[MOSAIC] Race, Identity, Relationships and Literature

[Nancy Hagerty]

I would recommend the picture book, Freedom Summer" by Deborah Wiles. 
Although the review mwentions that it is for the 4-8 age group, I think
that is because of the subtle way the race issue is dealt with.  There
is SO much that can be used to discuss and defend.  Students will really
have to infer about characters based upon what the author does tell us
in order to support their thinking.

>From the Publisher

John Henry swims better than anyone I know.
He crawls like a catfish,
blows bubbles like a swamp monster,
but he doesn't swim in the town pool with me.
He's not allowed. 
Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like shooting marbles,
they both want to be firemen, and they both love to swim. But there's
one important way they're different: Joe is white and John Henry is
black, and in the South in 1964, that means John Henry isn't allowed to
do everything his best friend is. Then a law is passed that forbids
segregation and opens the town pool to everyone. Joe and John Henry are
so excited they race each other there...only to discover that it takes
more than a new law to change people's hearts. 


>From The Critics
Publishers Weekly
"Set in Mississippi during the summer of 1964, this affecting debut book
about two boys-one white, the other African-American-underscores the
bittersweet aftermath of the passage of the Civil Rights Act," wrote PW.
Ages 4-8. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. 
 
 
   


Nancy Hagerty
First Grade Y-3
Hardy Elementary
248-573-8650  ext. 3637
hagertyn at slcs.us
>>> ljackson at gwtc.net 12/03/06 7:40 AM >>>
I have three young teachers working with small groups of students in
grades
5 through 8.  Each works within a small school with multi-level
classrooms
and each school is isolated geographically from one another.  We are
designing an inquiry based literature unit which will use Blackboard
technology to facilitate lit groups across these classrooms.  The
question
we have posed as central to the unit is:

How does race inform identity and impact relationships?

We are beginning to brainstorm novels which could be used with this
study.
Here is what we have so far:

Iggy;s House
Maniac Magee
Edger Allen

Help!! In my former life, I was a first and second grade teacher.  Can
you
help us build this list?  I would love to include a book in which there
was
romance impacted by race, but it needs to be relatively tame.

Thank you all in advance!!
-- 
Lori Jackson
District Literacy Coach & Mentor
Todd County School District
Box 87
Mission SD  57555
 
http:www.tcsdk12.org
ph. 605.856.2211


Literacies for All Summer Institute
"Literate Lives:  A Human Right"
July 12-15, 2007
Louisville, Kentucky

http://www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/wlu



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