King's Mountaintop
Inspiration Books:
Martin rising : requiem for a King by Pinkney, Andrea Davis — Scholastic Press, 2018 811; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 6.1. Presents a collection of poems that looks at the final months of Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. CCBC 2019, NSSTB 2019
Memphis, Martin, and the mountaintop : the Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Duncan, Alice Faye-- Calkins Creek, an imprint of Highlights, 2018 331.892; Int Lvl: 3-6; Rd Lvl: 6.8. Recounts the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis, Tennessee, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his final speech to strikers the night before his assassination, and details the perseverance of strikers before and after his death. NFD, NSST
B 2019
Rationale: Once in a while it’s important to take a look at where you’ve been and where you want to go. This Books Alive entry made me go back to the post titled “What Books Alive is All About” https://www.mybooksalive.com/2020_03_01_archive.html and reaffirm the basic mission statement:
MISSION STATEMENT: Assist librarians and classroom teachers in sharing newer quality science and social studies trade book literature to teach basic subject and library skills.
The lessons will be designed to be team taught as part of a library curriculum and classroom science or social studies curriculum. I am a firm believer in curricular planning and do not support an isolated library curriculum.
As a result, usually the Books Alive posts are lessons based on a book or two. Posts may contain specific lessons, activities and ideas I have already used and found to be successful, ways to make a book come alive. This entry is completely different. It’s an idea I have, simply an idea, but one I think could be powerful. Thus, for the last summer entry featuring people of color, I’d like to share my idea for the magnificent poetry of Andrea Davis Pinkney in the book Martin Rising : Requiem for a King.
Why? The subtitle of the Inspiration Book is Requiem for a King. As I read the book I could hear and feel the powerful music of a requiem mass celebrating the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr. I was moved by this title. The result is an idea for a performance of the book to honor Dr. King on his birthday celebration in January or on the day of his death in March.
How do I justify a performance as part of the library curriculum and activities? It’s easy. As mentioned in part of the mission statement, “I am a firm believer in curricular planning and do not support an isolated library curriculum.” This would be an all school, well, at least the upper grades or middle school project and would involve many people and many classes for a two to three week period in January or March. I am also a firm believer in placing the library and its print and technology resources in the middle of the whole school. The librarian is really the curriculum specialist for a given school. As you will read below, the process of preparation for the performance will include research, planning, brainstorming, recitation, music, art, and technology. And, hopefully you’re more creative than I and will include other learning skills in new and interesting and exciting ways.
Grades 5-8--My Idea(s):
Martin Rising is a collaborative work of Andrea Pinkney’s poetry and her husband Brian’s illustrations. Share this book with the music teacher, the art teacher, the technology teacher (if you aren’t the technology teacher), and the middle school language arts and/or social studies teacher(s). Read the book together.
Promote the concept of a performance for the entire school and/or the community either in person or online. The script is the poetry in the book.
Brainstorm, with the above educators, the possibilities for performance
Live performance could include music and recitation
Online performance could include the above but live-streamed or using an app like Zoom.
Duel performance could include music, slides, video, and recitation, some of which is live and some online or computer driven.
Teacher and staff responsibilities:
The music teacher would help students locate appropriate music--instrumental, choral, requiems, music of the 60s that could be taped or performed for or during the performance. The music teacher prepares the students for performance.
The art teacher would help students create staging, slide or live-stream designs, and explore other illustrations by Brian Pinkney.
The technology teacher sets requirements for student technology input and assists with production and instructs the use of any new technology.
Language arts teachers select which students read or recite which poems and then prepares the students for performance.There are almost forty poems, long and short that can be assigned for solo readin, recitation, dual, or choral recitation.
Social studies teachers fill in historical background of King’s last days by reading Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop by Alice Faye Duncan, the secondary Inspiration Book, and researching and discussing the Civil Rights Movement. Use the listed Related Notable Social Studies Trade Books for reference.
Office personnel, other staff, and volunteers
Develop and distribute promotional materials.
Set-up and clean-up.
Assist with technical and stage equipment.
I would love to hear from any of you who might be brave and will try this idea.
Related Notable Social Studies Trade Books
We march by Evans, Shane — Square Fish, Roaring Brook Press, 2016 -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 1.2. Illustrations and brief text portray the events of the 1963 march in Washington, D.C., where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a historic speech.
Enough! : 20 protesters who changed America by Easton, Emily — Crown Books for Young Readers, 2018 323; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 1.5. A nonfiction picture book that briefly introduces twenty historic leaders, including Samuel Adams, Harriet Tubman, Jazz Jennings, and Colin Kaepernick.
Mama Africa! : how Miriam Makeba spread hope with her songby Erskine, Kathryn — Farrar Straus Giroux, 2017 782.42163; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 1.6. A ... picture biography of civil-rights activist and Grammy Award-winning South African singer Miriam Makeba.
Sit-in : how four friends stood up by sitting down by Pinkney, Andrea Davis — Little, Brown, 2010 323.1196; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.9. A picture book that celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-in at the lunch counter at Woolworth's as a protest against segregation. FREE Teaching Resources available for download at www.titlewave.com
The cart that carried Martin by Bunting, Eve — Charlesbridge, 2013 323; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 3.6. Tells the story of the faded wooden cart that was borrowed to carry the body of Martin Luther King, Jr. through the streets of Atlanta, Georgia, on the day of his funeral. CCBC
She stood for freedom : the untold story of a civil rights hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland by Mulholland, Loki — Shadow Mountain, 2016 323; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 4.6. Biography of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland follows her from her childhood in 1950s Virginia through her high school and college years, when she joined the Civil Rights Movement, attending demonstrations and sit-ins. She also participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961 and was arrested and imprisoned. Her life has been spent standing up for human rights. FREE Teaching Resources available for download at www.titlewave.com
Heroes of history by Ganeri, Anita — Little Bee Books, 2015 920.02; Int Lvl: 3-6; Rd Lvl: 5.3. Meet the world's most remarkable, clever, and courageous characters!"--Front cover.;Includes index.;Chapter 1. Warriors: Sir William Marshal ;Joan of Arc -- Saigo Takamori -- Geronimo -- Chapter 2. Explorers: Sir Walter Raleigh ;Roald Amundsen ;Amelia Earhart ;Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard -- Chapter 3. Rulers: Ramesses II ;Elizabeth I ;George Washington ;Napoleon Bonaparte -- Chapter 4. Rebels: Spartacus ;Martin Luther ;Harriet Tubman ;Oskar Schindler -- Chapter 5. Innovators: Aristotle ;Leonardo da Vinci ;Charles Darwin ;Marie Curie -- Chapter 6. Trail blazers: Emmeline Pankhurst ;Mahatma Gandhi ;Franklin D. Roosevelt ;Martin Luther King Jr. " ... Explore the lives of twenty-four ... outstanding individuals through ... narratives, ... fictionalized diary entries, and informative timelines.
The Port Chicago 50 : disaster, mutiny, and the fight for civil rights by Sheinkin, Steve — Roaring Brook Press, 2014 940.54; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 6.7. Describes the fifty black sailors who refused to work in unsafe and unfair conditions after an explosion in Port Chicago killed 320 servicemen, and how the incident influenced civil rights. CCBC, CBS, NFD FREE Teaching Resources available for download at www.titlewave.com
The girl from the tar paper school : Barbara Rose Johns and the advent of the civil rights movement by Kanefield, Teri — Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2014 323; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 7.2. The tar paper shack problem -- A little child shall lead them -- The quiet embrace of the woods -- The time has come -- Stick with us -- Reaching for the moon -- Pupil lashes out at principal -- A lawsuit is filed- and the troubles begin -- The lost generation -- "Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing as gentle as strength." -- The birth of the civil rights movement. Describes the peaceful protest organized by teenager Barbara Rose Johns in order to secure a permanent building for her segregated high school in Virginia in 1951, and explains how her actions helped fuel the civil rights movement.
Because they marched : the people's campaign for voting rights that changed America by Freedman, Russell — Holiday House, 2014 323.1196; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 7.7. ;The day the teachers marched -- "White folks' business" -- Selma's students lead the way -- "March, dammit!" -- Bloody Sunday -- Turnaround Tuesday -- A good day to be alive -- Because they marched. Provides an account of the march for African American voting rights led by Dr. Martin Luther King in January 1965. NFD, CCBC
Marching to the mountaintop : how poverty, labor fights, and civil rights set the stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final hours by Bausum, Ann — National Geographic, 2012 323; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 7.7. Death in Memphis -- Strike! -- Impasse -- A war on poverty -- Marching in Memphis -- Last days -- Death in Memphis, reprise -- Overcome. Examines the link between the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., discussing how the strike, the media, politics, the civil rights movement, and the labor protests all laid the foundations for what many consider to be King's greatest speech, given just days before he was killed, and how that speech and King's death influenced the end of the strike. CCBC
Birmingham Sunday by Brimner, Larry Dane — Calkins Creek, 2010 323.1196; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 8.2. Provides an account of the racially-motivated bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, which resulted in the deaths of four children, and discusses how the tragedy spurred the passage of the landmark 1964 civil rights legislation.
Young, gifted and black : meet 52 black heroes from past and present by Wilson, Jamia — Wide Eyed Editions, an imprint of The Quarto Group, 2018 920.0092; Int Lvl: 3-6; Rd Lvl: 8.9. This book brings together 52 iconic talents from the past and present and celebrates their inspirational achievements. Meet figureheads, leaders and pioneers such as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks, as well as cultural trailblazers and sporting heroes, including Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey and Serena Williams.
