Teaching Strategies and Classroom Activities
Faith Ringgold children’s books: Tar Beach, Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky, Dinner at Aunt Connie's House, Bonjour Lonnie, If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks
Within the following activities, students will be introduced to four of Faith Ringgold’s children’s books. Each activity is designed to introduce color-conscious and race-conscious reading practices to students with concepts and ideas included for each book and a corresponding activity to help the students understand.
The broad objective is for students to learn about each other’s unique families through experiencing Faith Ringgold’s work. Students will communicate an important aspect of their lives visually by designing an art piece about their own family. They will learn about their classmates’ families through story quilt squares and family memory stories. Students will compose a one- or two-line family memory story and visually depict a family memory or a hope or dream for their family drawn in a well-developed piece of art.
Activity One: Tar Beach - Visualizing/Verbal Sharing
The story, Tar Beach, is told from the point of view of eight-year-old Cassie Louise Lightfoot. During the summer Cassie and her family play at the “tar beach,” which is the rooftop of the apartment building where she lives in Harlem. Cassie lies on the “beach” and imagines herself flying through the sky over the rooftops. She dreams about being free—to go where she wants without any boundaries, or anyone to tell her she can’t. The story of Cassie’s flying adventure begins.
The notion of flying has wonderful and magical connotations in the African American culture. Historically, flying was symbolic to African Americans for freedom from slavery and the opportunity to return to their native land. In Tar Beach, flying symbolizes freedom in Cassie’s world. Her father is a construction worker and in her flying dreams, her father owns the buildings he looks up to rather than down from buildings. In her dreams, Cassie’s mother has the privilege of laughing and sleeping late into the morning like the well-to-do neighbors. And best of all, her family eats ice cream every day!
The border of the illustrations resembles a quilt. Ringgold wrote this story on a quilt that she sewed and then used as a canvas for her paintings. The actual quilt is part of a series called, “Woman on a Bridge.” and on display at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Cross Curricular Connections: language arts using imagery commonly found in the African American culture, reading comprehension, vocabulary, art, history.
History and Symbolism
Read the story out loud to the students, showing the pictures in the book or, if possible, display the images on a big screen while the students follow along. This is a way to meet every child’s level of reading and comprehension. After finishing the story, engage the students in a deeper understanding of the text. Here are a few questions to prompt a lively group discussion:
- What is meant by “tar beach” in the story? (The blacktop roof on the top of Cassie’s apartment building where she lives). How does the reader know this?
- What does flying symbolize for Cassie? (Possible answers might be: Freedom for herself to go beyond the boundaries of her home, freedom for her father in his job, and freedom for her mother to be able to live like the wealthy neighbors who can sleep late each morning). Ask students to give examples from the text and illustrations to support their answers.
- Are Cassie’s adventures real or imaginary? How can you tell?
- What are some traditions that Cassie and her family have?
Visualizing/Verbal Sharing
Materials: beach towel for each student (students can bring a towel from home but have extras available).
Clear some space in your classroom by moving desks and tables to the side. Ask your students to lay out their beach towels and lie on their backs. Next, ask them to imagine they are at “tar beach.” Tell them they are flying through the sky. Remind them that flying is symbolic for freedom from something in their lives. It could be something as immediate as chores or bedtime or some connection to Cassie’s dreams. Invite students to share out loud to the class what some of their freedoms are. Teacher participation is important.
Dream Journal
Materials: in-class writing journals, pencils, colored pencils
Use the following quote from Ringgold to open this lesson: “I was always encouraged to value who I was and to go after what I want. I became an artist for the same reason I became a writer - I wanted to tell my story.”
This drawing and writing component can be done directly after the previous activity or on a subsequent day. Give students the opportunity to recall their think by reviewing the text, either in whole or by a picture-walk and discussion session. Students can work at the spot on their “beach” to write about their dreams. This is a free-write or journaling exercise and can extend over the course of a few days to include the writing process from prewrite to final draft.
Activity Two: Aunt Harriet and the Underground Railroad in the Sky - Comprehension/Setting
Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky is based on the true story of Harriet Tubman who escaped from slavery and then risked her life to guide hundreds of slaves to new lives of freedom in the North. The Underground Railroad was a path that slaves traveled at night with the help of conductors, people who guided them from safe house to safe house until they had reached the free states in the North and Canada. Despite of her petite figure and head injury she suffered as a slave, Harriet Tubman took charge, made about 13 trips to the south to help hundreds of people escape from slavery while risking her own life.
Prior to 1860, America captured and enslaved about four million Black people from Africa. Slavery came about because Americans needed workers to do the difficult labor on the sprawling plantations that stretched across the South, and because slave-traders saw an opportunity to make a great deal of money buying and selling slaves. From the beginning, slaves tried to escape from owners. But attempting an escape, or helping someone else to escape, was dangerous and could result in severe punishment or death. The Underground Railroad is the name for the secret route fugitives took to escape to freedom. It was so named because fugitives who traveled on it just seemed to vanish as if traveling underground. It was, of course, not a real railroad, but rather a series of safe hiding places called “stations.” The people who helped the fugitives travel from one station to the next were known as “railroad workers.” The people who helped fugitives get food and places to sleep were known as “station masters.” People who worked and traveled on the Railroad used secret codes to learn the routes from one safe place to the next. An Underground Railroad Quilt Code existed to guide fugitives to freedom. Because it was illegal in slave-holding states to teach slaves to read, slaves could not communicate with each other in writing. But, because slaves of all backgrounds shared an oral history of storytelling coupled with a knowledge of textile production and African art they were able to communicate complex messages in the stitches, patterns, designs, colors and fabrics of the American quilt. To memorize the code, researchers believe fugitives used a sampler quilt, with blocks arranged in order of the code. The patterns told slaves how to get ready to escape, what to do on the trip, and where to go. Once stitched, the coded quilts were “aired” out the windows of slave cabins, acting as secret maps for slaves brave and desperate enough to make the dangerous trek from South to North, from slavery to freedom
The two young siblings, Cassie Louise Lightfoot and Be Be, are traveling the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada, just like generations before them did. They fly through the sky learning about the ways in which their ancestors traveled from slavery to freedom. As Cassie and her brother BeBe fly through the sky, they encounter a train marked "Go Free North or Die" and the train's conductor, Aunt Harriet. Be Be quickly hops aboard but the train departs before Cassie could climb on. Aunt Harriet steps in as Cassie’s tour guide and shows to her the conditions of slavery for African Americans in the United States during the 1800’s, as well as ways in which so many sought freedom. This book incorporates the use of the North Star; songs sung by escaping slaves, and Underground Railroad quilt codes to further explain the experience and challenges faced by many. In the end, Cassie is reunited with her brother, and they both have a newfound understanding of what their great-great grandparents had to go through to escape to the North. Then she decides to follow the train one stop behind. During her journey, Cassie relives the fears and challenges her great-great-grandparents had to face with 100 years ago. Harriet leaves clues for Cassie along the way, just as she did for other slaves. In the end of the book Cassie and her brother reunite in Canada, in the land of freedom.
Cross Curricular Connections: reading comprehension, vocabulary, art, history.
Comprehension/Setting
Materials: large chart paper for teacher use, 8” x 8” squares, one per student, crayons, markers, colored pencils
Make a general map of the classroom, playground, or school, depending on what works for the activity and class. Let the students know that they will be making a secret code to follow as they travel around the designated area. Working with the students, identify the starting place and the destination. The students will create a code to help them get from the beginning to the end. The class could think about how the slaves and conductors were the only ones that understood the secret codes coded within the quilts. Encourage them to use landmarks and objects that are located on the path and that will be of help to each other move the next stop. Together they can think of ways to “disguise” them from others who would not know the code by creating images or designs that represent and not explicitly identify the information. Students will create a square to show the coded information for their designated location on the map. Once the squares are complete, they can be assembled into a pattern, like a quilt, that will help students discover the path they can secretly take to make it to the destination. In the way that students learned from the story of Harriet Tubman, they can all help each other as they decode the “quilt” square on their travels.
Activity Three: Dinner at Aunt Connie’s House - Comprehension/Characters
Dinner at Aunt Connie's House was inspired by one of Ringgold’s quilts, The Dinner Quilt. If technology is available, the image of the quilt could be projected and used for discussion throughout this activity.
This is a story about a young girl named Melody who goes to her Aunt Connie’s house every summer for a dinner and a special showing of her aunt’s artwork. Melody meets Aunt Connie’s adopted son Lonnie and they play hide and seek, in the house, before dinner. While playing the game, the youngsters discover 12 paintings in the attic, each of which depicts a famous African American woman. What is unusual about the portraits is that they can speak. The children are mesmerized as the women tell the stories of their lives. The children listen to the life stories of
Marian Anderson, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Dandridge, Fannie Lou Hamer, Zora Neale Hurston, Rosa Parks, Augusta Savage, Bessie Smith, Maria W. Stewart, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. Ringgold’s pictures tell the book's many stories in vibrant colors and great love for her characters.
Cross Curricular Connections: reading comprehension, vocabulary, art, history, speaking skills
Comprehension/Characters
Materials: 8” x 8” squares of white paper, one per student, crayons (include skin color options), markers, colored pencils, small mirrors, 12’ x 12” construction paper for portrait frames
Tips for reading the book: This is a lengthy book, particularly for younger students. It is difficult to get through all the biographies of the famous women featured quickly and in one sitting, so it is important to plan to read these biographies over several days. This book has excellent discussion topics -- women who often stood alone and were not afraid to take risks; diversity and the Civil Rights Movement; the Lonnie character and diversity in families; and festive dinners with relatives and close friends.
For the hands-on activity, students will draw their own portrait in Ringgold’s style on the 8” x 8” squares. Encourage students to use the small mirrors to focus on their features as they create their image. As they work on their self-portraits, have students consider their current skills and accomplishments or plans of things they would like to do as they get older. Students can choose a color for the frame and glue their portrait in the center. Post the portraits around the classroom in the manner of Ringgold’s book and have students walk around as if in a museum. Half of the class can be the “guests” while the others are speaking by their portraits as they talk about their skills and accomplishments. Students can then switch roles.
Activity Four: If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks - Comprehension/Making Connections
If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks uses a different lens to tell Parks’s story. An African American girl named Marcie, living in modern day society, boards a talking bus to school. The talking bus takes Marcie on journey as it retells the story of Rosa Parks, the mother of the Civil Rights Movement. The magic bus ride shows the struggles Rosa Parks and other African Americans faced during times of segregation in the 1950’s and 60’s. It illustrates the impact Rosa Parks and other key figures of the time, like Martin Luther King Jr., had on society and the influence they were able to accomplish through non-violent forms of protest and persistence for equality. Ringgold’s pictures show scenes from various sit-ins, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the assaults on people who were not white. At the end of the story, Marcie has arrived at school and realizes that she is aboard the same bus Rosa Parks was arrested on. She also realizes that all the key figures in Rosa Parks’s life are aboard the bus, as well as Rosa Parks herself, and they all celebrate Parks’s birthday.
Cross Curricular Connections: reading comprehension, vocabulary, art, history, social/emotional skills, speaking skills
Comprehension/Making Connections
Materials: writing journals, crayons (include skin color options), markers, colored pencils,
Students will think of something they have done or would do that is considered brave and helps others. In their writing journals, they will draw and write about that brave, courageous act. Students can think about: Who does it help and how can others do the same? Why is it hard to be brave?
Activity Five: Creating a Classroom Quilt
Returning to the first book of the unit, Tar Beach, have students listen once again with Faith Ringgold’s reading, available online. Students will experience the author herself and hear her voice reading her own words.
Comprehension/Visual Sharing
Materials: 8” x 8” squares, crayons (including skin colors), colored pencils, paints
Students will communicate an important aspect of their lives visually by designing an art piece about their own family. They will learn about their classmates’ families through story quilt squares and family memory stories. Students will compose a one- or two-line family memory story and visually depict a family memory or a hope or dream for their family drawn in a well-developed piece of art.
Encourage students to sketch with pencils first as they draw in their square. Once all squares are complete, students can present their work to their classmates, identifying who they have included in their artwork. Then create a wall in the class that resembles a quilt. Students can create painted borders to go around (and between) the student work. By creating this family quilt as a class, the children will be able to connect with their own families, to share with pride their family experience with others and to realize and appreciate the diversity of families in the classroom and the larger community. This project illuminates the concept that all families are unique and different.
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