Unit 4: A Long Journey to Freedom
In this fourth six-week unit of second grade, students read informational text and fictionalized accounts of the African-American journey to freedom.
Literary TextsSuggested Works: (E) indicates a CCSS exemplar text; (EA) indicates a text from a writer with other works identified as exemplars
Stories Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins (1960) (Carole Boston Weatherford and Jerome Lagarrigue) Poems “Words Like Freedom” (Langston Hughes) Stories (Read Aloud) Dear Mr. Rosenwald (1920) (Carole Boston Weatherford) Finding Lincoln (1951) (Ann Malaspina and Colin Bootman) The Other Side (1950s) (Jacqueline Woodson and E.B. Lewis) A Sweet Smell of Roses (1963) (Angela Johnson and Eric Velasquez) Freedom Summer (1964) (Deborah Wiles and Jerome Lagarrigue) Poems (Read Aloud) “Rosa” (Rita Dove) “Merry-Go-Round” (Langston Hughes) (EA) “Harriet Tubman” (Eloise Greenfield) “Lincoln” (Nancy Byrd Turner) Informational Texts Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad (1849) (Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson) Rosa Parks (Rookie Biographies) (1955) (Wil Mara) Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story (1960) (Ruby Bridges) Martin Luther King and the March on Washington (1963) (Frances E. Ruffin and Stephen Marchesi) (E) Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)(Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier) (EA) Informational Text (Read Aloud) Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (c.1820-1913) (Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson) Lincoln: A Photobiography (Russell Freedman) (E) A Picture Book of Jesse Owen (1935) (David A. Adler and Robert Casilla) The Story of Ruby Bridges (1960) (Robert Coles and George Ford) (E) Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down (1960) (Andrea D. and Brian Pinkney) Birmingham, 1963 (1963) (Carole Boston Weatherford) Art, Music, and Media Norman Rockwell, The Problem We All Live With (1963) Photographs of Ruby Bridges (1963) Disney, “Disney’s Ruby Bridges” (1998) |
OverviewBuilding on unit three’s “building bridges” focus, students recognize the long and multi-faceted effort to break down barriers to racial equality in the United States. By reading the true stories of Henry “Box” Brown, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, the Greensboro Four, and others, students see the links between historical events. Each student writes a narrative “from a box,” (i.e., in the style of Henry’s Freedom Box). They also write an opinion piece that is published digitally in a class presentation and possibly online.
Essential QuestionWhat do you need to remember when you are writing a narrative?
Focus StandardsRL.2.6: Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
RI.2.3: Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text. RI.2.9: Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic. W.2.1: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic of book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section. W.2.3: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe action, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure. W.2.6: With guidance from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. Harcourt Trophies:None
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