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Breaking Boundaries with Tanya Lee Stone's "Almost Astronauts"

2/23/2021

 

BY ERIKA THULIN DAWES & XENIA HADJIOANNOU, ON BEHALF OF THE BIOGRAPHY CLEARINGHOUSE

Book Cover: Almost Astronauts
On January 20, 2021, we witnessed the swearing in of the first woman vice president of the United States of America. The oath of office was administered by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina member of the court.  This celebratory moment stood both as a joyous milestone marking just ‘how far’ women have come and was at the same time a stark reminder of persistent gender inequities in our society. The COVID-19 Pandemic has highlighted continued disparities as women have dropped out of the workforce at far higher numbers than their male counterparts, likely due to disproportionate responsibilities of child care and housework (Bateman & Ross, 2020). 

As we continue to work toward greater equality for women, here in the United States and globally, it is critical  to share with young people the stories of women across history who have worked toward breaking boundaries for themselves and for other women. Tanya Lee Stone’s Almost Astronauts, 13 Women Who Dared to Dream is an important narrative in that history. Stone relates the story of women’s eventual entry to NASA’s space program by focusing on the stories of 13 women who dreamed of being astronauts and proved themselves through a private testing program in the early 1960s to be just as capable as their male counterparts. 

Almost Astronauts is a history text that is highly biographical. It features life stories, but it is not a traditionally organized biography of a single individual or a collection of biographies. To shape the historical narrative, Stone employs several biographer techniques such as well researched and documented character sketches, biographical blurbs, and narrative episodes. The latter are of particular note, as Stone’s vivid descriptions place the reader in the moment with these women as they pursue their dreams. The book is replete with photographs, as well as reproductions and descriptions of primary source documents and artifacts that support and enhance the narrated events but also help establish their historical context.


With a compelling narrative, engaging life stories, and immersive description, Almost Astronauts is a versatile teaching tool for middle and high school classrooms. It fits well in units on space exploration, women’s history, boundary breaking, gender stereotyping, and narrative writing. In our entry on The Biography Clearinghouse, we use the Investigate, Explore, and Create Model to present ideas for using this book in the classroom as a read aloud, a text to use in literature circles, a mentor text, and a resource text.

Read Aloud:
We provide resources to carry out a multimedia-enhanced read aloud, during which you would share and discuss primary and secondary visual, audio, and video resources that enhance students’ understanding of context, character and theme.

Literature Circles Title: 
We suggest Almost Astronauts as one title in a text set of long-form picturebooks and chapter books focusing on the theme: “Women Breaking Boundaries for Self and Others.” Groups of students reading these titles  would create response projects so that the class can compare the childhoods, accomplishments, and challenges of the women featured in the books.
Mentor Text: 
Stone’s engaging writing style makes
Almost Astronauts an ideal mentor text for nonfiction narrative techniques, such as “explode the moment” for emphasizing key moments and turning points, (Harper, 1997) and ‘In Medias Res’ as a technique to immerse the reader in action.

Resource Text:
Taking a critical literacy stance,
Almost Astronauts becomes a valuable resource in a study of persistent gender stereotypes and discriminatory practices. By providing details about popular culture and examples from media at the time, Stone offers young readers the opportunity to unpack and compare messaging about women and their expected behaviors and possibilities for achievement. These lenses can then be applied to contemporary popular culture texts and media so that students can discuss what has changed and what has not and consider action toward equity.

Investigate Logo
Explore Logo
Create Logo

CHECK OUT THE BOOK ENTRY

Almost Astronauts, 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
Below we feature one of two time-gradated teaching recommendations included in the Create section of our Almost Astronauts Book Entry.

Composing Multimodal Multigenre Biographies

When researching the Mercury 13, Tanya Lee Stone used an array of multimodal primary and secondary sources, which are listed at the back of the book. The book itself includes many photographs, descriptions of images and events, and transcripts of interactions that reproduce or explicitly reference those sources. In our entry on Almost Astronauts at The Biography Clearinghouse you will find a curated list of multimodal resources to open up the world of the book for classroom communities and support an immersive, multimodal engagement with it.  

In this recommendation, students have the opportunity to engage in their own biography research and experiment with biography composition through a multimodal, multigenre approach.    ​
If you have 1-2 hours...
If you have 1-2 days...
If you have 1-2 weeks...
Working in pairs or a small group, students select a contemporary or historical figure whose life fascinates them. Using a set of school-approved sources, have students compile a collection of links and other resources that represent the life story of their subject. Invite students to create a virtual biography exhibit through a gallery board platform (e.g. Padlet) for the figure they chose. The exhibit should be purposefully curated and annotated or captioned to tell the life story of their subject and emphasize the characteristics that intrigue them.
Building on the collection of resources they have developed for the virtual biography exhibit, have students in their pairs or small groups create a Pecha Kucha style presentation. A Pecha Kucha presentation is a presentation featuring 20 images/slides appearing on the screen for 20 seconds each. Check out this video for a short tutorial. 
Have students use their virtual biography exhibit as the basis for producing a biographical documentary of their chosen subject that incorporates primary source documents, artifacts, photos, video, etc. and multiple pieces in different genres and modalities (written language, visual, audio, video). Depending on the technology affordances of your setting and your students’ experience with video editing, the biographical documentary can be created using such tools as iMovie, a PowerPoint presentation narrated and exported as a video file, or a recorded Zoom session using screen share. There also are several free video editing apps students can utilize. Teaching students how to cite their resources would be a vital component of this project. ​

References

Bateman, N., & Ross, M. (2020, October 14). Why has COVID-19 been especially harmful for working women? Brookings Institute Essays. https://www.brookings.edu/essay/why-has-covid-19-been-especially-harmful-for-working-women/

Harper, L. (1997). The writer’s toolbox: Five tools for active revision instruction. Language Arts, 74(3), 193–200.
​
Erika Thulin Dawes is a Professor of Language and Literacy at Lesley University where she teaches courses in children’s literature and early childhood literacy. She blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf, a School Library Journal blog, and is a former chair of NCTE’s Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children.

Xenia Hadjioannou is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the Harrisburg campus of Penn State University where she teaches and works with pre- and in-service teachers through various courses in language and literacy methodology. She is the co-director of the Capital Area Writing Project, the Vice President and Website Manager of the Children's Literature Assembly, and a co-editor of The CLA Blog. 

Midwinter Book Awards Beyond Newbery and Caldecott - Part II: Young Adult Books and More

2/16/2021

 

BY WENDY STEPHENS

In addition to the ALSC awards described in the previous post, the Young Adult Library Association (YALSA) also designates award-winning and honor books for adolescent literature. 

Among the best-known awards for adolescent literature is the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, administered by YALSA. However, there are many other opportunities to learn about exceptional literature for teens. The life and legacy of Margaret A. Edwards are honored through two award designations:
  • The Alex Awards choose ten adult books with special appeal to teen readers.
  • The Edwards Award, honoring her significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens, parallels the ALSC Legacy award, except that it is based on a selection of named titles rather than the author's work as a whole.

A shortlist of finalists for two of YALSA's flagship awards -- the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award, honoring the best nonfiction books for teens and the William C. Morris Award, which honors a debut book written for young adults by a previously unpublished author, are announced in December, with the winner of each being part of the press conference. 
Michael L. Printz Award
The Michael L. Printz Award recognizes excellence in young adult literature and designates both an award winner as well as honor books.
Book Cover: Everything Sad is Untrue
2021 Printz Award Winner

Alex Awards
The Alex Awards select the top ten best books that will appeal to teen audiences. The Alex Awards are named after Margaret A. Edwards, who pioneered young adult library services. Edwards was called "Alex" by her friends. 
Book Cover: Kent State
One of the 2021 Alex Award Winners

Margaret A. Edwards Award
The Margaret A. Edwards Award honors an author as well as a specific selection of their body of work. It recognizes an author's work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.
Book Cover: How it Went Down
2021 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner: Kekla Magoon and one of her recognized books.

YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award
The YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award designates an award-winner and honors books for the best nonfiction books published for young adults. 
Book Cover: The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindberg
2021 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Winner

William C. Morris Award
The William C. Morris Award honors a book published by a first-time author writing for teens to celebrate and honor exemplary new voices in young adult literature.
Book Cover: If These Wings Could Fly
2021 William C. Morris Award Winner
In addition to designating award books, YALSA also compiles book list resources that can aid librarians and teachers in selecting books that appeal to young adults. A decade ago, YALSA moved four of its lists onto The Hub, its literature blog platform, so that youth services librarians involved in collection development could benefit from more real-time input. All four categories post throughout the year, leading to year-end lists reflecting that year's best titles. 

Those include:
  • Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA), which is a list that takes teen feedback into account. 
  • Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults (AAYA), which showcases spoken-word releases that would appeal to all subsects of the teen audience.
  • Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (QP), which identifies titles aimed at encouraging reading among teens who dislike to read.
  • Great Graphic Novels for Teens (GGN) recommended for those aged 12-18, meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens.

Outside the Monday morning announcements, there are myriad other titles to explore. Among those, the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) uses Midwinter to announce its Outstanding International Books (OIB) list showcasing international children's titles -- books published or distributed in the United States that originated or were first published in a country other than the U.S. -- that are deemed the most outstanding of those published during that year. RISE: A Feminist Book Project for ages 0-18, previously the Amelia Bloomer Project, is a committee of the Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT), that produces an annual annotated book list of well-written and well-illustrated books with significant feminist content for young readers.

There are even genre fiction honors. For the past four years, the Core Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction Notable Lists designates notable children’s and young adult science fiction, organized into three age-appropriate categories, also announced at Midwinter.

Next year, we will have another treat to look forward to when the Graphic Novel and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) inaugurates its Reading List.

That's a lot of books! What are the can't-miss titles? I train my students to look for overlaps, like Candace Fleming winning this year for information text across age ranges. What does it indicate when the Sibert and YALSA's Nonfiction Award overlap? When a book is honored by both the Printz and YALSA Nonfiction?

Though the in-person announcement is exhilarating, especially the view from the seats at the front of the auditorium reserved for committee members, the webcast approximates its energy and allows you to share with students in real-time. To make sure you catch all of the lists, follow the press releases from ALA News and on twitter. Until next January!

Wendy Stephens is an Assistant Professor and the Library Media Program Chair at Jacksonville State University. ​

Midwinter Book Awards Beyond Newbery and Caldecott- Part I: Children's Books

2/9/2021

 

BY WENDY STEPHENS

Editorial Note:
This post is the first in a 2-part series by Wendy Stephens discussing the rich landscape of book awards announced over the winter months. In this first post, Wendy focuses on ALSC awards and awards by ALA affiliates recognizing books for children or books for a wide spectrum of age groups. The second post, which will be published next week, will present awards for YA literature administered by YALSA, as well as several other notable awards.
When we talk about budgeting for materials, I always advise my school librarian candidates to be sure to save some funding for January. No matter how good their ongoing collection development has been throughout the year, there are always some surprises when the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards (YMAs) roll around, and they'll want to be able to share the latest and best in children's literature with their readers. These are the books that will keep their collections up-to-date and relevant. 

From our own childhoods, we always remember the "books with the medals" -- particularly the John Newbery for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature and the Randolph Caldecott for the most distinguished American picture book for children. These books become must-buys and remain touchstones for young readers. In 2021, Newbery is celebrating its one hundredth year. Some past winners and honor books are very much a product of their time, and many of those once held in high esteem lack appeal today. 

For those of us working with children and with children's literature, the new books honored at Midwinter offer opportunities to revisit curriculum, update mentor texts, and build Lesesneian "reading ladders." Each award committee has its own particular award criteria and guidelines for eligibility, and its own process and confidentiality norms.

Every year, the YMAs seems to be peppered with small surprises. Does New Kid winning the Newbery means graphic novels are finally canonical? Is Neil Gaiman an American? What about all the 2015 Caldecott honors, including the controversial That One Summer? Did the Newbery designation of The Last Stop on Market Street mean you can validate using picture books with older students? How does Cozbi A. Cabrera's much-honored art work resonate at this historical moment?

​
In Horn Book and School Library Journal, Newbery, Caldecott and Printz contenders are tracked throughout the year in blogs like Someday My Printz Will Come, Heavy Medal, and Calling Caldecott. Other independent sites like Guessing Geisel, founded by Amy Seto Forrester are equally devoted to award prediction. Among librarians and readers, there are lots of armchair quarterbacks, and conducting mock Newbery and Caldecotts, either among groups of professionals or with children, have become almost a cottage industry. There are numerous how-tos on that subject, from reputable sources like The Nerdy Book Club and BookPage
. But there are numerous other awards announced at ALA Midwinter almost simultaneously that deserve your attention, too.

Among the Association for Library Services for Children (ALSC) awards are: the Robert F. Sibert Medal, the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, the Geisel Award, the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award,  and the Children's Literature Legacy Award.

​Robert F. Sibert Medal
The Robert F. Sibert Medal for the most distinguished informational book for children, ALSC's version of the Orbis Pictus, offers great books to support a wide variety of content areas.
Book Cover: Honeybee
2021 Sibert Medal Winner

Mildred L. Batchelder Award
The Mildred L. Batchelder Award  is given to the most outstanding children’s book originating in a language other than English in a country other than the United States and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States, supporting publishers who bring an international perspective to U.S. readers.
Book Cover: Telephone Tales
2021 Batchelder Award Winner

Geisel Award
The Geisel Award recognizes an exceptional text for beginning readers.
Book Cover: See the Cat
2021 Geisel Award Winner

Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award
The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award recognizes noteworthy apps, DVDs and streaming media. This year, it went to a podcast. 
The Imagine Neighborhood Podcast Logo
2021 EELDM Award Winner

Children's Literature Legacy Award
The Children's Literature Legacy Award, formerly the Wilder Award, honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made a substantial and lasting contribution to children's literature through books that demonstrate integrity and respect for all children's lives and experiences. 
Mildred D. Taylor
2021 Children's Literacy Legacy Award Winner: Mildred D. Taylor

​
Aside from the award winners, each year annual ALSC Children's Notable Lists are produced in categories for Notable Children's Recordings, Notable Children's Digital Media, and Notable Children's Books. If you want to see the machinations behind the designation, those discussions are open to the public this year via virtual meeting links.

Outside of ALSC, many of ALA’s affiliates have their own honors for children's literature. These include the Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) which sponsors the Coretta Scott King Book Awards; the Association of Jewish Libraries which sponsors the Sydney Taylor Book Awards; and REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking which sponsors the Pura Belpré awards. In addition to these affiliates, others such as the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association and the American Indian Library Association also present awards. 

The awards are always evolving to reflect the abundance of literature available for young people. Like the Association of Jewish Libraries and the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association awards, the American Indian Youth Literature Awards were first added to the televised YMA event in 2018. And this year was the first year for inclusion for a new Young Adult category for the Pura Belpré. 


Two awards of particular significance are the Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature Awards are given annually to English-language works found to be of exceptional merit for children or teens relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience, and the Schneider Family Book Awards, honoring authors or illustrators for the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences, with recipients in three categories: younger children, middle grades, and teens.
Coretta Scott King Awards
The Coretta Scott King Books Awards honor African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults as well as professionals who support that valuable work. Of particular note is the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent.
Book Cover: Legendborn
2021 John Steptoe New Talent Award Winner: Tracy Deonn

Sydney Taylor Book Awards
The Sydney Taylor Book Awards, ​named in memory the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series author. The award recognizes materials for children and teens that exemplify high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience, designating Gold and Silver medalists and Notable Books of Jewish Content in categories including Picture Books, Middle Grade, and Young Adults.
Book Cover: Telephone Tales
2021 Sydney Taylor Gold Medal for the Middle Grades Category

Pura Belpré Awards
The Pura Belpré Awards honor Latinx authors and illustrators whose work portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience. ​
Book Cover: Furia
2021 Pura Belpré Young Adult Award Winner

Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association Awards
The Asian/Pacific Librarian Association's Awards for Literature designates award and honor titles in Young Adult, Children's and Picture Book categories for authors and illustrators whose books promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage.

Book Cover: When You Trap a Tiger
2021 APALA Children's Winner

American Indian Librarian Association Awards
One award we didn't see this year: American Indian Youth Literature Awards. Awarded biennially, this award identifies and honors writing and illustrations by Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of North America.
Book Cover: Bowwow Powwow
202o AILA Picturebook Winner

Stonewall Book Award
The Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children's and Young Adult Literature Awards are given annually to English-language works found to be of exceptional merit for children or teens relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience.
Book Cover: We Are Little Feminists: Families
2021 Stonewall Book Award Winner

Schneider Family Book Awards
The Schneider Family Book Awards, honoring authors or illustrators for the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences, honor recipients in three categories: younger children, middle grades, and teens.
Book Cover: I Talk Like A River
 2021 Schneider Family Younger Children Award Winner 

Odyssey Award
This is an award that considers materials for a wide spectrum age groups in their decision-making. The best audiobook production for children and/or young adults are chosen for the Odyssey Award. The Odyssey alternates administration between ALSC and YALSA.
Kent State audiobook CD
2021 Odyssey Award Audiobook
Wendy Stephens is an Assistant Professor and the Library Media Program Chair at Jacksonville State University. 

Opportunities for Close Reading and Advocacy with "William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad"

2/2/2021

 

BY AMINA CHAUDHRI AND MARY ANN CAPPIELLO, ON BEHALF OF THE BIOGRAPHY CLEARINGHOUSE

“William Still’s records,
and the stories he preserved,
reunited families
torn apart by slavery.

Because that’s what stories can do.
Protest injustice.
Sooth. Teach. Inspire. Connect.
Stories save lives.”
            - Don Tate, from William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad

COVER OF William Still and His Freedom Stories
As 2021 begins, we want to acknowledge the continued need to show young people that Black Lives Matter. Part of that responsibility is shifting our curriculum away from a white-centered view of U.S. history and towards a more multifaceted exploration of all of the communities that have lived on this land from prehistory to today. 

Don Tate’s picturebook biography William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad, this month’s featured text on The Biography Clearinghouse, is an important text to help make this change in elementary and middle school classrooms. William Still and his Freedom Stories is one of several recent publications that highlights the role of African Americans in the freedom struggle, countering the narrative that freedom from slavery depended on the actions of whites. 

A precise, linear narrative takes readers through significant events that shaped William Still’s understanding of the world and his role in making it better for African Americans. Readers follow Still from childhood to adulthood, bearing witness to his desire to learn, the grueling labor he endured to earn a living, and eventually, the risks he took to secure freedom for enslaved people and his post-Civil War activism to fight segregation. This deeply-researched and powerfully-illustrated book has layers of curricular potential: as a read aloud, as a mentor text for literacy skill development, as a model of the genre of biography, as an important piece of history, and much more.

Operating within the Investigate, Explore, and Create Model of the Biography Clearinghouse, we designed teaching ideas geared toward literacy and content area learning as well as opportunities for socio-emotional learning and strengthening community connections using William Still and His Freedom Stories. 

Featured here are two teaching ideas inspired by William Still and His Freedom Stories. The first engages students deeply with the text itself - its form and content, and the second extends learning beyond this picturebook to explore multiple sources for inquiry and research.

William Still and his Freedom Stories as a Mentor Text for Close Reading, Writing, and Research.

Don Tate, like William Still, understands the importance of word choice and organization of ideas in writing. William Still and his Freedom Stories can be used as a mentor text to teach these literacy concepts. The brevity of the picturebook lends itself well to repeated readings and analysis of the precise language Tate employs to convey his message. A writer’s message is effective if it evokes a response in the reader. The suggestions below invite students to reflect deeply on the text and their own responses in the process of making meaning. 

From the Biography Clearinghouse

  • William Still and His Freedom Stories (Don Tate)
  • What Do You Do With a Voice Like That?​ (Chris Barton)
  • Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record-Setting Dive of the Bathysphere (Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Katherine Roy)
  • Maritcha: A Nineteenth Century American Girl (Tonya Bolden)
If you have 1-2 hours….
If you have 1-2 days…
If you have 1-2 weeks….

Teachers model the Double Entry Journal strategy for responding to text with a focus on text analysis/close reading using a selection of quotes from William Still and his Freedom Stories:
  1. “Learning to read would have to wait a few seasons.”
  2. “From that point forward, William recorded every detail about each freedom seeker who passed through his home or office.”
  3. “The laws were meant to shut down the Underground Railroad. But shut it down, they did not.”
  4. Students choose their own quote and explain why it is important. 

William Still’s writing was a form of activism because it contributed to the work of changing people’s lives and resisting a brutal system. Compare and contrast this form of activism with the work done by other historical and contemporary figures in other biographies. A graphic organizer such as a T Chart can help students organize their observations. Next, following a discussion, students can identify the skills and talents these subjects brought to their work. Finally, they can extend their thinking by listing other ways people can use their skills (such as in art, music, sports etc.) in order to build awareness and create change. This list can lead to inquiry projects.
When students have understood the concept of turning points as life-altering experiences, and as literary devices that authors use to further their ideas, they can synthesize their learning within the context of studying biographies. 

One project could be to create a biography of someone in their community with specific requirements including elements found in William Still and his Freedom Stories. These include but are not limited to: childhood, youth, and adult phases of life; ideas and/or people who were influential; and 2-3 turning points that were particularly salient in the person’s life. If possible, the student could research the person’s context in order to understand the various factors that inform decisions and actions. 

The project can be taken through all the stages of the writing process and completed in pairs or groups. Final projects could be written, illustrated, recorded, dramatized or created in any way that suits the form and content.

Advocating for and Learning from 19th Century Black-Authored Texts 

For far too long, too many students in the U.S. have been taught a white-centered modern history that avoids a close examination of imperialism and the legacy of Europe’s colonial reach. The brutal history of the global slave trade of the 17th - 19th centuries has been marginalized as have the many stories of Black agency, resistance, and liberation. As a consequence, young people - and many adults - have limited knowledge of that history. We need this to change. William Still and His Freedom Stories is one text that helps to make that change. In this teaching idea for middle school students, we leverage the conversations that this book can open with more in-depth research writings of 19th century activists such as William Still and 19th century Black journalists. 

If you have 1-2 hours….
If you have 1-2 days…
If you have 1-2 weeks….
After reading William Still and His Freedom Stories, provide students with the opportunity to read pages from Journal C of the Underground Railroad. Support students as you examine the information, as this material is painful to read. What kinds of information did Still document to help reunite loved ones? What are some connections students are able to make across the journal? How were those fleeing slavery similar to one another? How were their circumstances different from one another?

After exploring Still’s own writing, have students consider his personal path to literacy. How might his writing voice and identity have been shaped by the texts that he read? In the narrative, Don Tate notes that Still read The Colored American. “An “anti-slavery newspaper,/it was owned and published by Black people.” Share this description of the newspaper with students. Next, have students spend some time reading through digital copies of The Colored American from The Center for Research Libraries. What do they notice about the information in the newspaper? Have students take notes on what they are learning about the lives of free and enslaved Blacks at the time of the newspaper’s publication. 

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has created a prototype of a digital database, the “Family Ties on the Underground Railroad” project, that connects information from Journal C with Still’s 1872 book The Underground Rail Road. You and your students can access the prototype with the codes available on the landing page. Provide students with time to explore the prototype and see the ways in which it uses information from the two texts and allows us to learn more about Black individuals and communities “geographically and chronologically.” Students can learn more about the process of putting the prototype together via the blog entries available on the right margin of the site. 

Next, you might partner with your local historical society to see what you can learn about Black history in your area from the texts and artifacts from the collection. How can your students raise awareness of that history? What new texts can they create in response to their learning? Allow students to make those choices and determine a way to share  their texts with your local community.

You could also inform students of the Pennsylvania Historical Society’s efforts to raise money to expand the digital “Family Ties on the Underground Railroad” project. Have students brainstorm ways to raise both awareness and funding for this important project and then carry them out, using their literacy skills as a force for good like William Still.

Amina Chaudhri is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Northeastern Illinois University. She is a reviewer for Booklist and a regular contributor to Book Links. 

Mary Ann Cappiello teaches courses in children’s literature and literacy methods at Lesley University, blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf, a School Library Journal blog, and is a former chair of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction K-8. 

    Authors:
    CLA Members

    Supporting PreK-12 and university teachers as they share children’s literature with their students in all classroom contexts.

    Disclaimer
    The opinions and ideas posted in the individual entries are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of CLA or the Blog Editors.

    Blog Editors

    Xenia Hadjioannou
    Lauren Liang
    Liz Thackeray Nelson

    contribute to the blog

    Instructions to Authors

    If you are a current CLA member and you would like to contribute a post to the CLA Blog, please read the Instructions to Authors and email co-editor Liz Thackeray Nelson with your idea.


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