Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. 

How is where we come from important to who we are?

Much of Brown Girl Dreaming deals with the theme of how where we come from affects who we become.  This includes time as well as place.  The time period a child was born into, what was going on in history during her early life, affects the adult she grows up to become.

For this project you will research a person or event from the time period covered in Brown Girl Dreaming, the 1960s/1970's Civil Rights Era in American history.  You will then create a "Cornell Box" that illustrates your research as a visual metaphor.  You will also write up a short $2.50 account of your research.  Both your research and your Cornell Box will be presented to the class as a speech.  You will then write a first person poem based on your box which you might choose to  present at the class poetry slam.

You must select a topic/person from the list below.  As part of your research, you will use the audio/visual link attached to your topic, photographs of the event/person you can find online and one article that you locate on your own.

Here are the people/events you can choose from.  Be sure to let the teacher know what your selection is.  No more than two people may do the same topic.

1. Dorothy Mulkey (Fair housing advocate)
2. Shirley Chishom (First woman to run for president)
3. Ruby Bridges
4. The 16th Street Bombing
5. The Children's Crusade
6. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
7. Mississippi Burning
8. The Loving Decision (Mixed Race Marriage)
9. Greensboro Lunch Counter
10. Freedom Riders
11. James Brown's concert the day after M.L. King was killed
12. Muhammad Ali's decision to refuse the draft
13. Black Like Me
14. Petula Clark/Harry Belafonte (television controversy)
15. Dance Theatre of Harlem
16. Roots 
17. John F. Kennedy
18. Malcolm X 
19. Rosa Parks
20. United States Colored Troops 54th Regiment
21. Lena Horn
22. Black Panthers
23. James Baldwin (Author, Civil Rights Activist)

Each person is linked to an audio/visual program about them.  You are required to use this program as part of your research.  Listen to it once, then listen again while taking notes about it. 

Find a second article about that person or event and a few photographs to help you understand the importance of your selection.  You may print out a few photographs (1 to 3) to use as part of your Cornell Box.  However, you may not use a picture of the actual person or event.  You Cornell Box must be a metaphor, not an exact representation.

You will use your research to create a box about your selection in class later this week.

Activity. Ruby Bridges in Pictures

For this activity you will look at several images, photographs and paintings.  Because Ruby Bridges faced very extreme racism in her childhood some of the images may be upsetting and may contain language that is not normally allowed on this website or in class.

Please remember to be respectful when viewing them.

Picture for questions #1

Picture for question 2

Picture for question #4

Buddhism in China: Journey to the West

Who was Monkey?

The Journey to the West was a novel published in China in 1592 (16th Century.)  It tells the story of a Buddhist monk named Xuanzang who traveled from central China in the mid 7th century, across the Himilayas to India where he studied Buddhism.  He wanted to learn the ancient Buddhist texts and bring them all back to China where Buddhism was still a new idea.

If Xuanzang is the hero of his journey, then his three companions are his allies: Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), Zhu Bajie (Pigsy) and Sha Wujing (A strong man called Sandy also known as the Water Buffalo.)  The three companions were probably not based on real people. They are considered folklore and have been very popular in China.  Each of them goes on the journey to atone for their sinful lives by helping Xuanzang.

You can read about Monkey by following the two links below.

The Journey to the West part 1

The Journey to the West part 2

Your assignment:

Create a book about Buddhism in China.  Your book will include information about The Journey to the West and about Buddhism in China.  Your book will take the form of a Tibetan prayer book like the ones pictured below.

For this project, you will work in teams of three students.  Each student will make one section of your book.  To make your book use three pieces of legal size paper folded accordion style and taped together into a single long book like this:

To start, fold a single piece of paper in half like this:

Then fold each half back the other way, in half again like this.

Your end result should open up and lay flat.  Make three.

One student will have the cover and pages 1 through 4.  Like this.

This student will do the following pages:

• A cover page including a title, artwork and the authors full names  
• 1. Who was the real life Xuanzang? 
• 2. What was The Journey to the West?
• 3. Summary of slide show #1 from Asia Society Kids.
• 4. Summary of slide show #1 from Asia Society Kids.

One student will have pages 5 through 8.  

This student will do the following pages:

• 5. Summary of slide show #2 from Asia Society Kids.
• 6. Summary of slide show #2 from Asia Society Kids.
• 7. What are the Four Noble Truths?
• 8  What is The Eightfold Path?

One student will have pages 9 through 12 and the back cover.

This student will do the following pages:

• 9. What is Pure Land Buddhism?
• 10. What is Chan Buddhism?
• 11.  Where is Buddhism today?
• 12. Who is the Dalai Lama?
• Back cover artwork and list of sources used.

Each partner has $3.00 to spend on writing to be divided between the four pages in any way you choose.  Each page must include an illustration as well.

When everyone has finished their work, put your pages together into a single book. 

Use the websites above, the packet on Buddhism from Stanford and other sources to complete your project. 

Buddhist prayers books like this are known for fairly simple, colorful artwork. You may write yours in Chinese characters going down, (This counts as an illustration for that page.) but include an English translation. You may number the pages.

Your project will be graded on overall appearance, quality of the writing included, historical accuracy and the creative touches your group adds to the book.

Projects are due on Friday. You will have time in class today, Wednesday and on Friday.

Just for fun here is a trailer for a movie based on The Journey to the West.  The Journey to the West continues to be popular in China.  There have been several movies and a television series based on the novel.

Martin Luther King of the Metaphor

This project is due on Thursday, Feburary 15.  This project is for English classes only.

Students are to take one of the metaphors in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and turn it into a visual metaphor.  We began this assignment in class today.

Artwork should follow these rules:

1. cover the entire paper with other paper.
2. use the book page.
3. include the metaphor in writing.

Here are two samples from other classes.

Here is the video of the speech we watched in class today, just in case you'd like to watch it again.