Representing History and Race in Picture Books

One of the eighth grade language arts teachers and I closely followed the stories and conversations about A Fine Dessert and A Birthday Cake for George Washington. Her students had already worked with case studies on controversial books, so this process wasn’t totally new to them; they’d also just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird, so they were primed to discuss race and history. Their discussions were fascinating. Continue reading “Representing History and Race in Picture Books”

Investigating Historical Fiction with Primary Sources

Grade level: 6th, but you could easily modify this to work with younger or older students

Background: Students were working on a historical fiction genre study. They’d just finished Breaking Stalin’s Nose as a class read-aloud, and had just broken into book groups. For this project, they worked within those groups and focused on the book they were reading. Continue reading “Investigating Historical Fiction with Primary Sources”