Curiosity Cabinet Project on William Kamkwamba's The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

What was the best seed idea that you had that evolved into a component of the exhibit? What text evidence supported that thinking? How does this idea connect to your book’s essence?

All of our seed ideas started out with the poster we made during our silent literature circle. On the poster the first thing that came to mind was the windmill. The windmill was a huge part of the book. Not only literally, but figuratively as well. There is a deeper meaning behind the windmill, and that is William’s determination towards making it. Even when people from his village and his own family were putting him down and calling him a madman, he persevered and kept going. He blocked the negativity and stayed positive. The windmill also represented freedom. The windmill was freedom from the time of darkness and hunger. William Kamkwamba wrote, “No more skipping breakfast; no more dropping out of school. With a windmill, we’d finally release ourselves from the troubles of darkness and hunger.” (Pg. 159) On the poster, it was simply represented as a windmill and was surrounded by the quote that was just stated. This idea was then represented in our exhibit in a deeper and more powerful way.

In our actual display, the windmill and William’s determination was represented in two parts. We made a cardboard cutout of a windmill and had it stand up in a basket, with the quote beneath it. The way his determination was represented was with a large piece of cardboard, that was split in half. On one side of the cardboard, there was a thought bubble saying, “You’re a madman!” And on the other side, it was the library that William went to for an escape. That was the place where the windmill originated.

And what those two things really do is capture the essence and theme of the book. Although people may call you crazy and put you down, if you stay positive and block all that negative energy, you can really do amazing things. Whether it’s building a windmill or creating a time machine. It doesn’t matter, you just have to keep going and not care what others think.

Other ideas came up that you didn’t think of during the process of creating your museum display. What was the best one? What made it so effective? What text evidence supported that thinking?

One of the other ideas that wasn’t by me, was by Madeline. She suggested that we include William’s report card. William didn’t get the best grades, but he still had a drive to do well in school. "'In two years I can take my Junior Certificate Exam,' I answered thinking aloud. 'Then I can transfer to a better school. You'll see me soon in Kasungu. Don't laugh at me now.'" (pg. 115) Even after he didn't have enough money to pay for the school, he still went to the library and tried to keep up with the rest of his class. He read the textbooks as well as explored interests of his own. And that was science. And with science came the windmill. All of that text evidence connected to the theme of not letting negative thoughts get to you and to keep striving for your goals; the outcome could be something that you would have never imagined.

What makes it so effective is that just with a glance, people can make the connection of how kids these days are always caught up in the grades. Even if they get a C on one test, it really gets us down. And to know that grades for William didn’t affect his success, can actually help kids realize that there’s more to life than grades.

Don’t look at the rubric. Think beyond the “grade.” What did you learn by completing this project? Ideas include discussing the creative process, collaborative process, or yourself as a creator, contributor, and artist. Give evidence to support your answer.

By doing this project, I learned about working with other people and to come to an agreement. When my group was looking at the rubric, we saw that we weren’t touching base on the deeper meaning of the book. We all started to throw out ideas and we all agreed that each idea was good and unique in their own ways. But we were indecisive on which one would be best for our display. So then we decided to go to Mrs. Clark and ask on her opinion. She listened to us and gave us the idea of possibly combining all of our ideas into one.

Madeline’s idea was actually text evidence from the book when people called William a madman and how his room was like a madman’s. William Kamkwamba wrote, “‘There goes the madman off to smoke his chamba!’” (Pg. 178) Also on page 179, when his mom screamed at him, “‘When you go to Gilbert's house, you don’t see this kind of thing…. It looks like a madman’s room. Only madmen collect garbage.’” We used that except we shortened it to “You’re a madman,” since madman seemed to be a keyword throughout the book. Sean’s idea was about the library, which was William’s escape and origination of success. And my idea was one of William’s characteristics as a character, which was determination.

From all of our great ideas, we finally came to a consensus and decided that determination would be the basic deeper meaning and that we would combine the negative thought of being a madman and the library into one. We had a big piece of cardboard and decided to make it a two in one type of thing. Meaning we would have the negative thoughts on one side, but connecting to the other half, which was the library. And that created the basis of the deeper meaning and theme of not giving up even if people put you down.

Take a look at your lit circle reflections (three meetings) and think about how you worked with your group as you developed your curiosity cabinet (over the last few days). Over the course of this round of literature circles, how have you grown as a contributor in discussions? Specifically, how did you NEGOTIATE ideas? You can refer to our mini-lesson on Friday, January 23, if needed for help. Give evidence to support your answer.

For literature circles, I was already quite comfortable sharing ideas with my peers, but I do remember for the first literature circle that I was more of an observer. I mostly listened to what others were saying and tried to piggyback on their ideas. But when it came to the next two lit circles, I became a lot more comfortable sharing my own ideas and listening to what my peers thought about them. As for receiving ideas from my group members, I was really open into listening to them and giving feedback as to what I think. I also felt that I was able to take in what my peers thought about my own ideas.

Now for negotiating ideas, I felt as though my group and I were able to negotiate without having to get into a big argument. But in the beginning, we were still getting used to each other and didn’t have to negotiate about anything. Especially since we were open minded to each other’s ideas and we were only thinking about how we could piggyback on each other’s ideas. But when it came to finding the deeper meaning in our display we had to really work out different ways where we could really capture that. But soon enough, we were able to come up with ways to combine all of our ideas and create it into something great.