Brown Girl Dreaming
Written by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books
2014
Reading Levels: Lexile- 990, Grade 4
2015 Newbery Award Winner
2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work
“civil rights, desegregation, memoir, powerful, struggle”
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.
Electronic Resources:
This is a link to Jacqueline Woodson’s website. This source
can be used by students and teachers to learn more about the author or complete
and authors study.
This interview is another source that can be used to learn
more about Jacqueline Woodson. In this interview she discusses growing up,
coming out, and her relationship with her family.
Teaching Suggestions
1. Vocabulary:
- Emancipate: free from slavery or servitude
- Injustice: the practice of being unjust or unfair
- Scholar: a learned person
- Furrow: a slight depression in the smoothness of a surface
- Lilt: a jaunty rhythm in music
- Immense: unusually great in size or amount
- Porcelain: ceramic ware made from a translucent ceramic
2. Before, During, and After Reading Strategies:
Before Reading:
Since this book is written in verse and centers on the
memories of Woodson’s childhood. Introduce the unique style of writing by
asking students to explore their own childhoods in the form of writing an “I am
from” poem. Ask students to explore crucial events as well as smaller details
that they experienced as a child. Provide students with examples for
inspiration
During Reading:
Have students complete an activity following the Jigsaw
model while reading to better understand the content of the text. Ask student
groups to read and discuss a poem about segregation from the point of view of
one of Woodson’s family members or friends. Then, ask students to meet in a
second group to learn about each of the other poems. This activity will
increase student comprehension by exploring the diverse ways the people in
Woodson’s life experienced events.
After Reading:
This book could be used to introduce a unit on the civil
right movement in the U.S. Woodson mentions specific significant figures and
events throughout the text that are pertinent to the movement. Ask students to
select a person or event that she mentions and conduct a small research project
on them or it. Students should be able to describe who or what the person or
event was and explain their significance to the civil rights movement.
Writing Activity:
Woodson’s book is about searching for her identity through
the ever-changing world she’s living in. She uses the quote; “I believe that
there is good in us no matter who we are or what we believe in. ”Ask students
to look at their own identities by writing a “This I Believe” essay. Walk
students through the writing process to examine what they truly believe in and
to find elements to add to their essay. Have students publish their work and
share with the class to extend the activity further.
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