If you’ve been a speech-language pathologist for a bit, you know that oftentimes our jobs go beyond just speech and language. We have the advantage and the opportunity to teach our students to be kind children so that one day they will become kind adults. Today, I want to share some ideas that pair with the book The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. This would be a perfect book to use at the beginning of each school year as they meet new peers.
This book is about Unhei who is feeling anxious about fitting in at her new school. She decides instead of introducing herself as Unihei, she would choose an American name from a jar because she is scared to feel different. At the end of the story, Unihei learns that her name holds so much more love and meaning to her, and her family, than Laura, Suzy, or Amanda. Encouraged by her new friends, she introduces herself as Unihei ,meaning grace, and teaches her classmates how to pronounce it. The Name Jar promotes and celebrates cultural identities and differences, something we see in all our students.
When asked how she felt about the importance of names and her thoughts and feelings about it, Jennie from Conway, AR had this to say.
“Graduations always caused me great anxiety growing up. As a Vietnamese American and daughter of immigrants, I should have felt proud of my name, but I wasn’t. I felt anxious. How are they going to pronounce it? How bad are they going to butcher it? Are the other kids going to laugh at me again? As I’ve gotten older, those moments have diminished but at times the anxiety is still there. It took me the majority of my twenties to finally feel proud, to feel rooted in who and where I am in life, and to find those special people in my life who have embraced me and my culture. It is something that I wish I had earlier in my life.
I believe that names are an extension of the person and their cultural and racial identity. To me, pronouncing anyone’s name correctly is more than just common courtesy. It affirms the individual as a person and their self-worth. I think it is so important to not only call our students by their given name but to teach our students to call their own classmates by their name as well. In my own life, when I hear Nguyen said correctly, it makes me feel safe, respected, and that I belong where I didn’t feel like I did before. “
Jennie Nguyen Le, M.S. CCC-SLP
The Name Jar is a powerful children’s book. It’s one that represents many people we know and love. I have an entire resource for this book to support using this book to build speech and language skills already done for you. You can learn more about that Story Sidekick in my TpT store. Below are additional activities to help your students accomplish their goals.
Activity #1
Grab some jars or even pictures of a jar to begin this activity. Depending on the goal, you can use sticky notes, word cards, articulation cards, or mini objects for this task. For articulation students, toss in articulation cards or mini objects and have my students pull from the jar and produce the target. Children are natural collectors and will enjoy hoarding their own little pile of objects/cards. When it comes to your language students, will give them each a jar (or a picture of a jar). When targeting categories, vocabulary, or even -wh questions, I have them answer the question and then hand them the card, mini object, or something to represent the question such as a bead, pom pom, or a mini eraser. You can also use jars to target basic concepts, comparing and contrasting, and describing. The possibilities are truly endless!
Activity #2
Names hold meaning. We learn in the story that Unihei’s name means grace. First, have your student draw someone close to them such as a parent, sibling, friend, or teacher. Please make sure that your student actually knows the name of this individual (e.g. mom’s name Sarah, not mom). Next, your student will write or say two to four words that they think describe that individual. Then, you will look up the meaning of the individual’s name and discuss with your student the results. This activity targets inferencing, comparing/contrasting, vocabulary, and describing.
Use these activities?
Let me know how they go in your speech room! I hope you love them and reading The Name Jar with your students as much as I do.
