Federal Writers' Project: Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 16, Texas, Part 4, Sanco-Young. 1936. Manuscript. Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/mesn164/.
Learners receive one of 50 names from the resource. Learners choose notetaking, annotation, freewriting, or illustrating as methods to interact with the source. Next, learners respond to book, head, and heart prompts to guide their initial reflections about the text. Finally, learners reflect on the overarching question of what personal narratives reveal about history and the human experience. Writers select relevant text evidence and draw specific conclusions from the source about their observations and reflections using the Trading Card Tool from Read-Write-Think.
The Library of Congress sponsored The Federal Writers’ Project as a part of the Work Projects Administration between 1936–1938. Part four includes interviews from former slaves living in Texas. Interviews were transcribed and typed to preserve dialect and tone of delivery as much as possible. More about the collection is described here. Also relevant is the report on the Language of Narratives, as the diction will be offensive to modern readers.
Source: Works Progress Administration
Source: : Works Progress Administration
- When you read the narrative(s), what surprises you?
- What do the speakers and writers think the audience already knows?
- What changes, challenges, or confirms your understandings. (These questions are from Beers and Probst in Disrupting Thinking.)
ELA Standard
E1.5E. Response: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. 5. The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed. The student is expected to (E) interact with sources in meaningful ways such as notetaking, annotating, freewriting, or illustrating.
Social Studies Standard
8.29C. Social studies skills: The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The student is expected to apply foundational language skills to engage in civil discourse about social studies topics, including those with multiple perspectives.
Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.
- On index cards, write the names and page numbers from images 4, 5, and 6 of the resource. Allow learners to select a name that resonates with them and navigate to the appropriate image in the resource.
- Learners read the selected narrative, selecting notetaking, annotating, freewriting, or illustrating as their method of interaction. Learners write a summary of an interesting segment or the whole text using a method such as the “Somebody . . . wanted . . . but . . . so . . . then . . .” technique.
- Learners meet in small groups to share their insights about what they have read in the narratives.
- Learners then take time to freewrite: What’s in your head? What surprised you as a reader? And what’s in your heart? Share how you feel about what you learned or discovered. This bookmark from Beers and Probst might also be helpful.
- Learners meet in small groups to read aloud from their reflections. On the first reading, listeners just listen and gather the gist of the writer’s thoughts. On the second reading, the listeners jot down words and phrases that stuck out to them from the writer’s response. One at a time, listeners give the notes to the writer, explaining why they chose those words or phrases.
- The teacher then leads a class discussion on what the narratives revealed about history and the human experience. Learners are asked to read particular excerpts from the text to support their conclusions. The QA12345 method may provide a scaffold for discussion. Question: How do narratives reveal history and the human experience? Answer: (learner’s choice) 1: How do you know? (text evidence) 2: What does that mean? (commentary and interpretation) 3: How else do you know? (another topic, learner’s choice) 4: What does that mean? (commentary and interpretation) 5: Conclusion—so, this means what?
- Learners then use the Trading Card Tool to represent the life of the person they read about. Learners include relevant text evidence from the narrative as well as items from the whole-class debrief.
- Learners share the trading cards in a display of what they have learned from the narratives.
- Additional Questions
- When we read, how do the words impact both our “head” and our “heart”? (Book, Head, Heart by Beers and Probst)
- What do personal narratives reveal about history and the human experience?
Jas. Boyd, ex-slave, Waco. 1937. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/99615246/.
Monroe Brackins, ex-slave, Hondo. 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/99615247/.
Monroe Brackins, ex-slave, Hondo. Between 1937 and ca. 1938. Photograph. Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/99615248/.
Nelson Denson, ex-slave, Waco. 1937. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/99615279/.
Wes Brady, ex-slave, Marshall. 1937. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/99615249/.
William Branch. Between 1937 and ca. 1938. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/99615250/.