Text Set for Middle School Students
Title of Unit: The Civil Rights Movement
Through the Lens of Literature
Grade: 7
Author: La Ronda Freeman
Unit Summary
Using the Anchor novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham- 1963, the endeavors of the Civil Rights
Movement is chronicled through supporting literature, poetry, music and first person essays.
Standards (List Target
Standards)
RL.7.9
Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the
same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.
SL.7.2
Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually,
quantitatively, and orally. Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media
and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, and orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or
issue under study.
RL.7.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative
meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or
stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
Line of Inquiry (Essential
Questions)
What is historical fiction? How does an author use or alter history in their literary work?
What does it mean to analyze the main ideas and supporting details in a variety of media format
visually? What does it mean to analyze the main ideas and supporting details in a variety of media
format orally? How do ideas clarify a topic, text, or issues being study?
How do rhyme and repetition impact verses or stanzas in poetry or a section of drama? Why do
authors use specific word choice? Define and identify different literary devices in a poem.
Anchor Text
The Watsons Go to Birmingham- 1963
(grade level complex text) Age 11-14
Historical Fiction
Novel
Text Set (Title and
Author)
The Watsons Go to
Birmingham- 1963
Poetry
Christopher Paul
Curtis
Dreams
I too Sing America
Lexile Genre
1000L
N/A
Description of Text
The fictional account of a black family from Michigan who travel south to
Birmingham, Alabama to visit with family. During their time in the segregated
city, the grandmother’s church was bombed and children lost their lives.
The free verse poetry of Langston Hughes illustrates his frustration and
struggles African-Americans lived through in the 1960’s. His message of the
rights and dreams of freedom are for everyone.
Langston Hughes
1000L Essay
Autobiography
860L
N/A Non-Fiction
Article
Letter from a
Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King
Through My Eyes
The open letter written on April 16, 1963, defends the strategy of nonviolent
resistance to racism and the moral responsibility of citizens to stand for
freedom and truth for everyone.
In her own words, Ruby Bridges recalls what it was like for her to be the first
black student to integrate an all-white school in 1961 in New Orleans.
Ruby Bridgers
Six Dead After Church
Bombing
The Washington Post
September 16, 1963
The Washington Post article relating the facts and information of events that
led up to the bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church. What the position of
the federal government as well as the position of the state of Alabama
during the tragedy.
N/A CD/ Historical
Documentary
660L Historical
Narrative
Freedom Song: Young
Voices and the Struggle
for Civil Rights
Grades 3-8
Mary Turck
Remember: The Journey The black and white photographs of events as they unfolded has fictional and
to School Integration
poetic text that shows the courage, emotions and the experiences of everyday
students in the context of school integration.
Toni Morrison
1220L Nonfiction A Dream of Freedom: The
Civil Rights Movement from
1954 to 1968
Diane McWhorter
1000L Historical
Speech
Historical information with the addition of music from the Chicago Children’s
Choir and SNCC Freedom Singers. The book brings to the forefront the
important contribution of music to the Civil Rights Movement.
I Have a
Dream
Speech
An overview history of the civil rights movement. With illustrations, events
from the bus boycotts to the Birmingham demonstrations provide
information regarding the undertaking to break segregation.
The speech delivered by Dr. King on August 28, 1963 was a call for racial equality and an end
of discrimination across America. The location, the steps of the Lincoln Memorial capped
the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Martin
Luther King
N/A Poetry Ballad of
Birmingham
A powerful ballad, recalling the story of a mother and her child who wants to march for Civil
Rights. The chain of events lead to the disaster in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dudley Randall
N/A Poetry Freedom School
Poems
Compiled from
Students,
Mississippi, 1965
Forward by
Langston
Hughes
Collection of mixed style poetry created by school children who lived through the times of
segregation and Civil Rights. The book has been dedicated to the memory of Emmett Till.