Plan Your African American Read-in
Join over a million readers in the Seventeenth National African American Read-In on Sunday, February 5 and Monday, February 6. These resources can get you started and provide resources as your students read and explore the works of these African American writers.
- "Jacqueline Woodson: Real Characters, Real Voices" (E-M-S), from Language Arts, explores the people and experiences that influence writing of Jacqueline Woodson.*
- Christopher Paul Curtis' The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963 is the focus of the ReadWriteThink lesson plan Graphing Plot and Character in a Novel (E), which invites students to graph the journey of the family while exploring the plot and character development in the novel.
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- Walter Dean Myers takes us through what he calls his "adventure with language" in his article "And Then I Read . . ." (M-S), from Voices from the Middle.*
- Nikki Giovanni's poetry is the focus of Childhood Remembrances: Life and Art Intersect in Nikki Giovanni’s “Nikki-Rosa” (M-S-C) , from ReadWriteThink.* The lesson is based on an activity described in the NCTE title Nikki Giovanni in the Classroom: "the same ol' danger but a brand new pleasure" (S) by Carol Jago.
- Nikki Grimes stresses the power of poetry in her article "The Common Denominator" (E-M-S), from English Journal.*
- Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God provides the resources for Style: Defining and Exploring an Author’s Stylistic Choices (S-C), from ReadWriteThink.
- "Charles Johnson's Middle Passage as Historiographic Metafiction" (C), from College English, outlines techniques for using Johnson's postmodern novel in the literature studies.
- Alice Walker, bell hooks, and Nikki Giovanni*--all are explored in "Becoming a Writerly Self: College Writers Engaging Black Feminist Essays" (C), from College Composition and Communication, which asserts that personal essays by black feminist writers can be used to teach writers how to connect their personal and social identities.
For more ideas, see the ReadWriteThink Calendar entry for the African American Read-in, which includes more lesson plans, classroom activities, and online resources.
Honoring Coretta Scott King
Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King has left behind a legacy supporting children's and young adult literacy through the Coretta Scott King Book Award, which honors African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults.
As part of your African American Read-in, feature books that have won this prestigious book award. All of the authors marked by an asterisk (*) in the list above have written books that were awarded a Coretta Scott King Book Award. A complete list of winners is available on the Awards site.
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