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Maine Samplers Part 1 Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis |
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Delacorte Press, 1995 SUMMARY: Peopled with a loving mother and father, three perceptive children, and a vivid community culture, this book shows an ordinary family's laughter, love and travails in Flint, Michigan. Ten-year-old Kenny Watson tells the story but his 13-year-old brother and six -year-old sister are also unforgettable characters. The title will alert the older reader that the trip South (which takes place toward the end of the book) is really the focal point. Curtis sets familial love and stability as a foil to the devastating event in Birmingham of 1963. HONORS:
LEVEL: Grades 5-7 THEMES: family life and civil rights "Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it." -- Santayana The climax of The Watsons is based on an actual event; four girls were killed in 1963 when a bomb was thrown into a Southern black church. (The novel's dedication personalizes the tragedy by giving us their names.) Curtis briefly explains the civil rights movement of the sixties in the epilogue and he concludes with a commentary on "bravery." Episodes such as this are not simply stagnant relics of dusty text books. Especially during 1996 (and to a lesser extent in the past few years) the news has been plastered with the burning of black churches. The struggle against xenophobic crimes continues. Activity Section will provide some discussion points about the issues that the The Watsons raise. You, as the adult guide, will need to be thinking about how to utilize the URLs listed within each section. You might
In addition to the exploration of the social issues, these activities provide practice with Internet search strategies for students:
Note: This guide is not intended to be a step-by-step, day-by-day lesson plan. Instead it lays out numerous avenues to explore, depending on the interests and abilities of the students and the educators. You may wish to rearrange the order of activities. It is not likely that a class will sustain interest for ALL these potential actitivities so select just a few on which to focus. The actual time allocation would vary and could be negotiated between teacher, library media specialist and students. At a minimum this unit would take two weeks and would need access to the school library and an Internet capable computer in the classroom. (A computer lab would be helpful for many activities but not essential if the classroom management has been developed to effectively use the computer in the room.) Activity: Publish Book Review After the book has been read and discussed (perhaps using literature circles) students will coalesce their thoughts and opinions in a book review to be published either in the school newspaper or on the school web page. Writing for a real audience is often a powerful motivator. - Students write a draft of their book review. - Students collect at least three book reviews on-line or off-line (see sample URLs below). - Individually they should prepare for discussion by reading the reviews and highlighting specific phrases or sentences that help to make it a good or a bad commentary. - In small groups (4 or 5), students should make a short list of the qualities of a good review. (Teacher insight and input is encouraged, of course. For instance, if the students don't mention backing up claims with details and page numbers from the book, the educators should prompt it. Demonstrate how to identify the author's purpose and point of view.) - Students then revise their drafts taking into consideration their new insights into the characteristics of a quality review. The first review of the year may be about a book that everyone reads, thereby creating a model and a problem. The problem is that too many reviews on the same book aren't "marketable." It might be feasible to connect all of them on a web page because the reader is free to select as few or many as they wish to see. But it is not likely that a school newspaper will print all of them. The class could decide on a process which gets published first with the intent that during the entire year, everyone has a chance to get "in print." It may be as the year progresses that a wide variety of book reviews will be written and published. If students maintain portfolios, these reviews could be included. Suggested URL "pump-primers" reviews for The Watsons:
Maine Learning Results (MLR) Standards: Language Arts
About the Author: The natural plot and the realistic dialogue in The Watsons flow so smoothly that you might think that it's a real journal. Readers may wonder how much material Curtis used from his own life. But where can you find out about this relatively new author? On the World Wide Web, of course! Look for information about the author in order to discover how much Christopher Paul Curtis based the book on his own life. Activity: Author Resource Bank This project could be as short as a researching a single author or it could be extended to a full year, on-going activity with students adding authors as they are "discovered." Start early in the school year with a whole class book as a model. The product of this research may be as simple as an index card box or as sophisticated as a hypermedia stack (HyperCard or HyperStudio) or web page depending on the resources of the school. It would be best if all students used the same format. - As a whole class identify some questions they have about the author and his relation to the book. - Work with your school library media specialist to determine what resources your students should know how to use. What other research skills should students be able to do? (For instance can they use a cumulative index?) - Individually or in groups of two, students research an author they have read and chosen. Besides using the Internet there are numerous resources available in most school libraries. Something About the Author (Gale Publications) is one of the best. Although, as of early 2000, Curtis is not yet listed. - Using the questions generated and based on the data they have found, the class should develop a set of criteria by which the content will be evaluated. When students develop such criteria,they have much more ownership towards meeting expectations. - Each student makes a series of index cards, stack or web page using this information. One focus could be to highlight elements in the authors' lives that have influenced their writing. (For instance, the sulfur matches or the mirror incidents in The Watsons.) - During the draft stage, expect students to read and evaluate at least two other students' work. At the conclusion of the project, combine the cards or stacks to form a class reference work. Give to the library for use in future research projects or place on the school's web pages. Suggested URL "pump-primer" for Christopher Paul Curtis:
Maine Learning Results (MLR) Standards: Language Arts
The web below suggests a way of viewing a large unit. By using such semantic mapping techniques such as webbing, the student is more likely to understand the relationships among them.
The class or group will construct their own web on chart paper. Students sign up to research the topics or subject areas of their interests. Additional bubbles and arms of the web should be added as they are developed. Research results may also be added to the webs or recorded on classroom charts. Be sure to include citations on each chunk of information. This information will serve as background throughout the unit. A variety of discussion topics will be suggested.
Make a timeline of the church arson for the classroom wall. Include location, date and brief specifics. Color code pins in a U.S. map. Discuss what patterns can be seen and what may have caused them. Add bubbles on a different color paper or ink to indicate how our lives are affected by these historical events. Suggested URL's below. Maine Learning Results (MLR) Standards: Social Studies and Language Arts
Not just a Southern Problem & It's Nothing New!
- The 1996 rash of church burnings is not a recent phenomena, nor even a 1990s event. A Brown University historian, John Saillant, says that burning of black churches can be traced back to racial incidents in the 18th and 19th centuries. Find out what happened to Connecticut teacher Prudence Crandall when she enrolled a black girl in her private school during the early 1830s.
- An interesting - scary corollary question arises: How trustworthy are the government statistics? An ordinary reader of one news group suggests taking a closer look. The following post continues for pages and was written by D. Henry Williams Philadelphia, PA - 07/15/96 15:55:24 EDT
Personal Reactions to the church burnings: The most powerful learning experiences come when something touches us personally. We hope that our students never experience hate crimes as either a victim or perpetrator. But to teach tolerance we help them empathize with another person's experience.
Other quotations can be found at this site which is copyrighted by the Lexington-Herald Leader:
It is clear that the hate crimes are not limited to racism. Recent news has carried stories about the destruction of three synagogues (7/99) Check these sites for personal reactions here also.
Activity: Compare / Contrast Media Chart The benefits /drawbacks of the ease with which news can be published on the net. Compare news on the net with periodicals such as the Newsweek article June 24, 1996. "Who's Bombing the Black Churches." Keep a running list on the class or library wall throughout this unit that show the differences found in these two mediums. Talk about this often with them. This is a crucial skill to develop if students are to gain insightful ways of mining the net. One of the most powerful attributes of the Internet is that it provides a forum for multiple points of view. Follow up throughout the year with other current news stories. (The stark contrast in media coverage during the Balkan Wars is a case in point.) Activity: Debate (older students) One question your class might wish to consider is the intent behind some of the poignant quotes; is this news or pathos or is it sensationalism? What might be a dividing line between journalistic sensationalism and the concept that the most effective education comes through the affective domain (i.e. a person learns best if there is emotional involvement)? PRO: Many of the URLs eloquently show how people are moved to action after learning of the dreadful injustices of church burnings and the subsequent cancellation of insurance policies! This group of students might also interview local activists or even class members to discover the most motivational points in their lives. CON: Students might collect examples of how the media plays with its readers' emotions. (e.g. the tragic faces of relatives who lost someone in airplane disasters; or the small Vietnamese girl running crying through her streets 30 years ago.) How much privacy (in grief) is the "average citizen allowed?" Another argument might dwell on how news viewers become inured to tragedy and injustice if they see it night after night. Statistics on how well specific issues of periodicals sell if they feature sensationalist news may add a supporting point here. Maine Learning Results (MLR) Standards: Social Studies
Authority/BiasTo have something published in hard copy, an author or group must jump through an elaborate series of hoops, many of which serve as selectivity tools to weed out frivolous matters or to make it difficult for disseminating non-mainstream view points. The same is not true on the Internet; anyone with a little knowledge and computer access can publish on the web. This strongly supports free speech and multiple voices but it compounds the necessity of learning to evaluate the authority or bias of Internet sites.
Activity: Explore and Discuss and Evaluate Sites for Authority and Bias. Before starting this activity, the students should be fairly knowledgeable about the historical aspects of church arson. The library media specialist or teacher should select an evaluation tool (see below for suggested URLs)
- In pairs, the students will visit at least one of the sites in this section and respond to the evaluation tool selected by the educator. The following sites relating to church arson provide some interesting material to examine. Because a page contains bias doesn't mean it should be ignored. Our students need to be able to identify predominant points of view. The educator may wish to use this as a model before students begin.
Maine Learning Results (MLR) Standards: Social Studies
Activity: Class Discussion: What is the responsibility of the media in reporting this type of crime? At the site below, your students will read an opinion concerning a worry that news stories only serve to fuel the fires - literally. The suggestion here is that ordinary people, of course, know that burning buildings is wrong but news stories about arson only serve to incite "the pathological fringe" rather than deter them.
The following site houses an open community discussion around important issues: this week's question was "Has media coverage of Black church arson promoted a copycat effect or is the increase due to a larger conspiracy?" Read here comments from a firefighter, calls for unity, and a suggestion that it may be a conspiracy originating from the Nation of Islam to ignite the African American population. What's being done? News Service National & International Religion Report 1996-MAY-27 reports that a House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on May 21 concerning the rash of church burnings in the United States. (25 arson attacks in 1996 alone and the National Council of Churches set the blame squarely on "white hate groups". ) The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have 100 agents in each division studying the crimes. Some of these sites are dated but they contain caring action and interesting solutions. They may be inspirational to your students:
Many of the pages listed here are positive and upbeat. But of course that is only one side. Workers World (under the title: 50,000 March for affirmative Action) report that pastors are being made to feel like criminals by the investigating agents and that the government is taking little action. On a CNN news report (June 11) Rev. Mac Charles Jones of the National Council of Churches calls for blacks to defend themselves and their churches by any means needed. This page also points seriously (with only suggested evidence) at a conspiracy theory not only by the Klan but also suggest real estate and political campaign manipulations.
My research also pulled up a company called the "Burning Churches Enterprises for the Morally Challenged." From here a net user could order a t-shirt with "I sin for a living " on the front and its logo of a burning church on the back. Will this page be considered "cool" by your students or will they express outrage? It may provide a fine example of free speech expression. What age students might you use it with in a discussion about anti-social actions? An angle that comparative religion students might pursue is that the black church burnings are one of the symbols that the New World Order is coming. Compare this viewpoint with the historical ones under the section "Nothing New?"
USA Today enjoys a wide reputation for presenting statistics. Use the tables on their site below to graph the amount of insurance coverage that could be applied to these damaged churches. Categorize the suspects and graph them. Check this page often for changes and updates. Track and chart arrests and convictions. The Center for Democratic Renewal suggests that there are complicating issues. One example they give relates the experience of the burning of the Jerusalem Branch Baptist Church in Aiken, South Carolina (June 6, 1994). The fire department listed the cause as electrical yet the insurance company's investigation turned up arson. To date the federal government has not initiated a serious look at it. Perhaps the research hook for some students might be the page about NFL players donating money to torched black churches. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story about the Green Bay Packers' attempt to raise millions of dollars for rebuilding churches. Unfortunately to read the article you need to subscribe to the newspaper. Interlibrary loan suggests an option for the librarian and the interested student. They may wish to search local papers near the same publication date. (Who says librarians aren't needed if the school has the internet!) http://www.nando.net/newsroom/sports/fbo/1996/nfl/nfl/feat/archive/070396/nfl52243.html - At the site below, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) office provides an excellent list for churches to use while assessing church vulnerability to arson and bombing attacks. A profile of the most hit churches as well as a set of Affirmative Actions to Reduce Vulnerability are given here. Activity: Editorial Students write a letter (individually or in groups) to their local newspaper discussing what they've been reading and suggesting a possible course of action. Activity: Optional activity: Relate any of these on-line news stories to Paul Simon's song, Burn Down the Mission. Using the same tune, write different words Related site:
With a little massage, these MLR might be addressed also in this unit. Maine Learning Results (MLR) Standards: Social Studies and Language Arts
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