look like them or like my brother and sister."

9 Page 9 Rules Chloe: My Mom doesn't look like my Dad and she says it s hard for her to get a job. Naomi: That s not fair! Izzy: Aren t there laws against that? Meile: That s mean! Grayson: Do people go to jail for being mean? Bad guys always go to jail. Andy [holding up the last pair of glasses]: Wait, what about the stuff lenses?

10 Page 10 Stuff Nathan: Well, if Chloe s Mom doesn t get a job, she may not be able to pay for our field trip next week! Seamus: Yeah, you need money to pay for stuff! Grayson: Why can t everyone have enough money to get the stuff they need? Nathan: Yeah, Grayson has all the superhero action figures and I only have one. Naomi: It s not like you need all the action figures, Nathan! Nathan: Yeah, but I WANT them.

11 Page 11 Chloe: I still don t know how to color my picture! These glasses don t work! Teacher: Well, these glasses don t necessarily answer questions for us. They are special because they help us think about questions before we answer them.

12 Page 12 [Teacher and kids look out to readers]: How do you choose the crayons to color yourself?

13 Page 13 [Kids finishing drawings. Chloe still looking for color.blending colors but not in angst..] Illustrator note: Array of colors fanned out in front of Chloe