Team+JR!

Jennifer Lee, Nicole H, Katina B, Jaffranna C

Hey Ladies,

I will be the first to say, I love __Jackie and Me__ much more than I expected to. It has everything we need: baseball history, civil rights history, segregation, ethnic identity and perception. Needless to say, this book is much too long to expect 3rd graders to read independently. It makes for a great read aloud. If we read a chapter or so a day, this could last the duration of the unit. It could also really spark some interesting conversations about race and equality. In Chapter 5 when the kid turns Black.... priceless. He tries to rub off the color, to no avail. I love how he talks about feeling the same as always, but being treated differently by others. I think the book also describes Jackie Robinson's first game at Ebbet's field in a way that children can understand. It makes him seem more real and the book takes the opportunity to add details that most non-fiction books leave out, like the fact that Jackie's voice was high pitched and his wife was a nurse. I love also that the book looks at players like Dixie Walker (famous for opposing the integration of the Dodgers) objectively. It would have been cheap to paint him by our current racial tolerance standards. But this took place in 1947 and times were much different. Walker was concerned about a backlash in his Southern hometown where he had business investments. All in all, I think this text is awesome and would be great way to provide additional info about JR's life, baseball accomplishments, racial discrimination, segregation, professional sports, etc. We would use the daily read aloud to link something we read to something going on in our world today, via news clips or news paper articles. That may be too ambitious. What do you guys think?

Katina

I agree with you Katina. This book really touches upon so many interesting and provoking topics! I love how the book incorporates different themes and concepts while still keeping it engaging for kids. Like my kids in my student teaching place say, this book has "so much action!" I feel like it may be too ambitious to link the daily read alouds to current events everyday but we could definitely do that at least once a week. What I think is so great about the book is that it really describes in detail the hardships of being black. For example, when Joe gets into a little altercation with the other white bat boy and the boy begins to chase Joe down the street while yelling that Joe stole his gold watch (even those Joe was not even wearing a watch), the way the authors describes the whole situation and how Joe is feeling makes you feel like you are Joe; you become nervous and scared for Joe, or like you are Joe. I think that it really helps students understand what it was like to be black. They are not just learning facts, they are becoming emotionally attuned to what black people had to experience (if that makes sense...).

I also liked how the book is built upon the idea of baseball cards. We could definitely include that in our lesson, possibly a math lesson and an art one. We could look at the different values of the cards from when they first came out to what they are worth now. The students could make graphs or answer math words problems based on these baseball cards. Also, we talked about teaching baseball to the students and possibly playing baseball, right? This means the class would be like a baseball team. We could create baseball cards for each other. Each student would be assigned to make a baseball card for another student. They would have to collect information about the other student, birthday, interest, so on, write a talent that the student has, and draw a picture of the student. This would be both an art project and a community building activity. What do you think?

-Jen

J. Lee, you are a genius! I love the baseball card idea. It could be a great team building (no pun intended) exercise. We could copy photos of each player onto card stock or index card. It would be so cute! A baseball card link to math would also be good. We can look up the values of some baseball cards and do some place value(for really valuable ones) or do multiplication (with inexpensive ones). You were totally right about the social justice conversation being too much.Once a week is perfect. Maybe on Monday so that the conversation can continue during the course of the read aloud.

A Black male being mistaken for a criminal..... Where have I heard that before? I could spend an entire year on that social justice issue alone. This book does make the inequality Black people have experienced real for youngsters. It also indirectly highlights how little things have changed. This book is awesome. It is totally the gift that keeps on giving. It is perfect for this unit. You did good finding this one.

Katina

I have to say you ladies have it down pack. This book is like a treasure, one of my main concerns was finding literature that was appropriate for our children to develop the unit. I agree with you both the topics that are touch in the book is presented to children in a way they can understand. Even for teacher I think there is a message. In the chapter where Joe is assigned to write about an African American person that has made a change to the world. He insisted to write about Jackie Robinson that was related to his interest in sports. As teachers this is something we need to have in mind. We need to be flexible at times and aloud a student to do something of their interest as long as it is related to the topic.

I was also thinking that the picture on the book with the note to Jackie can really be used in a lesson; we can use it to show the students the things he had to put up with. Also we can have the children sympathize with Jackie by asking them how they will feel if they get a note saying something similar.

Jennifer I think that the Card idea is phenomenal, especially because it is like the vehicle in the book to meet all the important events in the book. When doing this we can also have them choose a year and a team they will like to be in. Jaffranna

This is brilliant! Of course, I love the baseball card idea. I love the images that accompany the text. There are some powerful scenes that are not necessarily overly dramatic but are great discussion topics. For example, in Chapter 8, the African American fans were described as dressed up "like they were going to church." It was such a simple but powerful image. We could talk about what people might wear to a baseball game and why Robinson's fans dressed the way they did. In the same chapter, there was a scene where Robinson's team members slowly move away from him during the Star Spangled Banner. This was so emotional because the team is described as a "unit" and Robinson is isolated. This isolation can definitely be related to the lives of the students because there will inevitably been many cases where students will purposely exclude somebody. In Chapter 9, Robinson needs to go out through a different exit because he wants to avoid trouble. This made me think about the similarities and differences between Robinson and present-day celebrities. They both might need separate exits but they both are being sought out for different reasons. Finally, there was a scene where we could see the effects of Robinson being on the team. A group kids were playing stickball in the street. Some of them invited Joe to play while some refused to play with him. They refer to the fact that Robinson is now on Dodgers. This is a small step to eliminating the separation.

_Nicole