Picture Book Biographies
Keeping in mind that students need the scaffolding of structure and modeling in order to write their own self-stories as portraits of peace builders by the end of this unit, the literary genre of biographies establishes a solid path to gaining insight and information students can appreciate, especially if using picture book biographies. Quality books of this type, which are also culturally authentic, are more likely to have less racial bias. True visually accurate representation of people from diverse backgrounds sets up students for appreciating and embracing cultural differences (and similarities). Building students’ self-esteem through correct cultural portrayals as well as highlighting contributions of their specific groups edifies and validates them in their hearts and minds as important pieces in our community.
Picture books provide great learning opportunities for students, young and old, and across genre boundaries. Picture book biographies specifically “offer, among other things, exposure to ways of thinking about other human beings. For the child, illustrations and text combine to create particular views of individuals as well as groups of people complete with messages about what those people are like.”20 A great introduction to biographies and creating self portraits is to use Julius Lester’s Let’s Talk About Race to engage students, spark discussion, and embrace higher thinking about how we all have a story to share and listen to with tolerance, kindness, and respect for one another.
Students embracing this welcoming attitude will be ardent about stepping into wonderfully illustrated biographies of peace builders and social justice figures representing various cultures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. (African American), Cesar Chavez (Mexican American), Florence Nightingale (English), Malala Yousafzai (Pakistani), Mahatma Gandhi (Indian), and Wangari Maathai (Kenyan). It will also be great to pair these with nonfiction biography books such as National Geographic Readers and Time for Kids whenever possible. I will also use YouTube.com to play clips of video and audio from some of these peace builders such as Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, Mahatma Gandhi’s speech recorded in Kingsley Hall, London in 1931, and Malala Yousafzai’s acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize. The visual and audio will create more ways for students to connect with these influential peace builders.
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