My Dream of Martin Luther King



Author: Faith Ringgold

Illustrator: Faith Ringgold

Theme: This story focuses on the treatment of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. The young girl sees in her dream the exact same thing that actually happened to African Americans during the Civil Rights Movements. The children will focus on the treatment of African Americans during the story and try to find a solution on how they could try to gain equal rights.

Subject: Social Studies

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade Level: Sixth through Eighth

Pre-Reading Strategies: Before reading the story, the children will go over a quick timeline of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life. They will highlight his accomplishments, as well as the hardships he had to face as a peaceful Civil Rights leader during the Jim Crow Period. Since Martin Luther King Jr. is the main focus of the story, the children will ask any questions regarding what Martin Luther King Jr. did during his time on Earth. After the timeline is complete, I will read the story aloud to the students.

Summary: This book is about a young girl who had a dream about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. In her dream, history repeats itself.  African Americans were treated with prejudice, hate, and were being discriminated against. A young black boy was told to go to a “white’s only” school, as well as sitting in the back of the bus. African Americans would protest the treatment they were receiving from the white folks. However, the young boy met Martin Luther King Jr. who greatly protested against the Civil Rights Movement. The young boy sat through Dr. King’s speech and went to his mourning the day he was shot. The young girl wakes up from her dream right before Martin Luther King’s famous “I Had a Dream” speech.

Post-Reading Strategies: After reading the story, the children will get into groups and discuss the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s peaceful movement to get African Americans freedom. They will also write down three ways in which they would protest the unfair treatment the African Americans received during the early and mid-20^th Century. This activity will focus the strong influence Martin Luther King Jr. had on black history and the rights they received after his death.

Assessment: Reflection question for the students...how would you have handled your situation if you were MLK?

Reflection: Another excellent story highlighting the struggles African Americans had to go through during the Civil Rights Movement.

Ringgold, Faith. (1995). My Dream of Martin Luther King. New York: Crown Publishers Inc. Grades K-1.

How Many Days to America?



Author: Eve Bunting

Illustrator: Beth Peck

Grade Level: Second Grade

Genre: Historical Fiction

Theme: Thanksgiving is a very special holiday that is celebrated by all Americans. Characters in the book, as well as families today give thanks to their families and living in the land of the free. This short story emphasizes the importance of the holiday of Thanksgiving and that families need to be thankful for having one another.
Subject Area: History, Social Studies

Pre-Reading Strategies:

What do you know about Thanksgiving?

 

Where do you and your parents go when you are celebrating this holiday?

 

What foods do you eat?

 

How did the holiday of Thanksgiving start?

Before the reading, the children will brainstorm the things they do on Thanksgiving. After that list is made, the children will discuss amongst one another the things they eat on Thanksgiving. This will get the student’s brains thinking about this amazing holiday before the story begins.

Post-Reading Strategies: After the story, the children will all answer some post-reading discussion questions regarding the short story independently. After the post-reading questions are completed, the children and I will all get into a circle and discuss what we are all thankful for. I will keep track of each student’s responses and we will keep a tally of the most common option. After this activity, we will all do some arts and crafts. The students would draw a hand turkey and color it. All these turkeys will be hung around the room, with the thing that they are most thankful for written on their own individual turkeys.

A turkey-traced hand--students will write five things they are thankful for on each finger.

Summary: This story involves a family who is forced to leave their home and travel to America. A bunch of families were forced to leave their homes and start their pilgrimage to America. The young boy in the story did not understand why his family was forced to leave, but he kept quiet and followed his family on their journey to America. When they finally reached America, they gave her thanks by having a feast and celebrating their quest to America.

Assessment: Students should be able to write five things that they are thankful for and color effectively at the second grade level. Students should be able to discuss what they are thankful, while their partners show good listening skills.

Reflection: Excellent story showing the history of the Thanksgiving tradition.

Bunting, Eve. (1988). How Many Days to America? New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Grades 1-3.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice



Author: Philip Hoose

Awards:  Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor
Robert F. Sibert Award Honor

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subject Area: History

Grade Level: Middle School

Themes: The importance of this book is to illustrate the hardships that African Americans had to suffer through because of their differences. They had many privileges taken away from them that we automatically hold today because the color of their skin was different.

Pre-Reading Strategies:

Questions: Class, from what you know using prior knowledge with this subject, and with the main character being African American in this book, how do you think she will be treated by the rest of the white community? How do you think she will respond to the harshness and unfair treatment by the community? Do you think she will respond at all? Will she respond violently like Malcolm X or will she respond in a peaceful manner, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?

Activity: Since this book is lengthy and a good read, the teacher will go over important vocabulary terms and important concepts before the book is being read. Important concepts such as: Jim Crow Laws, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, etc. will be introduced in detail and why it’s important to learn about before reading this book. The class will also brainstorm ideas of what the main character in the book will do and how she will handle the torment of being an African American during that time period.

Post-Reading Strategies: Post-reading questions

What famous African American can you compare Claudette Colvin to and why? How do you think Claudette Colvin’s act of bravery will influence African American history forever? Why do you think she was not subordinate like most of the other African Americans in moving to the back of the bus?

Assessment: After reading, the students will have an independent activity of what they would have done if they were put in Claudette Colvin’s shoes. They would write about how they would handle the situation and why they would handle it that way. This activity builds creativity and reflects their understanding of reading this challenging, but significant history novel.

Quick Summary: This story is about the civil rights era back in the early to mid 1940’s. African Americans were treated very unfairly and harshly because of the color of their skin. On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, named Claudette Colvin, was fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation. She angrily refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders.

Reflection: Excellent story in the point of view of an African American trying to survive during the Civil Rights Movement where African Americans were treated very poorly.

Hoose, Philip M. (2009). Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Grades 6-8.

All the World



Author: Liz Garton Scanlon

Award: Caldecott Honor Book

Genre: Poetry

Subject Area: Multicultural

Grade Level: First to Third

Theme: The book helps illustrate that every moment spent with friends and family should be savored and remembered. We tend to take some things for granted such as seeing family members and hanging with friends, but we should take every moment spent with these people very seriously.

Pre-Reading Strategies:

Questions:

 

What can you predict this book will be about?

 

Can the title give us a hint about what maybe will be the main idea of the story?

 

What do you notice about the cover of the story?

 

Do you notice that there is a strong bond between the two characters on the book cover?

Activity: Have the students make a list of what they do with their family and friends during the weekend. How do they spend their time with their loved family members during the weekends or after school? Record all the students’ answers on a white board. Make a chart and have the students categorize the activities that cost money and that don’t cost money. Which list is longer? Discuss with the students why some of the most fun activities are the activities that have no expenses involved.

Post-Reading Strategies:

Questions: What are the children building at the beach? What does the girl find? What things are made or grown at the farmer’s market? What experiences or lessons did you learn from reading the story that you did not know before?

Activity: After reading the story, the students will practice the skill of making and using a Venn diagram for compare and contrast reasons. I will draw a very large Venn diagram and have the general topic be the many differences and similarities between a farmer’s market and a supermarket. The students previously learned what a farmer’s market is from listening to the story and they already know what a supermarket is. Each student (if it’s a small class size) will come up to the white board and add either a difference or similarity between a supermarket and farmer’s market. This will help test their previous understanding of the short story All the World, as well as practice the skill of using a Venn diagram successfully.

Summary: As humans, we tend to be very busy every day and tend to miss the small and importance aspects of everyday life. This story is about a circle of family and friends who help show and understand the importance of all things, whether they are great or small. This story emphasizes that every moment is to be savored and is special. The story follows a family and group of friends from morning until dawn showing their daily routines and highlighting importance aspects of their lives that we would tend to miss as busy Americans today.

Assessment: Understanding a compare and contrast activity.

Reflection: This book is an excellent view of how since we are very busy with our daily lives, we miss the finer things in life. This story tries to highlight the small things that we miss.

Scanlon, Liz Garton. (2009). All the World. New York: Beach Lane Books. Grades 1-3.

Little Red Riding Hood



Author: James Marshall

Illustrator: James Marshall

Genre: Folklore

Subject Area: English Literature

Grade Level: Kindergarten to First

Pre-Reading Strategies: Discuss with the students a time when they disobeyed their parents at home. What was the consequence of this incident? How did their parents seem to resolve the incident? Tell the students that it is very important to obey your parents because they have made many mistakes in their lives and do not want to see their children make the same mistakes that they may have made.

Quick Summary: Mother always told Little Red Riding Hood not to talk to strangers. But when the mother had her daughter deliver some medicine to Granny, she was approached by a charming and intelligent wolf. She wolf intelligently followed Little Red Riding Hood to her Grandmother’s house. He forcefully ate both Little Red Riding Hood and the Grandmother. But having enormously pleased himself with such a good meal, he enjoyed a nice snooze. Then, a brave hunter jumped in the window and killed the sleeping wolf. He cut open the wolf’s belly and out came Little Red Riding Hood and the Grandmother. Little Red Riding Hood learned her lesson about never talking to strangers.

Post-Reading Strategies: After the reading, the students may want to act out the play while a few other students read the play aloud. This project will require communication amongst all members of the play, as well as the readers not reading too fast. While some of the students are reading the play aloud, the actors and actresses will act out the part being read silently. This will help the students build teamwork, work ethic, and retell them the story.

Assessment: Monitoring how well the students work together reading the story with a partner.

Reflection: This is an excellet story that can provide a life lesson about listening to your parents or caregiver.

Marshall, James. (1942). Little Red Riding Hood. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. Grades K-3.

The Three Pigs



Author: David Wiesner

Award: The Caldecott Medal

Genre: English Literature, Folklore

Grade Level: First Grade

Theme:

The three pigs try to build a house made out of different material so they wolf cannot blow their houses down. However, the wolf blows the first two houses down relatively easily. However, he fails to blow the third pig’s house down which was made of bricks.

Can students identify and describe what the houses were made of and why the final house was able to stay standing?

Pre-Reading Strategies: Discuss the importance of the different materials used in the book. Have the students observe and handle a piece of hay, a stick, and a brick. Ask them to visualize blowing a full house made of these three different materials. From partaking in this hands-on activity, the students should figure out which house would hold up the best.

Post-Reading Strategies: After the reading, the children in the class will try to retell the story from memory. This shows who really paid attention to the short story to the fullest. If the students cannot retell the story successfully, the story will be read in groups and the activity will begin all over again. This is an interesting activity because the Three Little Pigs is a very common story and also can be retold differently the second time around. The groups can also incorporate their own versions of this story. This helps build imagination and creative thinking.

Also, I could incorporate a Readers' Theatre activity since this story is very common and redundant.

Assessment: Sequencing of Events worksheet

Summary: This is a classic story retold by author David Wiesner. Three pigs are being tormented by a big, bad wolf who wants to eat them. The wolf blows the first two houses down because they are made of hay and sticks. However, the third pig learns from the past two pig’s mistakes and builds a house out of bricks. The wolf cannot blow the house of bricks down. The pig ended up tricking the wolf by putting a pot of hot water by the edge of the chimney. The wolf declared that he would jump down from the chimney to eat the little pig. Bur instead, he jumped into a pot of hot water. The third little pig enjoyed wolf stew and the wolf never was able to bother him again.

Reflection: This is an excellent retelling of the many tails of the Three Little Pigs. It is fascinating to hear the many versions of the story and how they cna change.

Wiesner, David. (2001). The Three Pigs. New York: Clarion Books. Grades K-2.

Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present



Author: Charlotte Zolotow

Illustrator: Maurice Sendak

Genre: Language Arts

Grade Level: First Grade

Award: Caldecott Honor Award

Pre-Reading Strategies: 
In what ways do you choose a present for a member of your family?

What is the importance of giving gifts to members of your family whom you love?

Do you think it is a good idea to ask someone who may know the family member better than you for help? If so, why do you think this?

Have the children discuss what presents they got for their parents. Have them discuss where and how they got that present, and who helped them. Discuss the importance of giving and receiving shifts and which one most people get pleasure out of doing more of. Talk about what type of present the little girl gives to her Mother in the story and why they think the Mother will receive that present.


Post-Reading Strategies: After the reading, students will then go over comprehension questions after the book was read to them. These comprehension questions are designed to make the young students develop analytical reading skills, as well as help them make future predictions in other stories. The questions will be designed to make the children think and make predictions. For example, if “Mr. Rabbit did not help the little girl find a present, what do you think would have happened?” These type of questions are very important in helping the reader find cause and effect relationships. This assignment will be very important in the development of more difficult reading tasks.

Assessment:

What was your favorite part of the short story? What did the little girl get her Mother for a present? Why was this present considered special? Why do you think Mr. Rabbit decided to help the little girl get a present for her Mother?

Reflection: I enjoyed this story. I think it is a great story to read before the holidays. The young children will learn the meaning of giving presents and that it is just as important as receiving them.

Zolotow, Charlotte. (1962). Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Grades K-2.