BROWN GIRL DREAMING Who is Jacqueline Woodson Jacqueline
“BROWN GIRL DREAMING” Who is Jacqueline Woodson?
Jacqueline Woodson • Born in Columbus, Ohio. • Lived in Greenville, South Carolina and Brooklyn, New York. • Has written for young adults, children and adults. • Has won many awards for writing. • Brown Girl Dreaming won many awards including the Coretta Scott King Award, the Newbery Honor, and the National Book Award.
Facts about Jacqueline Woodson, according to her: • She writes with her notebook turned sideways. • She writes, catches, and eats with her right hand, but does everything else with her left. • She knows the lyrics to hundreds of songs from the 70 s, including songs from TV commercials and television shows. • So she doesn’t have to carry her books around, she has memorized a lot of her writing. • She has written a book in two weeks, but others have taken her four years to write. • She can jump double-dutch. • She shares her birthday with Abraham Lincoln and Judy Blume. • When she was two, she did a series of advertisements for Alaga Syrup in Ebony Magazine.
Brown Girl Dreaming Summary • Jacqueline Woodson tells the story of her childhood through a series of free verse poems. She shares her experiences growing up in three different places (Ohio, South Carolina, and New York) during the 1960 s and 1970 s. She communicates what it was like for her to live with Jim Crow laws and how she learned about the Civil Right Movement. Woodson takes us on the emotional journey of how she discovered that she wanted to be a writer, despite the fact that she struggled with reading in her youth. She paints a clear picture for the reader by using descriptive imagery.
Themes in the Story • Family • Friendship • Home • Religion • Culture • Self-discovery • Growing up • Historical People and Events
Videos • 5 minutes about writing • 5 minutes about her memoir
Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir written in free verse. • A memoir is much like an autobiography. • It is non-fiction written from the first-person point-of-view. However, it is not a telling of the author's entire life; rather, it is a presentation of the memories of certain important events that have shaped the author's life. • Free verse is a type of poetry. • There are many different kinds of poetry. The type of poetry that most people are familiar with rhymes and has a certain rhythm or meter when read. However, not all poetry rhymes or needs to have a particular rhythm when read. • Free verse is poetry that does not necessarily rhyme and does not need to have any particular rhythm when read. It expresses the authors feelings and thoughts by using words and phrases creatively and powerfully. . . but not by using any particular rules. • It often includes imagery through the use of various writing crafts (simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, alliteration, idiom, etc. ).
Connections to History • Woodson touches on many events from the past that she either experienced or relates to somehow. These are: • The Underground Railroad • The Civil War • Freedom Riders • The Emancipation Proclamation • The Black Panthers • Shirley Chisholm
The Underground Railroad • “The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. • It got its name because its activities had to be carried out in secret, using darkness or disguise, and because railway terms were used by those involved with system to describe how it worked. • Various routes were lines, stopping places were called stations, those who aided along the way were conductors and their charges were known as packages or freight. • The network of routes extended through 14 Northern states and “the promised land” of Canada–beyond the reach of fugitive-slave hunters. ” • History. com Staff. "Underground Railroad. " History. com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <http: //www. history. com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad>.
The Civil War • “In the spring of 1861, decades of simmering tensions between the northern and southern United States over issues including states’ rights versus federal authority, westward expansion and slavery exploded into the American Civil War (1861 -65). • The election of the anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate States of America; four more joined them after the first shots of the Civil War were fired. • By the time it ended in Confederate surrender in 1865, the Civil War proved to be the costliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620, 000 of 2. 4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and the population and territory of the South devastated. ” • History. com Staff. "American Civil War History. " History. com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <http: //www. history. com/topics/american-civil-warhistory>.
Freedom Riders • “On May 4, 1961, a group of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. • The Freedom Riders, who were recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a U. S. civil rights group, departed from Washington, D. C. , and attempted to integrate facilities at bus terminals along the way into the Deep South. • African-American Freedom Riders tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters, and vice versa. • The group encountered tremendous violence from white protestors along the route, but also drew international attention to their cause. • Over the next few months, several hundred Freedom Riders engaged in similar actions. In September 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations nationwide. ” • History. com Staff. "Freedom Rides. " History. com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <http: //www. history. com/topics/black-history/freedom-rides>.
The Emancipation Proclamation • “When the American Civil War (1861 -65) began, President Abraham Lincoln carefully framed the conflict as concerning the preservation of the Union rather than the abolition of slavery. • Although he personally found the practice of slavery abhorrent, he knew that neither Northerners nor the residents of the border slave states would support abolition as a war aim. • But by mid-1862, as thousands of slaves fled to join the invading Northern armies, Lincoln was convinced that abolition had become a sound military strategy, as well as the morally correct path. • On September 22, soon after the Union victory at Antietam, he issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. ” • While the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave, it was an important turning point in the war, transforming the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. ” • History. com Staff. "Emancipation Proclamation. " History. com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <http: //www. history. com/topics/american-civil-war/emancipation-proclamation>.
The Black Panthers • “The Black Panther Party or the BPP (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982, with international chapters operating in the United Kingdom in the early 1970 s, and in Algeria from 1969 until 1972. • At its inception on October 15, 1966, the Black Panther Party's core practice was its armed citizens' patrols to monitor the behavior of officers of the Oakland Police Department and challenge police brutality in Oakland, California. • In 1969, community social programs became a core activity of party members. The Black Panther Party instituted a variety of community social programs, most extensively the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, and community health clinics. ” • "Black Panther Party. " Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Mar. 2017. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party>.
Shirley Chisholm • Pioneering African-American politician Shirley Chisholm (1924 -2005) began her professional career as a teacher. • She served as director of the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center until the late 1950 s, then as an educational consultant for New York City’s Bureau of Child Welfare. • In 1968, Chisolm became the first African-American to earn election to Congress, where she worked on the Education and Labor Committee and helped form the Black Caucus. • In 1972, she made history again by becoming the first black woman of a major party to run for a presidential nomination. • After serving seven terms in the House, Chisholm retired from office to become a teacher and public speaker. • History. com Staff. "Shirley Chisholm. " History. com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <http: //www. history. com/topics/shirley-chisholm>.
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