Grade 4 Reading & Writing
Study Bibles 26
Lesson 1: Reading “Rosa Parks: The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” and “february 12, 1963”
For parents: This unit reads Brown Girl Dreaming. The book is not included here: borrow it from your library or buy a copy before you start (Core Knowledge lists it on the unit page).
One lesson is about a school day of language arts (60–90 minutes): reading, then writing, grammar, morphology or spelling. Read the teacher’s lesson plan first; you can split a long lesson over two days.
Words to know
- unfree
- not able to control one’s own life or choices
- dawn
- the first daylight in a day when the sun is rising
- dusk
- the last daylight in a day when the sun is setting
- gourd
- a large fruit with a hard outer shell
- constellation
- a group of stars in the sky that looks like an object, an animal, or a person; the group of stars is given a name
- explode
- to burst open because of too much pressure inside
- enslave
- to capture and put someone under the control of someone else
- emancipate
- to set free from slavery or from being under the control of someone else (emancipated) (2) Begin by telling students the first vocabulary word they will encounter in this selection is unfree. Have them find the word on page 1 of the book. Explain that a glossary that contains definitions of all the vocabulary words in Brown Girl Dreaming
Teacher’s lesson plan
Read this first: the steps, materials and timing for today’s lesson, straight from the Teacher Guide.
Read
Read “Rosa Parks: The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” and “february 12, 1963” in Brown Girl Dreaming.
Read it aloud together, or let your student read on their own, then use the questions below.
Activity Book pages
Your student completes these during the lesson (take-home pages are marked on the page). Print them, or have your student answer in a notebook.
Activity Page 1.1: Vocabulary for “february 12, 1963” by Jacqueline Woodson (Activity Book, 2 pages)
Student Resource 3: Glossary for Brown Girl Dreaming (Activity Book, 8 pages)
Check for understanding
- Pick one of today’s words and use it in a sentence of your own.
For offline study
Download these once and you can teach this unit without the internet.
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