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An Examination of Civil Rights in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Kelsey Baker, Shelby Friesz, Brianne Keller & Brittany Russell

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An Examination of Civil Rights in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Kelsey Baker, Shelby Friesz, Brianne Keller & Brittany Russell Stories as History: An Examination of Civil Rights in Roll Of Thunder, Hear my Cry By Kelsey Baker, Shelby Friesz, Brianne Keller & Brittany Russell “Stories help us make sense of our lives and the lives around us, whether in history, literature, or art. A story is not a diversion; the best stories make our lives more understandable and focused.” ­ Wiggins and McTighe I. Unit Rationale Our country has a rich history regarding civil rights. Although covered in social study classrooms, there is fantastic literature available to teach that touches on the same topics and provides a window for our students to see what it was like amidst the civil rights struggle. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor provides insight into the life of the Taylor family during the 1930s. Set in rural Mississippi in the 1930’s, the story focuses on the tight­knit Logan family’s trials and triumphs as told by nine­year­old Cassie. The family confronts poverty exacerbated by the Great Depression, as well as challenges of separation, illness, and brutal racism. Taylor has said that these novels record "not only the joy of growing up in a large and supportive family, but my own feelings of being faced with segregation and bigotry.” It shows the culture of the oppressed African American community and the rights that were withheld from them. Focusing on civil rights issues and how it affects real people teaches our students the importance of equality and why we must fight against discrimination. It also provides perspective for students who have never experienced what it is like to be in the minority. By reading a book from the perspective of a young person amidst oppression, our students can see a part of life that they may have been lucky enough to avoid. Our discussions about the African American culture during this time will help our students better understand the characters and the struggles they encountered. With the study of civil rights, students begin to learn the power of questioning and the inherent need to develop a sense of “civic awareness.” The push for civil rights stemmed from their desire to be one with society, and they did so through understanding their society and questioning the validity of that same society. Matthew Lipman says, “To ask the question is to compel people to think differently about the world” (87). To be civically aware, students will begin to realize their role in their society and question whether they fulfill that role or if they should fulfill that role. They begin to enter into what Lipman refers to as the “community of inquiry.” He says, “Not all school is inquiry ­ far from it. For there to be inquiry, there must be some doubt that all is well, some recognition that one’s situation contains troubling difficulties and is somehow problematic. There must be self­correcting investigation” (94). Our unit fosters this community of inquiry and civic awareness by asking students to evaluate civil rights, both in the past and present. Through their reading of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, they begin to see the inconsistencies of society in the past and transfer that to their own society. They learn how civil rights began with minority groups questioning their place in society and using those questions as a tool to gain more equality. Students will see how that questioning sparked a movement that reached all facets of the society and began a change in thinking. Their work with this novel and the supplemental texts steeped in the civil rights movement will give them the launching pad for applying that same questioning to their current society, making them more civically aware. As students become more civically aware and enter into that community of inquiry, they begin to engage in critical literacy. Ira Shor says, “When we are critically literate, we examine our ongoing development, to reveal the subjective positions from which we make sense of the world and act in it” (1). This critical literacy goes hand in hand with civic awareness.When students read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, they encounter a protagonist around their age with similar experiences, but also vastly different experiences. This character invites them to engage in critical questioning that leads to reading into themselves, their community, and their world. Students can see themselves in this character and transfer her observations to their current society. They begin to question their role in society and how that relates to the civil rights they are still facing today. Freire says, “Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge” (81). With these past problems that are discussed in the study of civil rights through literature, students will see the current civil rights issues existing. As Freire says, our students will be able to rise to the challenge of eliminating the discrimination and inequality found in society because of the critical literacy skills they are developing through our unit. Once learners begin to recognize the connections to the text on a personal level, they open the doors to learning. According to Cushman and Rogers, authors of Fires in the Middle School Bathroom, students are continually searching for connectivity, though they may not realize it: “In every interaction kids have with [teachers] and the school, they are looking for information about themselves” (104). This unit will also connect with students on another level ­ the innate desire to create a just and fair world. Eighth graders are beginning to realize that not everyone is treated fairly. Whether they see this in their classrooms from peer to peer interactions, at home in the relationships with their families, or in everyday life ­ these students are just starting to form their morals. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a text relevant to students’ personal lives as it is rooted in the theme of social justice. Linda Christensen, a powerful advocate of social justice based curriculum writes, “Curriculum should be rooted in the students’ needs and in their experiences. It should be multicultural, antiracist, pro­justice…A social justice classroom is participatory and experiential. It’s academically rigorous.” Its absence could render serious consequences for, not only the student, but society. A social justice classroom privileges equality and sheds light on factions of society that have been deemed “non­normative” and “othered”. These injustices and silences will be uncovered and exposed through critical literacy. It is a teacher’s duty to create a community of acceptance and tolerance in our classrooms.The themes explored in this novel will require a safe place for students to encounter the brutality, racism, discrimination, and violence the characters endure. In her book, Critical Encounters in High School English, Deborah Appleman references the words of Henry Lois Gates Jr. when he said, “The teaching of literature is the teaching of values: not inherently, no but contingently...yes…” (56) If we see that prejudice exists, then it is our duty to reduce and eliminate these prejudices, specifically through literature. Our unit addresses the elements of nonfiction by focusing on issues that were highly publicized and controversial during the time period of the novel. We will also utilize the topic of civil rights to help our students recognize the importance of nonfiction texts as well as issues involving civil rights. By tying these two issues together, our students will be practicing and applying knowledge in a natural classroom setting. Our hopes are that our students will utilize their classroom experiences to broaden their worldview and how they interact with information as well as others around them. In addition, by introducing nonfiction elements to our students through real­life examples instead of a graphic organizer, they are much more likely to develop and master the skills targeted by district standards and our lesson plans. They will also be less likely to resist the practice of reading and analyzing nonfiction if they see it as relevant and compelling work that applies to their world. Ultimately, the goal of this unit is to broaden students’ appreciation and understanding of a particular historical period, as well as the varied and mutually­reinforcing ways to approach historical inquiry and writing. By delving into fiction and non­fiction civil rights text, students will come away understanding the importance using both mediums to studying or writing about a time period while gaining a deeper understanding of civil rights. The unit is designed to be taught to students in grade 8, as an intensive 4­week course II. Unit Outline A.) Pedagogical Orientation/Framework When designing our unit, we considered the ideas of Peter Smagorinsky and decided to develop our unit based on the theme of civil rights. Smagorinksy says that the unit “topic needs to help students develop frameworks for thinking about issues so that they can think about new situations (including new texts) through that framework” (118). While students may have been introduced to the idea of civil rights in previous classes, they will have the opportunity to do so through the new framework of literature. With this new framework, students will be given characters that relate to themselves and have universal experiences, such as the regular trials of growing up. Smagorinsky says that “a theme often refers to a set of experiences, ideas, concepts, or emotions shared by people within and often across cultures” (118). Through this connection with these universal experiences, students will connect to the literature and the unit theme and then push beyond the known into the new concepts of civil rights, both past and present, that they may have yet to experience in their daily lives.
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