Slavery: Real People and Their Stories of Enslavement

Grant, R. G.. Slavery: real people and their 

stories of enslavement. New York: DK Pub., 2009.

By Reg Grant

Copyright:  2009

Publisher:  DK Publishing

Reading Level:

• Grade level:  6

Genre:  Historical nonfiction

Description:  Slavery, Struggles, Mistreatment, Cruelty, The Underground Railroad, Abolition

Suggested Delivery:  Read-aloud to whole class

Summary:  This book describes slavery in great detail from the beginning of this act, to the abolition of slavery, and then its aftermath.  While the books main focus is African American enslavement, it also describes slavery in its earlier existence in the Middle East, East Asia, and America.  While the topic of slavery is distressing, there are many accounts of heroes that helped to abolish acts of slavery and bring hope to a better future for these people.

Electronic Resources:

• Slavery and the Making of America:  this website is a K-12 Learning site that is organized by the different themes of slavery, such as living conditions, legal rights, religion, family, etc.  It also provides lists of books on slavery for students to explore.  There is also a section titled Slave Memories where students can click on a slave's picture and hear their story and first-hand accounts about slavery.

Key Vocabulary: deprived, fraught, reimpose, refugees, lucrative, insurrection, deprecate, indignities, concede, indentured, alienate, injustice, propaganda, Klu Klux Klan, Atlantic Slave Trade, Middle Passage, Emancipation

Teaching suggestions:

• Use this book during a Social Studies unit on slavery.
• Use to depict the treatment of slaves all over the world.
• Use to explain the aftermath of slavery, when America began Reconstruction.
• Introduce the 13th, 14th, & 15th amendment of the Constitution.

Comprehension Strategies:

• Before Reading:  
• Provide students with a list of complex terms from the book and their definitions.  Students must have an understanding of the important vocabulary in order to make sense of this time period.
• Have students create a KWL chart, filling out what they already know about slavery and what they are hoping to learn more about.

• During Reading:
• The information in this book can be overwhelming and difficult to comprehend being that it is such a complicated topic.  Have the students fill out a timeline worksheet that will help them better organize this information, listing the important events in history in sequential order as they listen to each chapter being read.

• After Reading:  
• Students will pick a concept or event from the book that they would like to research further; for example, The Atlantic Slave Trade.  They will use additional resources to find out more information and will make a bulleted list of these important details on their topic.

Writing Activity:

Frederick Douglass

Students will choose any significant individual from the book that was involved in slavery and research about this person's life (ex. Henry "Box" Brown, John Wilkes Booth, Frederick Douglass, etc.).  They will then write detailed biographies depicting this famous person's life that played an important role in ending slavery.  Information will include personality traits, family life, struggles and cruelty they faced, measures they took to stop this mistreatment of African Americans, and their accomplishments through it all.  Students will present their famous individuals to the rest of the class for everyone to learn about.

Mural On Second Avenue

Moore, Lilian, and Roma Karas. Mural on 
Second Avenue, and other city poems. 
Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2005. 


By Lilian Moore

Illustrated by Roma Karas

Copyright:  2005

Publisher:  Candlewick Press

Reading Level:

• Grade level:  3

Genre:  Poetry

Description:  Culture and Diversity, Geography

Suggested Delivery:  Read-aloud to whole class

Summary:  The poet, Lillian Moore, writes poems about city life and the great outdoors through a child's perspective.  The vibrant illustrations throughout this book help to bring each poem to life.

Electronic Resources:

• Teacher's Guide to Poetry:  this website provides dozens of links to different lesson activities on how to teach poetry to children based on themes and structures.
• The Children's Poetry Archive:  includes poems of all different genres and poetic forms for children to explore, as well as a Q & A section for the poets explaining where their ideas come from and why they enjoy writing poetry.

Key Vocabulary: growls, punctuates, plunging, phantom, forsythia, laundered, spews, seldom

Teaching suggestions:

• Use this book to introduce poetry.
• Demonstrate important fluency components when reading this book, such as prosody and rate that are essential to conveying the poems' meanings.

Comprehension Strategies:

• Before Reading:  
• Begin with a discussion on poetry and why people might choose to write poems rather than whole stories.  Get the students thinking about how poems are written and the idea of expressing feelings through this unique type of writing.

• During Reading:
• Discuss how the vivid illustrations bring each poem to life.
• Discuss how the structure of the poems play a very significant role to the poem's meaning.  For example, some poems contain lines with only one word on it.  Explain why the poet might have chosen to write it this way.

• After Reading:  
• Discuss the structures that the poems had; for example, some had rhyme schemes while others did not.  Ask the students if they think that rhyming is more affective in a poem, or if poems without this aspect are just as interesting to read.
• Have the students choose a specific poem to analyze the meaning of.  Instruct them to write a summary (a few sentences) describing what the poem is saying in their own words.

Writing Activity:

Students will create their own poems that describe their town or surroundings, similar to the theme of the book.  These poems must be a minimum of seven lines and can follow any pattern or structure they choose.  Students will include a drawing to represent their poems and will share their finished pieces with the rest of the class.

31 Ways to Change the World

Taylor, Tanis. 31 ways to change the world: 

we are what we do. Somerville, Mass.: 

Candlewick Press, 2010.

By We Are What We Do

Copyright:  2010

Publisher:  Candlewick Press

Reading Level:

• Lexile:  610L

• Grade level:  3-5

Genre:  Nonfiction

Description:  Making a difference, Global impact, Conservation, Recycling, Consequences

Suggested Delivery:  Read-aloud

Summary:  This book teaches children the importance of making a difference in the world, and the idea that everyone can do just the smallest things to make this world a better place.  Taking positive action includes conserving energy, recycling, helping others, and helping the environment.

Electronic Resources:   

• We Are What We Do website:  based on a non-profit organization or "behavior change company" that creates ways for everyone in the world to do small things and together produce big changes.

Key Vocabulary: solicitations, mission, junk mail, environmental, seedlings, 

Teaching suggestions:

• Use this book on Earth Day, or when discussing the environment.
• Use this book to encourage positive behavior and helping others.
• Stress the importance of doing something little everyday and that even children like them can help make an impact in the world.

Comprehension Strategies:

• Before Reading:
• Have the students imagine a world free from waste, ridicule, sadness, etc.  Explain that, although the world will never be a perfect place, there are many important steps individuals can take in improving the lives we live.
• Challenge the students to carry out any of the actions they hear about in the book that sound interesting to them and provide them with a journal to write them in. 

• During Reading:  
• Have the students make a list of things they could do as they are listening to the book.

• After Reading:  
• Students will be given a chance to perform these activities, acts of kindness, etc. at school, at home, or in their communities.  They will write about the outcomes in their journals.  They will also share their experiences with their classmates.
• Have students brainstorm additional ways they could help change the world that they did not read about.

Writing Activity:

Have the students write persuasive letters to members of their school urging everyone to take action and do small things everyday to help better the school and the world.  They will give specific examples from the book to support their letters and explain how these actions could have incredible impacts if everyone took part.  These letters will be displayed in the hallway for classmates and faculty members to read.

My One Hundred Adventures

Horvath, Polly. My one hundred adventures. 

New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2008.

By Polly Horvath

Copyright:  2008

Publisher:  Schwartz & Wade Books

Reading Level:

• Lexile:  810L

• Grade level:  5

Genre:  Fiction

Description:  Adventure, Growing up, Family, New experiences, Social situations

Suggested Delivery:  Independent reading

Summary:  Jane is a 12-year-old girl who is ready to grow up and be daring, rather than staying a kid and being forced to make jam with her grandmother or build sandcastles on the beach during the summer.  She is no longer content with these predictable summer days.  Jane is determined to make this summer an interesting one, ready for any adventures that may come her way.  These very out of the ordinary adventures that Jane experiences end up teaching her many important things about herself, while she makes this summer one she will never forget.

Electronic Resources:

• Author's Website:  gives in-depth descriptions and reviews on each of Polly Horvath's books, the awards she has won over the years, specific information about the author, and even photos representing her life.

Key Vocabulary: mystical, dilating, antiquing, conscious, heron, lagoon, disdainfully, eulogies

Teaching suggestions:

• Use this book to get students excited about reading.
• Use this book to encourage children to take risks (within reason) and discover all that life has to offer.

Comprehension Strategies:

• Before Reading:  
• Ask the students if they have ever felt that they are ready to grow up and become independent adolescents with more opportunities for adventures and self-discovery.
• Have the students brainstorm a list of activities or adventures they have always wanted to experience, but have not yet gotten the chance to.

• During Reading:
• Provide students with a graphic organizer to make note of any sensory detail they come across as they read.
• Students will write brief summaries of at least 4 adventures they read about.

• After Reading:  
• Have students share what adventure(s) seemed the most exciting or memorable for Jane.
• Discuss some significant quotes from the text; ask for students' feedback:
•  "The library in summer is the most wonderful thing because there you get books on any subject and read them each for only as long as they hold your interest, abandoning any that don't, halfway or a quarter of the way through if you like, and store up all that knowledge in the happy corners of your mind for your own self and not to show off how much you know or spit it back at your teacher on a test paper."
• “She had another sort of day and will never know ours. Suddenly I realized that everyone in the whole world is, at the end of the day, staring at a dusky horizon, owner of a day that no one else will ever know.”

Writing Activity:

Students will think of an adventure they hope to take as they grow older; for example, traveling to different places in the world, going skydiving, hiking up a large mountain, etc.  They will imagine that they are in the midst of this exciting adventure, writing first-person accounts of what is happening, using sensory details and vivid imagery.  They will share these adventure pieces with the rest of the class upon completion.

Turtle in Paradise

Holm, Jennifer L.. Turtle in paradise. 
New York: Random House, 2010. 


By Jennifer L. Holm

Copyright:  2010

Publisher:  Random House Children's Books

Reading Level:

• Lexile:  610L

• Grade level:  3

Genre:  Historical fiction

Description:  Changes, New experiences, Challenges, Moving, Adventure

Suggested Delivery:  

• Read as an introduction to a unit on The Great Depression.

Summary:  Turtle is an 11-year-old growing up during the 1930s, and she is very much aware of the scarcity of jobs and money of the time.  When her mother gets a job as a housekeeper, Turtle is forced to move to Key West, Florida to live with relatives she has never met before.  This new place is certainly not what Turtle expected; a hot, strange new home.  But it turns out to be exactly what she needs to break free of the shell she has been hiding under her whole life and to discover so much more that life has to offer.

Electronic Resources:

• The Great Depression: this website gives detailed information about this period in history, as well as articles, links to the different people and groups representing this time period and numerous different educational films for students to view.

Key Vocabulary:  muffling, furtively, outhouse, bustling, staggers, skulking, brunt, rheumatic, scrounging, forlorn

Teaching suggestions:  Independent reading in small groups

Comprehension Strategies:

• Before Reading:  
• Discuss the time period of the book and what it was like for people during The Great Depression.  Give students a clear understanding of the struggles that families faced, causing them to give up many things in life and live with barely enough necessities to get by.  This will help to set the scene for the book.
• Have the students generate a list of words describing how they would feel if they had to leave their parent(s) and move to a new place filled with strangers.  Discuss these adjectives they came up with as a whole class.

• During Reading:
• The author uses many similes and metaphors in her writing.  Have students write down these figures of speech as they discover them in the text and explain their meanings.

• After Reading:  
• Discuss why Turtle dislikes the well-known character, Shirley Temple, so much.
• Discuss why Turtle sees the world so differently from the way her mother does.

Writing Activity:

Pretend you are Aunt Minnie.  Create a journal entry that she may have written before having Turtle come stay with them, anticipating what it would be like to have this young girl stay in their house while using Aunt Minnie's point of view.  Write another entry explaining what effect Turtle has had on their family and how it has changed things.

One Crazy Summer

Garcia, R. (2010). One crazy summer. 

New York: Amistad.

By Rita Williams-Garcia

Copyright:  2010

Publisher:  Amistad

Reading Level:

• Lexile:  750L

• Grade level:  4

Genre:  Historical fiction, Realistic fiction

Description:  Diversity, 1960s, African Americans, Civil Rights, Family and Social structures

Suggested Delivery:  Independent reading or Small-group

Summary:  Delphine is an 11-year-old living whose mother has abandoned her and her two younger sisters, forcing her to take on the motherly role as she lives with her father and grandmother in Brooklyn, New York.  But one summer in 1968, her father believes that it would be best for the Delphine and her sisters to take a trip to see their mother, so he flies them to Oakland, California.  They quickly learn that their mother is a cold, unloving woman when she wants nothing to do with her daughters, and sends them to a camp run by the Blank Panthers.  Being that the civil rights movement is taking place, Delphine finds her and her sisters being treated much differently in Oakland than back at home, causing her to grow up even more and understand racial pride of this time.

Electronic Resources:

• Civil Rights Movement:  this website provides background information, key facts, articles, and even classroom study guides for teachers to use.

Key Vocabulary: infiltrate, slung, giddy, doggedy, revolution, Black Panthers, baffled

Teaching suggestions:

• Use this book when discussing the Civil Rights Movement.

Comprehension Strategies:

• Before Reading:
• Discuss important aspects of the Civil Rights Movement, and specifically the Black Panthers group that appears in this book.  Students should understand what life was like for African Americans during the 1960s.  Make sure students have adequate prior knowledge before opening the book.

• During Reading: 
• Students will be provided with a graphic organizer, where they will make note of different qualities that describe the main characters in the book, using specific evidence form the text as they read.  For example, they might be asked to find examples of how Delphine is a motherly figure to her sisters.
• Ask students to find examples of prejudice against African Americans as they read.

• After Reading:  
• Have a discussion about Cecile and whether or not the students believe she was a good mother.
• Discuss the theme of identity in the book and how specific events caused Delphine to transform as a person.

Writing Activity:

After learning how Delphine researches the meaning of her name to find the significance of it, students will explore the history of their own name.  This is an exciting activity for students to learn about the origins of their name and how it is unique to them.  They will write a few paragraphs explaining what meanings they found and how they feel about these meanings of their names.  Students will take turns sharing some of these with the class.