Choral Reading Exercise

Choral reading is an often overlooked strategy for building reading fluency. It is also a powerful tool to help students "hear" the voices of history and to provide a basis for learning about historical events. This learning experience as presented here focuses on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Quotes were pulled from websites and Russell Freedman's 2006 book, Freedom Walkers. Quotes from primary sources from any event in history can be used.

• New York State Social Studies Standards:
  • Key Idea 1.3: Study about the major social, political, economic, cultural, and religious developments in New York State and United States history involves learning about the important roles and contributions of individuals and groups.
  • H9: identify individuals who have helped to strengthen democracy in the United States and throughout the world.
• Purpose: This lesson provides students with the opportunity to "hear" the voices of people who lived through the Montgomery Bus Boycott and to begin to develop the understanding that history is the lived experience of diverse peoples. Through participation in this lesson, students will be able to place the Rosa Parks story within a broader, more accurate context and to begin to see the Montgomery Bus Boycott as a campaign for social change that didn't simply "happen" but that came about because large numbers of people participated in and contributed to this major social and political development.
• Materials:
  • Download our list of quotations. Feel free to edit them or to add any quotations about the boycott that you come across in your reading and research, as well.
  • Copy of quotations cut into strips.
• Number of class periods: 1

Connection

You should explain to the students the purpose of the day's lesson and how it fits into the broader context of the unit for study. You might say something like this:

"We have been learning about the Civil Rights movement in school. As part of this study, we have been learning about key events in the Civil Rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was one important event. We often think about Rosa Parks when we think about this event. Today, we are going to share out quotes from people who were involved in this event or who remember it. While we are reading the quotes, remember to be thinking like a historian: Ask yourself how this fits with what you already know, what questions it raises for you, and how different people's voices are important in this story."

Procedure:

1. Provide each student with a quote. (A sample of quotes from the Montgomery Bus Boycott follows. If you create your own, you should try to provide attribution for each quote).
2. Have students read their quote silently several times. This rehearsal will help students read aloud smoothly and with confidence. You may also want to have students practice reading their quote aloud for a partner.
3. When students are ready, explain to them that they will be reading quotes aloud in "popcorn" fashion -- there is no particular sequence. Students should just read their quote aloud when they are ready. The only rules are that only one person can read at a time and that they should read loudly enough for all to hear.
4. After everyone has shared, debrief the experience with the students. Consider some of the following questions to guide the conversation:
   • What did you learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott from this reading?
   • Did you hear anything that surprised you? Perhaps things that didn't match the story as you knew it from before?
   • What questions do you have about what you heard?
   • Was there any unusual language, words, or phrases that surprised you? Why?

Extensions:

• You can have students try to sort the quotes by speaker, by content, or by time frame. What other patterns do they notice?
• Students can select parts of the quotes and create a found poem with the excerpts.

Assessment

In the conversation that results from this exercise, listen for evidence that students understand that the participation of many people was necessary for the Boycott to succeed.

Written reflection

Have students work in pairs or small groups to complete the following statements:

• I used to think..., but now I realize....
• I used to think..., but now I wonder....

Comparing Biographies: Rosa Parks

In teaching history, we want to help our children to build understanding of big historical concepts and ways of thinking. One important literacy skill we can help students develop is through social studies instruction is to critically question texts while reading.

When historians read, they pay close attention to sources of information, draw upon their knowledge of the historical context, and are constantly asking questions of the text and themselves to verify evidence. In using trade books in the social studies classroom, we want to enable students to read critically and not just to acquire information from a text unquestioningly.

Through reading several biographies about one person, students can begin to question the versions of the texts they are reading and begin to uncover the authors' purpose or bias in creating these different versions.

There are many biographies available on Rosa Parks. These biographies are written with different levels of complexity. By providing students with diverse versions, and scaffolding their critical reading of these texts, we can begin to foster a questioning stance in our readers. An additional benefit to providing these different versions is that they provide us with an authentic, differentiated task that allows all students to participate in rigorous learning experiences.

Most of the books on the following list are solely about Rosa Parks. Two books, Freedom Walkers, by Russell Freedman, and Let It Shine, by Andrea Davis Pinkney, have chapters specifically relating to Rosa Parks.

Students should read the biographies in small groups or clubs and then work together to complete the worksheet. It will help your students if you complete one book together before sending them off to work on the rest of the texts independently or in groups.

To guide the discussion after students complete the chart(s), consider using the following questions[1]:

• Did the biographers use different sources (pictures, stories, etc.)? Are primary sources included in the book? Are sources cited?
• Did the biographers use different information or different versions of events? How does this change your understanding of the story? What questions does it raise for you?
• How was the information organized? How did this help you or make it more difficult for you to read the biography?
• Did the biographers emphasize different ideas or themes?

author	title	F & P Level
Adler, David	A Picture Book of Rosa Parks	M
Greenfield, Eloise	Rosa Parks	P
Ringgold, Faith	If a Bus Could Talk	Q/R
Parks, Rosa with Haskins, Jim	I am Rosa Parks	O
Parks, Rosa with Haskins, Jim	Rosa Parks: My Story	U
Pinkney, Andrea	Let it Shine	S/T
Freedman, Russell	Freedom Walkers	V
Time for Kids with Kellaher, Karen	Rosa Parks Civil Rights Pioneer
Giovanni, Nikki	Rosa	P
Neville Brothers	Sister Rosa (song lyrics)

Sister Rosa Parks

by The Neville Brothers
D. Johnson, C. Moore, C. Neville, C. Neville, Jr., J. Neville
L. Neville Irving Music, Inc. obo Neville Music, Inc.
Johnson Music; Wm. Claffey & Associates
(p) 1989 A&M Records
Courtesy of A&M Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises

December 1, 1955, our freedom movement came alive. And because of Sister Rosa you know, we don't ride on the back of the bus no more.

Sister Rosa Parks was tired one day
after a hard day on her job.
When all she wanted was a well deserved rest
Not a scene from an angry mob.
A bus driver said, "Lady, you got to get up
cuz a white person wants that seat."
But Miss Rosa said, "No, not no more.
I'm gonna sit here and rest my feet."

Chorus
Thank you Miss Rosa, you are the spark,
You started our freedom movement
Thank you Sister Rosa Parks.
Thank you Miss Rosa you are the spark,
You started our freedom movement
Thank you Sister Rosa Parks.

Now, the police came without fail
And took Sister Rosa off to jail.
And 14 dollars was her fine,
Brother Martin Luther King
knew it was our time.
The people of Montgomery sit down to talk
It was decided all gods' children should walk
Until segregation was brought to its knees
And we obtain freedom and equality, yeah

Chorus Thank you Miss Rosa, you are the spark,
You started our freedom movement
Thank you Sister Rosa Parks.
We'll sing it again
Thank you Miss Rosa, you are the spark,
You started our freedom movement
Thank you Sister Rosa Parks.

So we dedicate this song to thee
for being the symbol of our dignity.
Thank Sister Rosa Parks.

Chorus 2x

Photographs of the Boycott: Tableaux

Context

This activity is organized around an group of photographs taken during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956. In small groups, students study photographs from the Boycott, and then engage in a series of activities based on these images. In the first place, each small groups re-enacts their image in tableau form—that is, in a live, frozen picture, and then their classmates examine and reflect upon what they see in this frozen picture. From there, the teacher go in any number of directions, depending on the larger goals of his or her less. These activities can be used to amplify and enrich students' study the democratic process, racial injustice, and/or the political changes that were won by black Americans in the middle of the twentieth century; to raise questions about how change happens in a democracy; or to ground and demythologize the work of Rosa Park and the victories of the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement (and thus suggest to your students that they have power to change the world around them.)

• New York State Social Studies Standards:
  • Key Idea 1.4: The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.
  • H10: consider different interpretations of key events and/or issues in history and understand the differences in these accounts
• Purpose:
  • Students will understand that Rosa Parks did not act alone or spontaneously. That the Boycott was the result of many years of planning and vigilance.
  • Students will also learn that although Rosa Parks' actions was an important catalyst, the Boycott only succeeded because of the sacrifice and hard work many people, mot of whose names we do not remember. These participants were a diverse group of people who came together around a cause.
  • Students will begin to generate questions about who tells stories in history, how the creator of a text (words or images) has a particular perspective that they want to communicate, and that they should investigate many sides of even common historical stories in order to get a fuller picture of what happened and why.
• Materials: Photographs of ordinary people from the Montgomery Bus Boycott. You will need a different photograph for each of your small groups, but enough copies of each photo so that each member of each group can have his or her own copy. (This is in part for the sake of the students' learning and in part for the purposes of written assessments at the end of the experience). There are many good and provocative photos in Russell Freedman's young adult book, Freedom Walkers. You can also find some electronic images online by following the links in the Resources section of this website.
• Number of class periods needed: 1

Connection

You should explain to the students to the purpose of the day's lesson and how it fits into the larger context of the work in which they are engaged. You might say something like:

"Recently in social studies, we have been studying biographies of famous Americans. One American we studied as a class was Rosa Parks. We learned that authors of biographies include different information about her and her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Today, we are going to be historians and closely examine some photographs that were taken during the boycott. We can use this information to understand the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in new ways."

Procedure

1. Break students into groups of 4-6. Give each group one copy of one photograph. They should not share their photograph with other groups. Explain to them that they need to get together and find a way to recreate the image in their photograph using all the members of their group. They may not have enough people in the group to represent each person in the photograph. They will need to decide who (or what) they should represent. Tell them that they can choose to literally represent the image in their hands—or that they can do something more abstract, in an effort to represent the mood or larger meaning of that image.
2. Give students about 10 minutes to work on this in their groups. Then reconvene the whole group and one by one ask each group to show the rest of the class their re-enactments. Ask each group to hold their tableau for about one minute so that the rest of the class can look it over carefully. Then, after a minute, tell them to relax, and ask the audience questions about what they saw: What do we see? What do you think is the mood of this image? Where does the power lie in the interaction represented? What do you think is happening here?
3. Once each group has gone (and gotten feedback from their audiences), ask students to go back into their groups and rework the images based on what they are hearing. Then come back and share again. This time, as each group presents its new image, begin to ask the "characters" what they are thinking as the photographer is snapping the photograph. Discuss.
4. After you've gone through each group a second time, ask students to get back into their groups and create a short scene illustrating the minute before the image was taken. The scene should end with the frozen image. Alternately, you could ask them to recreate the minute after the image, starting with the frozen picture. Then discuss these new scenes. What issues emerged from the pictures? Why do you think people felt the way that they did? What historical information did you learn from these enactments?

Click for a quick overview of how to set up and debrief tableaux

Assessment

Listen in on student conversations as they set up the tableau and to the discussions and questions about the tableaux once they are presented. In particular, listen for:

 

• insights into how images are created to tell a certain story
• insights into different points of view in history
• comments that show an understanding of the role of individuals in the Boycott

Written reflection

Glue your photograph in your notebook. Pretend you are the photographer. Write a letter to a friend that explains what you were thinking when you were taking this picture. Why did you choose to frame the image as you did? What made you want to take this particular shot? What point were you trying to make? What photographs didn't you take because you were taking this one?