Warriors Don’t Cry: Great Civil Right Stories and Historical Fiction Historical Fiction and the Civil Rights Movement Lucy Duffey Greg Laposa

Warm Up  Read the two excerpts that were provided  As you read, consider the following:  1. Who is the audience of the text?  2. How are the narrators similar? How are they different?  3. What kinds of Inferences can you draw about the narrator?  4. What does the text say about the historical context?

The Value of Historical Fiction Using Historical Fiction allows the teacher to:  Develop an appreciation for the complexity of history  Enable students to make meaningful and empowering connections  Build literacy levels

Quotes from books to help introduce context  And activate prior knowledge  And can be writing prompts  Start discussions  “Please, God, let me learn how to stop being a warrior. Sometimes I just need to be a girl.”-Melba Patillo Beals

Understanding History  John Lewis Gaddis, a historian, once stated, “For if you do think of history as a landscape, then history is the way we represent it, and it’s that act of representation that lifts us above the familiar to let us experience vicariously what we can’t experience directly: a wider view.” The Landscape of History, pg. 6

Caspar David Friedrich, The Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog

Consider all sides of the story  Historical fiction gives kids a chance to think about various perspectives in history and it will help them understand the content in a more meaningful way.  It makes history personal and allows students to understand their own relationship to history

Recognizing Patterns  Historical fiction helps students develop an understanding of the layers that often accompany a topic and that issues are complex.  Students can infer from historical fiction the different patterns in history that are reoccurring.

Historical Fiction Sharpens  Using historical fiction can sharpen the lens of history by allowing students to grapple with personal accounts  Fiction enables the reader to enter a world that is more vivid than the often scripted, structured, and compartmentalized depiction in history textbooks

Literacy Development  Historical fiction can serve the purpose of increasing literacy levels and strengthening critical thinking skills  Students must be exposed to the literary nature of history and evaluate texts with an eye towards understanding the story and process for constructing history

It reaches across the curriculum  Reading historical fiction is a great way to spread social studies across the curriculum.  The social studies teacher has the opportunity to teach critical literacy skills that strengthen reading comprehension, particularly for students with limited foundations

Building Connections  It makes the time period more real for students. Connections are critical for learning:  When they read the history book, they often don’t connect real people with real lives to what they are reading.  Good historical fiction brings to life the day to day life of people who were alive during this time. It helps students understand the actions of both the known and unknown actors of history.

Empathy and the Human Connection  One of the most important things historical fiction does is it helps our students come to realize how alike we are as human beings and they understand that people often face the same issues and decisions in history that are faced by their generation.

Historical Fiction engages readers!  It’s fun! It gets kids reading for pleasure and makes them curious and they want to know more about what they are reading about.  When we finished reading Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly, the students couldn’t wait to know more about the French Revolution and what really happened to Marie Antoinette’s young son.

Selecting Books  1. Make sure it’s an interesting story with a character that will appeal to your students.  2. Pick fiction that doesn’t stereotype or encourage myths in history  3. Includes accurate and detailed historical information.  4. The story doesn’t conflict with historical accounts.  5. The settings should be authentic and represent that time period. Language should be authentic but not hard to read for students.  6. Should weave in important historical facts in the story. Usually there is a real person and event in the story

Emmett Till  "This is not a lynching. It is straight out murder." --Hugh White, Governor of Mississippi, 1955

The story of Emmett Till is a point of action for many in the Civil Rights movement….  "When people saw what had  happened to my son, men stood up  who had never stood up before."  —Mamie Till Bradley, Emmett's mother

You can find this PowerPoint and lessons at….  Historyduffeylawduffey.weebly.com Use facebook and twitter to

Where can you find good historical fiction?  w.goodreads.com/list/show/15.Best w.goodreads.com/list/show/15.Best  _Historical_Fictione.com/historical-fiction- masters-past/sarah-l-johnson _Historical_Fictione.com/historical-fiction- masters-past/sarah-l-johnson  all-time-best-historical-fiction-books/ all-time-best-historical-fiction-books/  Historical-Novels.html Historical-Novels.html

No Budget for Historical Fiction?  Check out DonorsChoose.org  Tips for good projects  Keep the amount requested to dollars  Look for partner funding  Post to Facebook and Twitter

Closing Thoughts  As teachers, we are committed to giving students the tools and resources to broaden and shape their view of the world  Historical fiction allows us to motivate, engage, and empower students