Posts tagged ‘protests’
136. Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez
Retell: This is the biography of Cesar Chavez, the leader of the National Farm Workers Association who worked to organize farm workers to rally together and fight for better pay and working conditions.
Topics: family, Cesar Chavez, conflict, drought, California, farming, Spanish, migrant workers, unions, La Causa, strikes, protests, boycotts, farm workers
Units of Study: Nonfiction, Social Issues
Tribes: personal best, mutual respect, appreciations/no put-downs
Habits of Mind: persisting
Reading Skills: inference, interpretation, determining importance, synthesis, empathy
My Thoughts: Back when I taught in California this was required reading–in the Bay Area Cesar Chavez’s birthday is a school holiday. This book could fit into different types of text sets. For example, you could include this book when teaching a unit on the labor unit. You could also choose to read this book as a companion text to Esperanza Rising.
121. Vote! by Eileen Christelow
Retell: This book combines narrative and non-narrative text to describe how and why people vote.
Topics: voting, majority, mayors, elections, democracy, voting age, protests, marches, political parties, media, campaigns, taxes
Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content-Area
Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, determining importance, synthesis, making connections
My Thoughts: Tomorrow is election day. My students have the day off and they have no idea why. Unlike last year’s election day, the buzz around tomorrow’s election is quiet. Nevertheless, days off from school can be good teaching moments and a great time to tuck in a read aloud. Vote provides a nice, kid-friendly introduction to the world of voting. The text in the white space explains how voting works. Within the illustrations, speech and thought bubbles support a narrative thread: Chris Smith is running against Bill Brown for mayor and Smith’s family (including the family dog) all participate in the campaign. You may choose to read all of the non-narrative text and then pick and choose which speech bubbles are the most important to highlight.
If you choose to read this book (or others about voting) please add your comments in the space below.
30. A Young People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Retell: Like the title suggests, this is a young people’s version of his famous book, A People’s History of the United States. Together with Rebecca Stefoff, Zinn manages to tell a version of history that attempts to include the perspectives of groups that are usually left out (women, people of color, Native people, children, etc.)
Topics: United States, history, exploration, racism, slavery, colonialism, rights, justice, revolution, war, emancipation, industrialization, immigration, empire, protests, terrorism, resistance, freedom of speech
Units of Study: Content Area, Nonfiction, Social Issues, Personal Essay, Historical Fiction
Tribes: mutual respect, personal best
Reading Skills: questioning, synthesis, prediction, determining importance, inference, interpretation
Writing Skills: using evidence to support a thesis or main idea, inserting anecdotes and quotations
My Thoughts: I was so thrilled to find this book on the shelves. I read A People’s History of the United States several years ago and often reread sections before embarking on Social Studies units. Though I thought this book was going to present a child’s perspective of historical events, Zinn does manage to tuck in a few stories of young people working to make a difference. For example, he includes the story about how children started the first milll strike in Paterson, New Jersey. I intend to read aloud exerpts from this book to support and/or challenge what they may be reading in their own nonfiction texts. This book is also available in two volumes. Volume I covers Columbus to the Spanish-American War. Volume II covers World War I to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Teachable Texts 