Ashley Stoker

Annotated Bibliography

April 27, 2012

Civil Rights

Introduction:

I chose to look in to the Civil Rights Movement for my annotated bibliography because I would like to teach a unit on the movement to my students. This topic is always something that sparks a high interest level with my students. I am currently teaching 5th grade but most of the sources I have found that I would like to use could be used for multiple grade levels with minor adaptions. Our Social Studies book does not cover the Civil Rights period because we focus more on the early United States. With my current schedule, it is very hard to fit Social Studies in to our day. I think with a topic such as the Civil Rights Movement, I would be able to fit the content of the unit into part of my reading and writing block. I am very passionate about this movement and I enjoy sharing knowledge with my students. I look forward to using these sources to help educate students about a very influential part of our history.

Statement:

I plan on teaching a Civil Rights Unit to a 5th grade audience. I would like to start with the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 and finish the unit with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I plan on covering several Civil Rights activists and their roles in the struggle for race equality. I would like to teach the students about the struggle and the ambition people had to have in order to fight to change the laws. A large focus of my unit will be on the protests, boycotts, marches and nonviolent and violent protest methods. Most of the geographical focus will be in cities in the south during the movement.

Bibliography

Acadamy of Achievement . Museum of Living History. Acadamy of Achievement. 1996. (accessed April 2012).

This website contains an interview with Rosa Parks about her life and her involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. There is also biographical information about her that could be used for student or teacher background knowledge. There are also several pictures that can be used as primary sources. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is also on video as well as Maya Angelou’s interpretation of the speech. This information could be used for any grade level.

Bridges, Ruby. Through My Eyes. Scholastic Press, 1999.

This autobiography of Ruby Bridges exposes the reader to intimate details of Ruby’s role in helping to integrate the William Frantz Elementary School in the 1960’s. Ruby takes the reader on adventures that she endured daily on her journey to school. This book is a great source to use to get students interested in learning about civil rights and what segregated and integrated schools were like in the south. The picture book is very informational and interesting which helps to add to the students background knowledge. This book is appropriate for any age but would most likely be used in an elementary classroom.

Kittinger, Jo S. Rosa's Bus. Boyds Mill Press, 2010.

This book tells the story about how buses were segregated and what Rosa Parks’ role was in helping to integrate the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950’s. This picture book would be most appropriate for grades 2-5. It would be a good book to use to help students understand what exactly went on in the south and what public transportation looked like during the time of Jim Crow laws and segregation.

Mcwhorter, Diane. A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968. Scholastic Nonfiction, 2004.

This book is an informational source that presents many of the influential events of the Civil Rights Movement. This would be a good book to use with upper elementary students, grades 3-6, to introduce them to the events that took place in the 1950’s and 60’s that caused the movement to progress.

Neok12. Civil Rights Movement. NeoK12. 2011. (accessed April 2012).

This website contains educational videos, quizzes, games and lesson plans about the Civil Rights Movement. The information from this website can be used for grades kindergarten to 12th. I would plan on using this website for the multiple videos and pictures about the Civil Rights. Some of the videos are recordings and others are slideshows of pictures put to words. There are videos about freedom riders, Brown vs. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Sit-ins, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Little Rock Nine, March on Washington, Martin Luther King and many more.

Parks, Rosa. Rosa Parks: My Story . Puffin , 1999.

Used for upper elementary, this book is a great source to hook students into learning about the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. This autobiography of Rosa Parks is a wonderful informational source that helps to build background knowledge for students as well as create curiosity for the movement that Rosa helped to start.

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation . Greenwillow Books, 2008.

This poetic stylebook presents the many ideas associated with Rosa Parks and the effect the bus boycott had on the Civil Rights Movement. An adult that witnessed the struggle of segregation tells the story to a child. This story would be appropriate for elementary grades.

Public Broadcasting Services. PBS Teachers. PBS. 1995. http// (accessed April 2012).

This website has several elementary lesson plans for the Civil Rights Movement that correspond with books that can be read in the classroom. The lesson plans also includes several additional sources that accompany different types of content appropriate to the movement. This source could be used for grades 1-6. The additional sources that are included are valuable supplements that can be used to integrate other types of information through technology.

Rappaport, Doreen. The School is Not White!: A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement. Jump At The Sun, 2005.

This book shows what segregated schools were like in the 1960’s. This story is about a boy who finds out the difference in the “separate but unequal” schooling. Drew and his siblings end up in a white school and endure hatred, threats and teasing. The book also includes John F. Kennedy’s quote, "When Americans are sent to war, we do not ask for whites only. American students of any color should be able to attend any school." This story is intended for elementary aged students but could be used as an informational piece for any age group.

Schoch, Keith. Teach with Picture Books. Blogger. 2009. (accessed April 2012).

This source goes along with the children’s books, “Freedom Menu-The Greensboro Sit-ins” and “Sit –In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down”. It provides sources that can be used along with both of the read alouds in the classroom. There are sources such as readers’ theatres and videos that accompany many other children’s books that go along with children and their viewpoint on the struggle for civil rights equality.

Turck, Mary C. The Civil Rights Movement for Kids: A History with 21 Activities. Chicago: Chigago Review Press, 2000.

This is a very informative book that allows children to understand what the Civil Rights Movement was as well as what was happening in society at that time period. The book talks about notable activists involved with the movement as well as the role children played in the struggle. It talks about the 50-year struggle as well as how future generations can still help make a difference. Information about lunch-counter sit-ins, nonviolence workshops, freedom film festival, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Civil Rights Act of 1964 are presented through black and white pictures from newspapers, magazines, and other primary sources of the mid to late 20th century. This is an ideal trade book for grades 4-8.

Turck, Mary. "The Civil Rights Movement for Kids: A History with 21 Activities." Teaching Guide. Chigago Review Press. 2007.

kids.pdf (accessed April 2012).

This interactive teaching guide goes along with The Civil Rights Movement for Kids: A History with 21 Activities. The guide has evaluation questions for students as well as exciting ways to extend some of the activities from the book into the classroom. It also has some cross-curricular classroom activities that could be done as a whole group or as a self-directed project. These activities can be adapted to fit grade levels 4-8.

Weatherford, Carole Boston. Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins. Puffin Books, 2007.

This is a children’s book from a child’s perspective of what it was like to go to a lunch counter with her mother and be refused service because of the color of her skin. The little girl eventually sits down with her siblings and asks for a banana split. The book displays the mood of the Jim Crow Laws of the south as well as the peaceful protest method brought forth by Dr. King. It is a good book to share with elementary age students because it is told from a child’s perspective.

WGBH Education Foundation . American Experience. WGBH. 2006. (accessed April 2012).

These lesson plans could be used to teach parts of the Civil Rights Movement. Several lesson plans include vital information about the struggle as well as information that is needed for the background knowledge of teachers. One of the lessons includes information about the Little Rock Nine and a video that goes alone with school desegregation. This source could be used for any age student and would be helpful for the teacher to be educated with before presenting it to the students.

American Experience. WGBH Education Foundation. 2010. (accessed April 2012).

This primary source contains information about the Brown vs. Board of Education court case. This information can be used as a resource for students learning about the court case and its impact in the struggle for civil rights as well as for teacher’s background knowledge. This source is something everyone learning about civil rights should know about but I would use this particular source to study with upper elementary and middle school students.

American Experience. WGBH Education Foundation. 2010. (accessed April 2012).

This Civil Rights primary source is a detailed description of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This would be a great source to use to study with upper elementary/middle school aged students or it could be used for the teacher’s background knowledge. It could also be used as a student resource. Anyone studying or learning about civil rights will hear about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and this source is a good document to use to know exactly what it is and what it says.

American Experience. WGBH Education Foundation. 2010. (accessed April 2012).

This primary source is an informational source about John F. Kennedy’s Civil Rights announcement. Like the previous two, it is a detailed description of the announcement that would good to use as a student resource or for the teacher’s background knowledge. This source would be ideal for upper elementary/middle school aged students.

WGBH Education Foundation. American Experience. PBS Public Broadcasting Service. 2010. (accessed April 2012).

This is PBS film; “The Road to Memphis” talks about the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The video discusses events leading up to the murder as well as what happened after. This would be a good video to show to older students. There are also pictures with descriptions involved in the event. The pictures and descriptions help to clear up misconceptions about the tragedy.

Wiles, Deborah. Freedom Summer. Aladdin, 2005.

Used as an informational source to build background knowledge for students, this book is appropriate for all levels but specifically elementary aged students. It is about two boys, one white and one black, who form a friendship despite the segregation laws. The story follows the boys through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as many different instances they experience together involving the inevitable segregation endured in the south.

Woodson, Jacqueline. The Other Side. Putnam Juvenile , 2001.

Appropriate for primary aged students, this book is about an African American girl who becomes friends with a white girl despite of their racial differences and their parents’ strict orders to stay on their own side of the fence. The girls’ curiosity gets the best of them and their friendship begins to blossom based off of the curiosity they have developed in the segregated, opposite race.

Zee, Ruth Vander. Mississippi Morning . Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2004.

This children’s book is about a child’s experience with the Klu Klux Klan. Two boys, one white and one black end up finding information out about the klan that shocks them both. LeRoy, the African American boy, has been warned about the klan and informs his friend James on some of the hate crimes that have happened in their area. It comes out later that James finds out his father; his role model is a member of the klan that LeRoy had told him about. This book is an informational book that can be used to help students understand the effect the KKK had on the Civil Rights Movement and segregation of the south. This book could be read to any elementary age but would probably be most beneficial to 2-5 grades.

Conclusion:

I learned so much this semester about many of the movements that we discussed and read about in class. I am very passionate about the Civil Rights Movement and I feel that it is so important to teach to students so that they may one day help to educate others in hopes that we can continue progressing with the movement for equality. For me, it was very moving to learn how different life was for people just 60 years ago. It is important to remember that while we have made progress with this movement, we have not achieved equality. Although there are laws in place now that were created to provide protection for groups of people, the fight is still not over. It was once said that we work hard to change the laws but we must work even harder to change the hearts of people. If anything, I have learned that this struggle is far from over. It can only get better with education.

Movements of the 20th century all had at least one thing in common. That one thing is unity. People from all over had to come together to fight for what they believed needed to be changed in order to make life equal for all walks of life. The passion and morality shared among people involved in the movements was something that was refreshing to learn about. Throughout all of the hatred, the passion from these people proved to be victorious in the legal system.

I am forever grateful to the activists that made a difference for the Civil Rights Movement. Their courageous acts of bravery will be echoed in our country’s history forever. These activists also create a strong influential impact in the hearts of many Americans, today. People such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges and many others show us how passion and unity can achieve great things.

(Acadamy of Achievement 1996)

(WGBH Education Foundation 2006)

(WGBH Education Foundation 2010)

(Weatherford 2007)

(Schoch 2009)

(M. C. Turck 2000)

(M. Turck 2007)

(Mcwhorter 2004)

(Pinkney 2008)

(Kittinger 2010)

(Rappaport 2005)

(Woodson 2001)

(Wiles 2005)

(Parks 1999)

(Bridges 1999)

(Zee 2004)

(Public Broadcasting Services 1995)

(Neok12 2011)