MVelluci

Mike Vellucci EDC448 October 21, 2009 Annotative Bibliography


 * Context for using the text set:** This context set will be used in a Seventh or Eighth grade ELA classroom. The text set works in accordance with the African-American Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. The text set is designed for all students in a seventh-eighth-grade level to be able to read and comprehend the texts. There are a few more challenging texts involved in the text set to allow for students to be able to grow and challenge themselves. Also along with the scaffolding of the other texts, students should be able to comprehend the more challenging texts.

Scholastic Library Publishing.
 * A. Print Resources:**
 * Text #1:** Reference book devoted to the topic.
 * Citation:** Good, D. (2004). //Brown vs. board of ed.//
 * Text Summary:** This is a short reference book (48 pages) that covers the civil rights movement of the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. It includes primary sources, quotes, pictures, and timelines.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text because it is an informational yet easily readable text. The reading level of this text is also set at grade six, which is below the grade I will be teaching. Students should be able to read and comprehend this text with little help.
 * Use of text:** This text would be used as an overview for the entire unit. Since it is easy to read, contains pictures and timelines, as well as primary sources and vital information about the movement it will help to access and activate the classes prior knowledge of the subject, as well as fill in gaps that may exist in the students’ prior knowledge without overloading them with information.


 * Text #2:** Newspaper article.
 * Citation:** Zullo, R. (2009, October 14). Segregation’s legacy still impacts local schools. //Daily Comet//
 * Text Summary:** The text discusses how slowly change really comes about. Although Brown vs. Board of Ed desegregated schools, the article discusses how ten years after the decision schools were still segregated, and how certain outdated laws still support segregation.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text for the class because it is extremely recent as well as relevant. It also helps to show that the Civil Rights movement is real and still continuing. Often when reading history books things are presented “nicer” than they are. This text will show a more realistic image of the past.
 * Use of text:** This text will be used while examining the Brown vs. Board of Ed case. The text will help to engage students into thinking beyond the text. For example, students will have read about the decision handed down by the Supreme Court in the Brown vs. Ed case desegregating schools. This article will help engage students brains in actually thinking about how long of a process desegregation actually is, and what it means to fully accomplish this task.
 * Text #3:** Primary Source- Interview
 * Citation: (** R. Parks, personal communication. June 2, 1995)
 * Text Summary:** The text is an interview with Rosa Parks. She explains her history as well as her family’s; she discusses being arrested for refusing to stand up on the bus, and how she still believes that people must strive for equality.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text because Rosa Park’s played a vital role not only in getting the Civil Rights movement started; she is an icon for freedom and equality.
 * Use of text:** I plan to use this text while examining Rosa Parks’ refusal to stand up on a bus. Again, I believe this piece of text will help connect and engage students thoughts about the civil rights movement as well as the people involved. While reading texts that pertain to history it is easy to forget that the people completing tasks were human. When I read about Rosa Parks in middle school I remember thinking of her as a super hero, this interview will help students realize she was a human, and therefore better understand how difficult it must have been to remain seated on that bus.


 * Text #4:** Environmental Text- Sign
 * Citation:**
 * Text Summary:** It is a sign being held by a young white child that reads, “__WE WONT GO__ TO SCHOOL WITH NEGROES” and the young boy holding the sign is smiling.
 * Rationale:** I selected this piece of text for shock value.
 * Use of text:** This text is very versatile, but will be used mostly in accordance with the Brown vs. Board of Ed lesson. Although the decision was to desegregate schools, most people were not pleased about it. This text will help to show students the slow process that was desegregation. It will also bring about thoughts of the newspaper article included in the text set. The example to be made is, if this boy was eight years old in the late 1950’s and holding this sign, what or where do you think he is now, fifty years later?


 * Text #5:** Poem
 * Citation:** Cullen, C. (2008). Incident. In Arp, T. R., & Johnson, J. //Perrine’s sound & sense an introduction to poetry twelfth edition// (pp. 116). Massachusetts: Boston.
 * Text Summary:** The poem is written in the first person reminiscing about a trip he took to Baltimore when he was eight years old. He saw a Baltimore boy of his age and smiled at him, and the boy stuck his tongue out and called him “Nigger.” He finishes the poem by stating he was in Baltimore for six months and saw every inch of the city, but all he remembers was the initial incident of racism he experienced.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text because it is short, simple and easy to read yet extremely powerful and moving.
 * Use of text:** This text will be used to engage students in reading beyond the text. Text, as in words on a page, has no race, unless a race is assigned to it. Before reading the poem the class may or may not know that the author is African American. The students in the class will be able to relate to the excitement of visiting a new place, and will be exposed to what it may feel like to experience racism. Once understanding how powerful racism can be on an individual level, students can grasp and better understand the harmful affects of racism.


 * B. Media Resources**
 * Text #6:** Videotape
 * Citation:** Bruckheimer, J., & Yakin, B. (2000). //Remember the titans.// United States of America: Walt Disney Productions
 * Text Summary:** The text shows the friction between races and people when a school is integrated from all white to biracial in Virginia in 1971. The text takes place seventeen years after the Supreme Court made its decision on banning basing schools on race. A white high school and a black high school are integrated into one. The text is shown through the high school’s football team, which is the only biracial team in the league. Together the white and black children on the high school football team deal with racism as well as getting beyond racism.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text because it is very moving and does a good job of showing the day-day issues that both white and black races faced when integrating schools.
 * Use of text:** The text will be used in a variety of ways. If the class has been working hard, a movie day always seems like a “break.” However, showing the movie is a good way to make a point that the teacher knows will get through to the students. All students in the class learn differently. For some students, reading all the texts in this text set and trying to comprehend their meanings may be overwhelming. When watching a movie it is possible to achieve the same point (illustrate the difficulties of racism and integrating schools) while eliminating the struggles of comprehending a difficult and complex text.


 * Text #7:** Online Audio clip
 * Citation:** King, M. L., (1963, August 28). I have a dream. Audio retrieved from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
 * Text Summary:** The text is an audio clip of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, with the speech typed out beneath it.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text because it is possibly one of the most important speeches given during the Civil Rights movement.
 * Use of text:** This text will be used as an example for the students. The speech is extremely moving, and much more effective when it is heard straight from the speaker’s mouth. Martin Luther King Jr. was an icon of the movement, as well as an extremely powerful speaker. The class will listen to the passion behind the speech, and will believe it. After having heard the speech, the words on the paper will hold more meaning for the students, and will leave the class at a place where together with the teacher a deeper meaning or understanding of the speech can be accomplished.


 * C. Online interactive resources**
 * Text #8:** Themed website with interactive element
 * Citation:** Balkin, J. M., & Rodriguez, C. M., & Aguero, P. (2001). //The Chronology.// Retrieved from http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/brown/1954.html
 * Text Summary:** This is an interactive website featuring a time line starting at 1502 and continuing through the present. Each year that you click on contains information about struggles the African American race faced throughout history. From the 1950’s to the present discusses heavily the Civil Rights movement.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text as part of the text set because it contains a lot of material and instances regarding the Civil Rights movement as well as current things that some books may not have.
 * Use of text:** This text will be used to demonstrate to students that the Civil Rights movement is a continuous movement, as well as expose them to the sheer volume of instances that make-up the movement.


 * Text #9:** Online museum
 * Citation:** National Civil Rights Museum, (2009). //Museum Experience: Permanent Exhibits.// http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/permexhibits.htm
 * Text Summary:** This website is an interactive museum of the Civil Rights movement. The exhibits are uploaded onto the website and can be accessed by students on the Internet.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text for the text set because it is the National Museum of Civil Rights, which pertains directly to the unit Civil Rights movement. Also the museum is located in Tennessee, which is not accessible for a field trip from the northeast.
 * Use of text:** This text will be used by students to help them complete an assignment regarding the Civil Rights movement. For example, a teacher may assign the students to select an exhibit online and write about its significance in the Civil Rights movement.


 * D. Instructional Resources**
 * Text #10:** Quality lesson plan found online.
 * Citation:** Raff, T. (2008). //Lesson plans library: The civil rights movement.// Retrieved from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/freeatlast/
 * Text Summary:** The text is an interactive lesson plan posted online including objectives, materials, procedures, adaptations, discussion questions, evaluation, extensions and suggested readings.
 * Rationale:** I selected this text because it is very professionally done and contains much of the same material that I used.
 * Use of text:** I will use this text to help guide myself through the extensive material that is the Civil Rights movement. There are so many topics and things to discuss it could become easy to lose focus or get off track with the class.


 * Using these texts together in the classroom:** To foster learning in a classroom, each student in the classroom would read each of the texts mentioned above. There is a broad reference book that is only forty-eight pages and contains pictures and timelines, as well as definitions and primary sources such as quotes. After having read the reference book the students in the class would have a frame of reference as to what the unit we would be studying is about. After discussing Brown vs. Board of Ed., students would be able to read the newspaper article about how segregation still exists even today. After examining the environmental text (sign being held up by a young white boy, maybe eight-ten years old), the class would then read the poem “Incident.” The poem is about an “incident” of racism that the writer experienced as an eight year old in Baltimore. Once the class has gone over the poem, listening to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech would tie in nicely. The poem being about a white child being racist to the African American writer as a child, and the speech containing the text “one day little black boys and little black girls will hold hands with little white boys and white girls.” After the class is comfortable with the unit and has been working hard on the texts, showing the film “Remember the Titans” would do a good job of summarizing what the class should have just learned about racism and desegregating schools. The two interactive websites would be used at the end of the unit in accordance with an assignment. Students should have a good grasp on the material, and the interactive websites should be enough scaffolding for the class to complete a project or a paper on the topic of Civil Rights movement.


 * Learning Objectives:** Students will take a deeper meaning from the Civil Rights movement, looking beyond the key players (Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr.) to understand that everyone in the country was affected (RIPTS #1- using a broad base of general knowledge that reflects an understanding of the nature of the world in which we live). Students should have a better understanding of the nature of the world in which we live.

Student should be able to successfully write a five-paragraph paper about the Civil Rights movement, citing at least three sources from the text set (at least one must be a written text). This objective is connected to RIPTS #4; the teacher will create instructional opportunities that reflect a respect for the diversity of learners and an understanding of how students differ in the approaches to learning. By allowing each student to select their own texts, which include reference books, poems, pictures, audio, video, and interactive websites to cite it is allowing students to succeed using an approach to learning that they are comfortable with.

Mike, First of all I think this is a great topic and a good grade level to teach it at. After reading the diverse text set I think it is clear that the combination of these texts will easily grab the students' attention and intrigue them in the topic. To begin with text one being the case of //Brown v. The Board of Education// is a great way to begin because a historical point of view that is a core topic of civil rights in our country. In my opinion the fact that you used a newspaper article about issues in today's time is good because it shows the student's how this relates to them today. I like the idea of using an interview of such a strong figure in this movement as a primary source document. This allows the kids to see what it was like not only for activists in the civil rights movement but for some of its more known figures. The use of the movie //Remember the Titans// is a good choice of a film to show. It is a movie that will holds the students' attention, also most students have probably seen this movie, the reason i like this choice is that by discussing the civil rights movement before watching the movie the students' will pick up different themes and motifs than watching the movie outside the classroom. I think the piece that brings everything together is the audio clip of Dr. King's famous //I Have a Dream// speeech. As you stated it is powerful and moving which will make the students' think about everything they learned from the other texts. -Adam Dale

Mike, I really like the collection of texts that you chose to use in your Diverse Text set. The Civil Right Movement is something that can be taught in a variety of ways, and I think it was a good choice to focus on the political and emotional struggles caused by the movement, as well as using more current texts to show that it might not be as complete as it should be. I think that using Remember the Titans in your lesson is a genius move, that is a movie that shows the struggle of the Civil Rights movement outside of just the bus boycotts, marches and speeches students have already learned about; it is a glimpse at what such a broad event can do to a small town. I also really like the fact that you are using texts challenging your students to understand the Civil Rights Movement not only on a factual level, but also on an emotional level. Your lesson reinforces the fact that the people involved with this movement weren't heroic figures, destined to make these great changes, but ordinary people living ordinary lives who refused to take the unfair treatment presented to them and forced the world to change. Ryan Lafond