Brown Girl Dreaming
"A moment when you walk into a room and
no one there is like you."
Embedded Files
Michele PeabodyCultural Text Set AssignmentFall 2018Dr. HarlanSJSU
Annotation
Annotation
Family, friendship, loss, segregation, religion, hope. The beginning of this story written only in free verse is the truly the beginning. The author submerges us into Jacqueline's (the author; Woodson) life from infant through childhood during the 1960's and 1970's. The reader can not help but become Jacqueline, each line uniquely written so one believes they are seeing, hearing, and feeling Jacqueline's thoughts, and dreams. Her story is her families story. Family that is anchored in South Carolina and a mother who forges a place in New York bringing friendship, birth, death, incarceration, and more palpable discrimination for herself and her children. You will want only justice for Jackie and her family as you fall in love with a girl who just wants to find her place in a complicated world, more than most because of the extra complications that come with her race and gender.
Audience
Audience
Target audience is fifth grade reading group. Students are advanced readers, reading between fifth to tenth grade level.
This text set is applicable for below, at, and above fifth reading level. It includes auditory support with each supporting text. The anchor text is also available in auditory. (see resources)
People of color must struggle daily in ways others take for granted. Throughout history they have used poetry and song for a voice to be heard.
Essential Question
Essential Question
Does the use of poetry influence the audiences understanding of the authors message?
What are some different formats of poetry? Do they differ depending on the message?
Complexity
Complexity
According to the Good Reads web site’s Informational Text Complexity Measures the National Governors Association for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers (nd) it is assignable grades four through ten. Within the grade band 4-5 it is an ATOS reading level of 5.3 and reading maturity of 5.42-7.92. It is very complex in purpose, conventionality, subject matter knowledge and cultural knowledge.
Justification and Potential Uses
Justification and Potential Uses
As a stand-alone Brown Girl Dreaming lends itself to supporting almost all reading, speaking, and written Common Core Standards. It carries the themes of family, friendship, religion, death, identity, segregation, and civil rights. Individual poems (chapters) can be selected to emphasis one particular theme at a time. A teacher may choose to highlight specific poems for the purpose of theme or subject matter. For example the poems, Faith, Flag, Two Gods. Two worlds, Another Kingdom Hall, Because We’re Witnesses, and more, are reflections on her roles, responsibilities, connection to, and her internal conflicts as a Jehovah’s Witness. Conversations with Jackie’s uncle In the poem Promise Land intersect incarceration and religion that ignites a new curiosity for Jackie and the reader about the subjects. The poems are opportunities for conversations and perhaps further research.
As a text set they work together as a study of poetry format and poetry as a message for change and activism. The set contains African American authors, song writers, poets, and activist. Teachers may use the set to analyze and compare and contrast messages. This text also lends itself to research and a discussion on activism. Why do activist choose poetry as their device to reach others? What is the advantage? They may also use it as a spring board for biography. Biography research could include learning more about the individuals in the set and other famous African American. Another opportunity is research on local community needs including undercovering any cultural connections that have created were/are instrumental in causing the community's needs and, perhaps, become involved. A poetry journal alongside the text for students are avenues to mimicking the style and format of the works as well as notes for discussions. The text set incorporates mature cultural rich ideas that will challenge student thinking. Their curiosity should be cultivated for student interest learning. The ideas students bring to the conversation, if nurtured, could lead to self directed and project based learning that Model Library Standards and California Common Core Standards could support.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Map
Poem
Still I Rise
Interviews
Ted Talk
Music
Resources
Awards
Awards
Retrieved from TeachingBooks.net. https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=39186#RelatedBooklists
Coretta Scott King Book Awards, 1970-2018 (Author Winner, 2015)
John Newbery Medal, 1922-2018 (Honor, 2015)
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, 2001-2018 (Honor, 2015)
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, 1967-2018 (Honor, 2015)
ALSC Notable Books, 1995-2018 (Commended, 2015)
National Book Award for Young People's Literature, 1996-2018 (Winner, 2014)
Model Library Standards
2.2
Assess the comprehensiveness, currency, credibility, authority, and accuracy of resources:
a. Describe how media resources serve as sources of information, entertainment, persuasion, interpretation of events, and transmission of culture.
b. Identify and assess evidence that supports the main ideas and concepts presented in texts.
L.6.1e. Recognize variations from standard English in their own and others’ writing and speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language.
L.6.3a. Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.***
L.6.3b. Maintain consistency in style and tone.
Grade 5 Reading Standards
2. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes. (See grade 5 Language standards 4–6 for additional expectations.) CA
5. Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
6. Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
7. Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
Reading Standards for Informational Text
3. Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
4. Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area. (See grade 5 Language standards 4–6 for additional expectations.) CA
5. Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.
Reading Foundational Skills
4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
a. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
b. Read on-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
References
Woodson, J. (2018) Brown Girl Dreaming, TeachingBooks.net. retrieved from https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=39186#RelatedBooklists
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