Title: Brown Girl Dreaming
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Publisher: Penguin Group
Copyright: 2014
Grade Level Equivalent: 8.4
Age Level: 10 - 14 years
Lexile: 990L
Suggested Delivery: Small Group
Words to describe this book: moving, inspirational, touching, powerful, memorable
Summary: A moving story about a family who moves between the North and the South during the 1960's. Written in free verse, readers experience the lives of four young children and their family during the Civil Rights Movement era. The story is written through the perspective of Jacqueline, who has strong recollections of her family beginning from birth. She writes about her grandfathers garden, her grandmothers cooking, the touch of her mother's kisses on her forehead, and her adventures with her friends and siblings. Most importantly, she remembers the historical events that she saw and heard about while living in this changing time period.
Key Vocabulary:
Definitions can be found at http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Before Reading Activity:
Electronic Resources:
http://www.pebblego.com/login/
This is an awesome website that gives students the opportunity to explore the lives of African American people who have made a significant impact on society. The website provides students with details of the person, their accomplishment, videos, and more. It's an extremely interactive website with great details and awesome resources!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2YJPGea94E
An interview with Jacqueline Woodson about the creation of her inspiration book Brown Girl Dreaming. In the discussion, she talks about the reasoning behind the structure of the story and the meaning of the message. This encourages students to be able to relate to the author and understand her perspective on the story.
Writing Activity:
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Publisher: Penguin Group
Copyright: 2014
Grade Level Equivalent: 8.4
Age Level: 10 - 14 years
Lexile: 990L
Suggested Delivery: Small Group
Words to describe this book: moving, inspirational, touching, powerful, memorable
Summary: A moving story about a family who moves between the North and the South during the 1960's. Written in free verse, readers experience the lives of four young children and their family during the Civil Rights Movement era. The story is written through the perspective of Jacqueline, who has strong recollections of her family beginning from birth. She writes about her grandfathers garden, her grandmothers cooking, the touch of her mother's kisses on her forehead, and her adventures with her friends and siblings. Most importantly, she remembers the historical events that she saw and heard about while living in this changing time period.
Key Vocabulary:
- Constellation - a group of stars that form a particular shape in the sky and have been given a name
- Subservient - very willing or too willing to obey someone
- Segregation - the practice or policy of keeping people of different races, religions, etc,. separation from each other
- Revolution - the usually violent attempt by many people to end the rule of one government and start a new one, a sudden or complete change in the way people work, live etc.
- Baptism - a Christian ceremony in which a small amount of water is placed on a person's head or in which a person's body is briefly placed under water
- Jehovah's Witness - a member of a group that witness by distributing literature and by personal evangelism to beliefs in the theoretic rule of God, the sinfulness
Definitions can be found at http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Before Reading Activity:
- Use a KWL chart to ask students what they already know about the Civil Rights Movement and segregation. What do students already know? What do they want to know?
- In their journals, have students write about significant people/events that impacted Jacqueline (such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks). Write down moments or events Jacqueline discusses in the novel. Have them sequence them to help make more sense of the novel's conclusion.
- Fill out the rest of the KWL chart. What did students learn from reading the story of Jacqueline Woodson. Have a guided discussion with the group and talk about important events they wrote down while reading. Ask why this event was significant to Jacqueline's story. On exit slips, have students respond to the question: We have discussed events that occurred in 1963 during the time of Jacqueline's life. What was one historical occurrence that affected Jacqueline or her families life?
Electronic Resources:
http://www.pebblego.com/login/
This is an awesome website that gives students the opportunity to explore the lives of African American people who have made a significant impact on society. The website provides students with details of the person, their accomplishment, videos, and more. It's an extremely interactive website with great details and awesome resources!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2YJPGea94E
An interview with Jacqueline Woodson about the creation of her inspiration book Brown Girl Dreaming. In the discussion, she talks about the reasoning behind the structure of the story and the meaning of the message. This encourages students to be able to relate to the author and understand her perspective on the story.
Writing Activity:
- Throughout the novel, readers learn about the story of where Jacqueline Woodson comes from. Have students create "I am From" poems that discuss significant events in their life that have impacted them. Go back in the reading and discuss Jacqueline's memories to give students ideas for their poems (Ex: The smell of her grandmothers cooking, the shoulders of her grandfather, the kisses her mother gave her on her forehead, etc)