Explore the sites and online exhibitions listed below. Ask students what they can learn from these primary sources about why Rosa Parks took her stand against segregation, and about the organizations and movements that participated in the struggle. They might compare that to what they learn from a textbook or other secondary source and then write a possible update for the secondary source.

It's important that students understand the difference between primary and secondary sources. Visit here for a solid definition and see some examples.

Read Across America has celebrated books and reading since 1998. This year, there are even more opportunities:

• Encourage adults to spend more time reading to children

• Share stories that raise up the many voices that need to be amplified and heard

• Use books to help students discover their own voices and learn from the voices of others

• Encourage readers to believe in themselves and use their voices and stories for positive change

Use the Read Across America Day calendar, Build Your Stack® posts, and ReadWriteThink.org resources to support these efforts.

Among Sharon Draper’s most popular books are the Hazelwood Trilogy (Tears of a Tiger, Forged by Fire, Darkness before Dawn) and the Jericho Trilogy (The Battle of Jericho, November Blues, Just Another Hero). Obtain copies of the books and preview each title on a classroom projector (each page contains an overview and summary; some contain audio previews as well).

Give students time to choose a book and then form literature circles around each title.  After individual book groups have finished, form new groups that bring the books from each trilogy together to discuss how the books relate to an build on one another.

After sharing one or more of the winning, honored, or recommended titles as a classroom read-aloud, invite students write and illustrate their own story in which someone learned how to be more compassionate or to feel empathy for those who are different from themselves.

Allow students to decide to tell a story from their own lives or to create characters and imagined situations that would inspire others to be more compassionate.  Share tools such as the Story Map and Cube Creator to help students plan and generate ideas.  Arrange for a time for students to share their stories with classmates or with younger students.

Ask students to reflect on something they recently learned how to do.  After a few minutes to write or talk with a partner, have students share what they learned as you record their topics for everyone to see.  Then lead a discussion around the role digital tools played in the different learning students shared.

• How many of the examples were about learning to use a new digital tool?

• How many examples featured students using a digital technology to facilitate or support their learning?

• Which examples can students imagine doing differently with the support of a digital tool?

Then have students reflect on the varied ways digital learning plays a part in their everyday lives.

Turn students' attention to the stars by pointing them toward the StarDate Constellation Guide, Enchanted Learning's Constellation page, and Norm McCarter's Constellation Legends.  After choosing and constellation and reading about it across multiple sources, students can share their learning by creating a trading card for their constellation using the Trading Card Creator interactive or Trading Cards app.

Share with students de la Peña’s essay Sometimes The 'Tough Teen' Is Quietly Writing Stories.  Have students read and discuss the essay in groups, focusing on questions such as

• What attitudes toward literacy (reading and writing) does de la Peña convey?
• What stories does he tell to get these points across?
• How does he craft or structure the stories to make them both interesting and effective in communicating the points?

Then invite students to write a literacy narrative of their own, selecting a few key stories to shape into an essay that conveys a point they wish to make about reading and/or writing in their own lives.

Sondheim’s 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George features the character Georges Seurat and brings to life the figures in Seurat’s 1884 painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

After explaining the relationship between the painting and Sondheim’s work, have students examine the painting and imagine who the figures in the painting might be and what they are doing in the image.  Then have them research work by artists such as Romare Bearden or Pierre-August Renoir and create backstories and dialogues for the figures in a painting of their choice.

Read aloud the poem “February 12, 1963,” the first poem in Brown Girl Dreaming, and encourage students to use Woodson’s free verse style to write a poem commemorating their own birthday or the birthday of a friend or relative.

After students draft a collection of images and ideas, encourage them to use the Line Break Explorer to experiment with ways to arrange their words for aural and visual effect.  Students can also use the Acrostic Poems or Diamante Poems interactives to find other ways to represent a birthday through verse.

Build a community within your classroom using Venn Diagrams.

Group Activity – Print out copies of the 3 Circle Venn Diagram graphic organizer.  Arrange students into groups of three and supply them with the graphic organizer.  Have students talk in their groups about themselves and the things they like to do.  After a brief discussion, students document ways in which they are alike, ways in which they are like others in their small group, and ways in which they are totally unique.  Have students display their diagrams and share them with the entire class.

Partner Activity – Print out copies of the 2 Circle Venn Diagram graphic organizer, or if students have access to a mobile device, download the Venn Diagram Mobile App.  Arrange students into pairs within the classroom.  Using the graphic organizer or mobile app have the students share information about themselves and their likes and dislikes.