Creating Lives: An Introduction to Biography

Introduction

"If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy." These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty—to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it. Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read. ¹

It is with this revelation, so eloquently stated in his own words, that Frederick Douglass takes up the challenge of making his unique journey into literacy. As I read this, I was deeply stirred by its power and an idea began to take shape. I began to think of a way I could bring to life the power that Douglass uncovered within the "mystery" of reading for the children in my own first grade classroom. For Douglass, this mystery emerged from the shadows and into the full light of day at this most decisive and pivotal moment in his life. For the first time, he saw hope for his future where there was no hope before. For the first time, he was struck with clarity and purpose, instead of a whip. Although the task before him was monumental and forbidden, it became the pre-requisite undertaking for gaining his eventual freedom and leading the way for others.

The task facing Frederick Douglass was a common enough task, even though the tools for attaining it were not readily available to him. It was a task facing children before the time of Douglass and will continue to challenge the children in future generations. It is also the challenge I face each day as a first grade teacher. For my students to have any hope of success in this world, they need to learn not only how to read, but why it is important to them. I want to demonstrate this critical "why" by illuminating the connections between my students' lives and noted Americans we study.

Overview

This unit will focus first on the "literacy biography" of Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, and Helen Keller. These figures have compelling stories of not only how they learned to read, but why reading was a critical factor in their lives. The "literacy biography" will act as a mechanism to connect my children to these figures from the past by means of a shared experience. After engaging the children's interest in these famous lives by presenting vignettes from each person's childhood and how he or she learned to read, a more traditional biographical study will follow. The unit covers the six historical figures listed above, following the sequence in which they are listed. The pacing of instruction will follow the sequence, covering one historical figure per week over a period of six weeks.

This unit is designed to be taught as a cross curricular unit to my first grade students in their urban school setting. The curriculum areas it covers are language arts and history. Typically, my students are anywhere from the age of six to eight years old. They enter their first grade school year with a wide range of literacy skills, from the complete absence of the most basic readiness skills to primer level; sometimes I may even receive a student on or above grade level. Because of these divergent skill sets, the most practical time to teach this unit will be near the end of the third quarter. It will require a degree of independent reading skill that is not in place for the majority of the students at the beginning of the year. This time period is flexible according to the needs and skill levels of different classes, but would be most useful when students have attained the degree of sophistication needed to read books on their own. I find the latter part of third quarter to be that time for most of my classes. It is usually about that time that students are beginning to feel confident and become curious about the variety of literary experiences available to them.

In the content area of history, my students have very little prior knowledge to access when it comes to any of the aforementioned historical figures we will study. They usually recognize Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin from their faces on our money, but that is about the extent of the schema they have. In reality, it's not a bad place to start. Anyone who has his or her image on a coin or bill must have been pretty important, right?

The population of my urban school is richly multi-cultural, with an approximate demographic of 65% African American, 30% Hispanic, and 5% Other Ethnicities. Over the past few years, the percentage of English Language Learners in our school has been steadily increasing. It is estimated that our incoming first grade class this year will be 49% Hispanic. With that projected increase will come the needs specific to Limited English Proficient students. As teachers in this environment, we must be prepared to meet that challenge. Although our school is culturally diverse, it is practically economically homogeneous. According to the most recent figures available from our district website, 93% of the students receive free or reduced-price lunches. As a result, we not only meet, but far exceed the eligibility standards of a Title I school. The great majority of our students come from families that live at or below the poverty line.

Although today's children are not victims of the crime of slavery, which outlawed the schooling that Douglass was so desperate to attain, they are met with obstacles and challenges not imposed by law, but by their environment. The hallmarks of poverty near our school are ubiquitous: pawn shops, cash advance establishments, substandard housing, pit bulls chained in fenced yards, coin laundries, barred windows and doors, amateurish graffiti, gang signs, and dilapidated mobile home parks. Just a few blocks from the school, drug dealers and prostitutes ply their trades along the four-lane highway littered with filthy motels. Many times these motels are where the homeless families of some of our students are sent with housing vouchers. Close by is an old nightclub with a marquee in Spanish and English, where violence and shootings have become routine. "Buy Here, Pay Here Weekly" used car lots are often the only option for those fortunate enough to have a job that affords them the luxury of a car. This is the tainted urban landscape that surrounds the understaffed, underfunded, and overcrowded oasis that is our school.

Combating these environmental factors is a daily struggle. I need to make a clear case for literacy. I think of the common sense reasoning in Ruby Payne's controversial text, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, in which she points out, "Two things that help one move out of poverty are education and relationships." ² In spite of the critics who accuse her of "pathologizing the poor," ³ she stands by her insights gained in over thirty years of working with impoverished children. She goes on to include a list of resources necessary to leave poverty. In this list, she contends that more than financial resources are necessary to leave poverty. Enumerating these, she speaks of mental resources as "being able to process information and use it in daily living. If an individual can read, write, and compute, he/she has a decided advantage…" ⁴ By studying literacy biographies, a child can begin to see the transformative nature of literacy. Payne also speaks of emotional resources as imperative, and these can come partly from role models. She states that in order to move out of poverty, "…a certain level of persistence and an ability to stay with a situation until it can be learned are necessary. The persistence … comes, at least in part, from role models." ⁵ By exploring the struggles in the literacy biographies, students will gain strong role models for persistence. Finally, Payne speaks to the importance of relationships in learning. She quotes Dr. James Comer, "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." ⁶ As a teacher, I embrace the opportunity to provide that necessary relationship.

Although this unit is intended primarily for first grade students, there are many elements that could readily be adapted to nearly any grade level. The main adjustment that would be necessary for its implementation would be the complexity and reading level of the texts selected for study. There is a plethora of high quality biographies available for children that is nearly overwhelming; with that in mind, finding additional resources may not be as challenging as one might think.

The biographical subjects could also be changed, according to the requirements of state and local standards. Of course, additional research into the "literacy biography" for any historical figures other than those selected would be necessary for that type of adaptation of this unit, but the same instructional strategies could be employed.