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February 01
Take part in the African American Read-In!
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| Grades | K – 12 |
| Calendar Activity Type | Literacy-Related Event |
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Celebrate Black History Month by taking part in the National African American Read-In. Sponsored by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and NCTE, and endorsed by the International Literacy Association, the goal is to document readers making the celebration of African American literacy a traditional part of Black History Month activities.
The African American Read-In will again be celebrated for the entire month of February, beginning February 1 and ending on February 28.
Schools, churches, libraries, bookstores, community and professional organizations, and interested citizens can make literacy a significant part of Black History Month by hosting and coordinating community Read-Ins.
Hosting a Read-In can be as simple as bringing together family and friends to share a book or as elaborate as arranging public readings and media presentations that feature professional African American writers.
To be counted as a participant, simply:
- Select books authored by African Americans;
- Conduct your Read-In(s) on the days designated; and
- Report your results by submitting the African American Read-In Host Report Card.
- National African American Read-In
This webpage from the National Council of Teachers of English is the official homepage for the African American Read-In. Included are details on the role of a host, how to submit the report card, background materials, and booklists for all ages.
- African American Read-In: Suggested Activities
This University of Minnesota resource provides a list of activities for the Read-In.
- African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
This Library of Congress exhibit features documents that tell the story of the African American experience, from slavery to civil rights.
- African American World
This PBS website offers an extensive collection of articles, classroom resources, and reference materials related to African American history and culture.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Examining History with Maya Angelou's Poetry
To understand the historical background that influenced Maya Angelou's poems, students research events to produce trading cards using the ReadWriteThink Trading Card App or Trading Card Student Interactive. Through the sharing of these trading cards, students understand the historical background as they analyze Angelou's poetry.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Entering History: Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nikki Giovanni's poem "The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr." is paired with Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, taking students on a quest through time to the Civil Rights movement.
Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Family Ties: Making Connections to Improve Reading Comprehension
Families are all about connections between people. In this lesson, students read three books about different families and make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections to those texts.
Grades 5 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Analyzing First-Person Narration in Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind
Students explore the different facets of complexity in the compelling first-person narrator in Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Thundering Tall Tales: Using Read-Aloud as a Springboard to Writing
Imagination and application are key to this tall tale lesson in which students take what they know about tall tales to spin a yarn of their own.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Press Conference for Bud, Not Buddy
Students read Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, demonstrate comprehension of the story by involving themselves in discussions, and analyze the characters in preparation for a class "press conference."
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
On a Musical Note: Exploring Reading Strategies by Creating a Soundtrack
Students create a soundtrack for a novel that they have read, as they engage in such traditional reading strategies as predicting, visualizing, and questioning.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Graphing Plot and Character in a Novel
In this graphical mapping project, students assign a value to the events, characters, and themes in a novel and think about how the elements of the story are all interconnected.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Having My Say: A Multigenre Autobiography Project
Students compose a multigenre paper, modeled after the Delany sister's autobiography, Having Our Say, that includes the autobiographical narrative essay as well as an informational nonfiction piece.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Style: Defining and Exploring an Author's Stylistic Choices
Students find examples of specific stylistic devices in sample literary passages then search for additional examples and explore the reasons for the stylistic choices that the author has made.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Inferring How and Why Characters Change
Students will really get into character when they read short stories and analyze the how's and why's of characters' behaviors.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Childhood Remembrances: Life and Art Intersect in Nikki Giovanni's "Nikki-Rosa"
Students explore what Carol Jago calls the place "where life and art intersect" by reading Nikki Giovanni's poem, "Nikki-Rosa," and then writing about childhood memories of their own.
Grade 9 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
A Harlem Renaissance Retrospective: Connecting Art, Music, Dance, and Poetry
Students research, evaluate, and synthesize information about the Harlem Renaissance from varied resources, create an exhibit, and highlight connections across disciplines (i.e., art, music, and poetry) using a Venn diagram.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Flying to Freedom: Tar Beach and The People Could Fly
Students look to the past and use historical context to compare and contrast two characters from folktales.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Discovering a Passion for Poetry With Langston Hughes
Through a study of Langston Hughes' poetry, students connect his writing to his place in history.
Grades 11 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Narrative Structure and Perspectives in Toni Morrison's Beloved
Using Beloved as a model of a work with multiple narrative perspectives, students use a visualizing activity and close reading to consider ways in which subjective values shape contradictory representations.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Seeing Integration From Different Viewpoints
What does the world look like through someone else's eyes? Guide students in using colorful paper glasses to examine a story of school desegregation from multiple perspectives.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Critical Discussion of Social Issues
Through a series of picture book read-alouds, students engage in critical discussion of complex issues of race, class, and gender.
Grades 11 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Examining the Legacy of the American Civil Rights Era
As part of their study of Richard Wright's Black Boy, students research and reflect on the current black-white racial divide in America. By examining the work of literature in the context of contemporary events, students will deepen their understanding of the work and of what it means to be an American today.
Grades 6 – 10 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Blending the Past with Today's Technology: Using Prezi to Prepare for Historical Fiction
To prepare for literature circles featuring historical novels, students research the decades of the 1930s to the 1990s and share their information using Prezi, a web application for creating multimedia presentations.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Many Years Later: Responding to Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool"
Students analyze the Gwendolyn Brooks' poem "We Real Cool" and then write about how the character's pool hall days might influence who the character becomes fifty years in the future.
