Book Club: The Name Jar

Learning your students’ names is an important part of every new school year, and it often takes time and grace to get them right. In addition, some names are more complex and require extra practice to master the pronunciation.

Names are personal, and whether handed down by a great-grandparent or selected from a baby-name book, they were picked specifically for us—they are a part of us. Have you ever had someone continue to call you by the wrong name or mispronounce your name time and time again? What if they never took the time to learn it, even after you respectfully corrected them? It can hurt.

Children can have those same feelings, which is why it is important to show them that their names matter and to help them remember their classmates’ names.
 

Book Information

Title: The Name Jar
Author: Yangsook Choi
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2001
Lexile: AD590
Where to find the book: Amazon or your local library

The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi, is an ideal read-aloud book to share with students, especially at the beginning of a school year when they are busy making new friends and learning their classmates’ names.

It is about a young girl who stops liking her name because no one can pronounce it correctly. Published in 2001, the book sends a very relevant message of self-acceptance with an underlying theme about the value of friendships.

When young Unhei (pronounced Yoon-hye) moves to the United States from Korea, she is worried she won’t find friends. To make matters worse, on her first day of school, she is teased about her name by children struggling to pronounce it. She quickly decides she would rather have an American name rather than the special one given to her by a name master in her home country. As her classmates set out to help her find just the right name, Unhei soon discovers not only that she has new friends, but she had the right name all along.
 

Book Activity

You can easily add in a writing lesson at the end of the read-aloud, such as an acrostic poem using student names spelled vertically as the first letter of each line. Next to each letter, students will write a word or phrase that begins with the same letter and describes them.

Acrostic poems do not have strict rules like other types of poetry. The important part is to encourage your students to be creative. Here are some suggestions for the types of words students can use in their poems. You can have them use one category, a mixture, or all.

– Attributes: kind, funny, caring, etc.
– Activities: soccer, drawing, biking, etc.
– Favorite foods: pizza, apples, spaghetti, etc.
– Favorite things: books, skates, games, etc.
– Favorite colors: yellow, blue, green, etc.
– Favorite holidays: Halloween, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, etc.

Caring
Art
Yellow
Dogs
Easter
Nectarines

Can run fast
Always friendly
Young basketball player
Does not like broccoli
Enjoys reading
Neat room

As a get-to-know-me activity, allow student pairs to work together to complete their poems and help each other come up with words. Encourage them to sound out words they do not know how to spell. When they have finished writing their poems, students can introduce their partners by reading their poems aloud. Make sure to spend extra time helping students pronounce names that are a little more difficult.

This activity can be done later in the year, too. However, because students will know each other better by then, circulate the poems and have other students fill in kind words or phrases next to letters in classmates’ poems and pass them to another student until the poems are complete. Have them use word lists or dictionaries if needed.

These poems can be a great treasure for students when they see the nice words others wrote about them. They also make a great addition to a classroom bulletin board for others to see, especially when students draw a picture of themselves on the page.
 

Free Acrostic Poem Worksheet

If you would like a free template for the acrostic poem, download it on our Free Worksheets page. And remember—sign up for our newsletter to receive more ideas and information about our latest products.

Do you have ideas to help students learn their classmates’ names? Please share them in the comments section below.