Sharlene Lien
SLIS 5960.005
Multicultural Literature Activities
Youth Literature
Activity
About the Book:
·
Burning Up. Caroline
B. Cooney. Delacourte Press. New York: 1999.
ISBN 0385323182 (Hardcover). 230
Pages.
Interest
Level: YA
Fifteen-year-old
Macey Clare decides to investigate a fire that took place 40 years ago for her
history project. Macey soon gets
suspicious when everyone, including her own grandparents, try to persuade her
to forget about it. She quickly learns
that the fire may have been set intentionally to frighten away the town’s first
black teacher.
Interwoven
among this investigation are Macey’s own feelings of grief and a search for
herself after she meets a new friend volunteering at an inner city church and
that friend is killed in a drive by shooting.
About the Author:
Caroline
B. Cooney was born in 1947. While in
College, she discovered her love of writing.
Some of her most notable books include: Driver's Ed (An ALA Best Book for Young
Adults, an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults, and a Booklist Editors'
Choice), Among Friends (A New York Public Library Books for the Teen
Age), Twenty Pageants Later (An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult
Readers).
Her
popular books include: The Face on the Milk Carton, Whatever Happened to
Janie? and The Voice on the Radio.
When
asked about her writing, Caroline states, "I love writing and do not know
why it is considered such a difficult, agonizing profession. I love all of it,
thinking up the plots, getting to know the kids in the story, their parents,
backyards, pizza toppings."
Caroline has three grown children and lives in Westbrook, Connecticut.
(Caroline
Cooney information taken from: www.randomhouse.com/teachers/authors/burn.html)
Objectives:
*Students
will have a strong understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, some notable
people of this movement, and what life what like during this time of turmoil.
·
Students will learn terminology of the Civil Rights
Movement such as integration, segregation, Jim Crow laws, racism, and
prejudice.
·
Students will discuss current problems they experience
because of race and what society is doing to prevent hate/race crimes today.
·
Students will understand that each generation has societal
issues that must be addressed in a fair and reasonable manner.
Materials needed:
Picture books listed below.
Access to computer- preferably a lab.
Posterboard, scissors, magazines, newspapers, and glue.
Before Activity:
Students
will be read a variety of picture books that discuss segregation
including: The Story of Ruby Bridges
by Robert Coles. Through My
Eyes, by Ruby Bridges, Goin’ Someplace Special by Patricia
McKissack, and The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson.
Although
these are picture books, they can still be used with older students to
introduce the topic of racism and segregation.
They would be used to prompt discussions about what we already know
about this time period and what we still need to know.
During Reading:
This would be a good book to do as a read aloud so that
Civil Rights issues can be addressed throughout the book.
·
When the time period of 1959 is brought up- we will discuss
what life was like during that time and what was happening with integration
during that year.
·
When Macey volunteers to help at an inner city church and
her friend is killed during a drive by shooting, we will discuss some of the
problems we face today.
·
Throughout this book, students will be required to make
journal entries about topics discussed.
Some of these entries will be made up of feelings and others will be
answers to given prompts.
·
When we finish, we will discuss what types of racism are
still experienced today and examples.
·
A great picture book that fits extremely well with Burning
Up is Patricia Polacco’s, Mr.
Lincoln’s Way. We will read this book and discuss the
similarities of this story with Burning
Up.
After Reading Activity:
Students
will be given posterboard, magazines, magazines, markers, paints, scissors, and
glue.
Students
will be instructed to make a collage on one side of their posterboard that
depicts some current day societal issues we are facing and would probably not
want to talk about to our grandchildren (much like Macey’s grandparents). Some examples would include: homelessness,
hate crimes, drug addiction, homocide, etc.
On the
other side of the posterboard, students will make another collage that depicts
what we are doing as a society to help alleviate these problems such as the
DARE program for drugs and Get Rage for smoking, etc. Students will also include how they personally can help with
these issues such as serving food at a homeless shelter, becoming a Big Brother
or Big Sister, or any other volunteering service.
Extending the Activity:
There are
numerous ways this activity can be extended.
Using this book as a starting point; an in-depth look at the Civil
Rights Movement can be developed.
Some areas that can be discussed; along with websites include:
To learn more about some of the Jim Crow laws, look at: http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm
To learn
more about the Greensboro sit-ins along with live audio interviews of the people who instigated this
famous sit- ins, look at:
To hear an Oral History of the Civil Rights, try:
http://www-dept.usm.edu/~mcrohb/html/cd/intro.htm
There is
also a good tolerance site that gives ideas about settling differences and
getting to know others at:
It may be a little young for YA students but is a great
resource for
teachers and parents.
A good
website for volunteering ideas:
Evaluation:
Students
will be evaluated on a number of criteria, including; participation in class
discussions over materials read, journal entries, and the cumulative collage.