Frederick Douglass: An Introduction to Black Narratives
My students need 90 copies of 1 book title: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass."
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Jones's classroom raised $554
This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
I want the required reading in my eighth-grade advanced English class to include an academically rigorous non-fiction work, and I am also looking to broaden the range of perspectives and cultural backgrounds in the texts I assign. My school is an ethnically diverse middle school for the gifted and talented, located in the underserved neighborhood of East Harlem.
This current school year, we are reading John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men), J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye), Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), Shakespeare (Hamlet), Elie Wiesel (Night), Daniel Keyes (Flowers for Algernon), Henry James (The Turn of the Screw), and William Golding (Lord of the Flies). While all are excellent titles, non-fiction titles and the writing of non-white authors are, sadly, not represented. For these reasons, I want to bring the writing of Frederick Douglass into the fold. My students are very interested in issues of race and power, and, any time the class discussion centers on these topics, they have a great deal to say. The conversation is always dynamic, sophisticated, and nuanced, with most sides represented (our student body is divided fairly evenly between white, black, Latino, and Asian students). I want to give them a more structured opportunity to grapple with these issues through reading Douglass's text and then writing their own "narratives."
I need ninety copies of the Frederick Douglass narrative so that each student can have his or her own copy. I think the experience of reading Douglass will have a tremendous impact on my students. They are bright, articulate, and thoughtful, and they embrace anything I introduce to them (even Henry James!). They are, however, constantly asking questions and wanting answers for why things have come to be the way they are in America. By reading this text, they will begin to understand the historical framework that created our current social climate.
Your generosity will ensure that my students understand the power they hold in their hands as gifted and talented students. They need to read non-white writers, and they need to develop their skills as readers of non-fiction. Finally, my students need to know that power can fall into the hands of anyone who chooses to ask questions and have opinions. The narrative of Frederick Douglass will bring them one step closer to understanding this fundamental truth.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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