Stephen Costanza’s book King of Ragtime: The Story of Scott Joplin shares the stunningly illustrated story of the King of Ragtime.
This biography shares Joplin’s life as you learn about his musical beginnings, mis mother supporting his craft, studying music in college, and publishing his first song ‘Maple Leaf Rag.’ An American composer and pianist, Scott Joplin laid the groundwork for Jazz, another American music form created and grounded in African-American culture. This is a great resource for music teachers, teaching history, art and culture. It is also awesome for art teachers as an example of gouache & collage artwork. Check out this book from your local library or purchase it from your local Black bookstore, links in the bio If you’ve used this title in instruction or library storytime, share your strategies and thoughts. We’d love to hear other ways to use this beautiful book This book has dense text giving detailed information about Scott’s life.
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Our 1995 #kidslitflashback features the book DARKNESS by author Mildred Pitts Walter and illustrated by Marcia Jameson. This children’s book begins with “Are you afraid of the dark?” I pulled this title out of the archives for students to challenge their potential hesitation towards the negative notions darkness and Blackness. As an affirmation of the beauty that can be found in the opposite of light, Pitts Walter states…”Life begins in darkness.” The familiar images presented in her book reinforce every day, often overlooked, beauty in moments of darkness. This book can be read together with the following to discuss the beauty of darkness and Blackness. -Ashley Bryan. (2003). Beautiful blackbird A tale from the Ila-speaking people of Zambia appreciating one’s heritage and the beauty within. It affirms Black as beautiful and also that all living creatures are beautiful. -Taye Diggs, & Evans, Shane, illustrator. (2015). Chocolate me! Taye’s story relays the experiences of a dark-skinned curly-haired boy who mather helps him realize how beautiful he is inside and out. -Jewel Parker Rhodes. (2020). Black brother, Black brother. A coming of age middle-grade story about two bi-racial 12-year-old brothers, one Black presenting, Donte, and the other, White presenting brother Trey. Known as the ‘Black brother’, Donte navigates colorism, privilege, bullying, and discrimination in an affluent, private school setting. Interestingly, I am having a mental block and couldn’t think of a young adult book. Please share titles for young adult-level books. The story Does Santa Look like Me by Ariel Young and Illustrated by Monika Wnek, asks the question many have had. The main character, young AJ questions what Santa looks like when he notices holiday toys and figures don't look like him. This story offers an African-American-centered holiday story affirming African-American representaton within this holiday season. As we celebrate family & food today, We Are Here Lit! recommends the new title Soul Food Sunday, by author Winsome Bingham, and illustrator C. G. Esperanza, as a book AND the streaming video.
This story celebrates the Black tradition and culture of Soul Food Sunday. One of the young grandchildren helps Granny prepare the meal. This story feels like home. Benefits of using streaming read-alouds, in moderation, include: -Enhanced “comprehension and retention of information” -Support for “multi-modal” learning. -Appeals to multiple learning preferences. -Helps students to understand complex information. -Develops digital literacies. The read-aloud captions helps: -For students who are learning English, captioned media can help improve vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension, and word recognition and decoding skills -For students who are struggling readers, seeing and hearing unfamiliar words can help improve their understanding of the material and important vocabulary words -Can be motivating for your students. Several studies (e.g., Bowe & Kaufman, 2001; Evmenova, 2008; Linebarger, 2001; Rickelman, Henk, & Layton, 1991) indicate that captioning and subtitles can help strengthen the following reading skills of students with learning disabilities, ELLs, and struggling or beginning readers: -Reading speed and fluency -Word knowledge -Decoding -Vocabulary acquisition -Word recognition -Reading comprehension -Oral reading rates Source: Reading Rockets Pick up a print copy at your local bookstore or library. And check out the streaming video of the book through library e-book services like Overdirve. Ask your local librarian if you have access! author: @armyvetfive illustrator: @cgesperanza publisher: @abramskids As we head into the holiday, we want to share family love with two intergenerational titles showing the special relationship between a Grandfather and Grandson.
The first is TIme for Bed, old House written by Janet Costa Bates and illustrated by AG Ford. This story shares how Grandpop eases Isaac's bedtime fears. Grandpop puts the old house to sleep and explains away the bedtime noises that give Isaac some concern. The Remember Balloons written by Jessie Oliveros and illustrated by Dana Wulfekotte, is a story of James who struggles with his Grandpa's memory loss. The baloons hold their special memories. James learns to carry on the memories and ballons they both share. A lot of misconceptions surround Africa. Today’s post provides some of the basics to introduce information that creates a more informed approach about the continent.
Here are some quick facts: -It’s a continent of 54 countries that are diverse culturally and geographically -Africa is really, really big — about as big as the combined landmasses of China, the United States, India, Japan and much of Europe. -According to studies that screen DNA markers in different populations, the African continent has the highest level of genetic diversity in the world. According to the researchers, this makes sense since it’s the starting point for the human race. Here are the titles of the books presented in the post:
From Africa to the Americas...this book evokes conversations, questions, accountability, contemplation, and truths.
Veterans Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans, who are people who have served in the United States Armed Forces.
We Are Here Lit! highlights books with Black men who have served in the military in United States history. Also listed are several ways kids can thank a Veteran: 1. Say ‘Thanks for your service.” 2. Pray for veterans 3. Make a care package for the troops. 4. Deliver a homemade gift to a veteran. 5. Attend a parade. 6. Spend time with a Veteran. 7. Volunteer. A clever and endearing story of Noah, who is anxiously waiting to go sailing and seal watching with Nana. While waiting for his Nana, he does what most children at the beach do dig in the sand. He sculpts, imagines, and builds a speckled seal.
As a storm rolls in Noah takes cover, as his new sand friend braves the storm. What happens to the seal in the storm? Author Layn Marlow provides an imaginative mystery and a wonderful opportunity for young readers to create their point of view about Noah's seal. One of the highlights of this book is seeing a young child of color play, imagine, and sail. This multigenerational story's colorful and beautiful illustrations provide a perfect day-in-the-life experience. Especially suited to Pre-1 read-aloud, and independent elementary readers. Pair this book with informational texts about seals to learn more about spotted, Harbor and the many other types of seals, their habitats, and other interesting facts. The last in the art series features achitecture.
Of the 116,242 licensed architects in the United States, just two percent are Black. Only 2,325 Black architects are building the cities and suburbs, shaping the skylines and creating the museums, housing, schools, government buildings, places of worship and any other variety of structures we live in or with every day. Today we feature Phil Freelon for leading the design team of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture. We also featured MindWare Toys Keva Planks and Q-Ba-Maze 2.0 : starter stunt set to inspire our future achitechs. We hope you thought the art series was useful to you. If you have any requests for book sets and/or manipulatives on a topic, message and let us know what you'd like to see. |
AuthorSWE ARE HERE will provide you book reviews, discussions, news, and programming about literature and literacy by and about Black males. This site will also feature vlog conversations on topics related to the promoting literacy and voice for Black boys and young men. Archives
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