Civil War/Guerra Civil

Overview

This text set was inspired by a 4th grade African American girl in a two-way dual language program who wanted to learn about the Civil War, but is applicable to a wider context of students in about 4th to 5th grade with a variety of interests during a civil war unit of study. This text set encompasses "civil war" in a broader sense, with texts representing civil wars and social revolutions in different countries and contexts, as well as personal narratives and experiences related to war. The 12 texts in the set include a range of genres, modes, and complexities, and center around different topics and issues. Some of the areas of representation include different races and ethnicities, disability, LGBTQ+ topics, and different languages. There are 3 more challenging texts, 5 more accessible picture books, 3 multimodal texts, 1 graphic novel, 1 novel in verse, and 4 Spanish/translanguaging texts (2 en español, 2 translanguaging). The texts chosen were designed to be layered to support students' understanding (Muhammad, 2020), but educators may want to introduce some key concepts and historical events before and during reading for these texts, as well as activating students' prior knowledge and funds of knowledge, in order for students to achieve a deeper understanding.

Below are buttons for the list of the 12 texts, the display of Historically Responsive Literacy (HRL), and a text complexity analysis comparing two of the texts from the set.

References:

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic.