This week we read Born on the Water, to serve as an anchor text in our study of the history of enslavement.   Born on the Water begins with the misstep of a well-intentioned educator: “Trace your roots. Draw a flag that represents your ancestral land.”  When asked about her intentions for Born on the Water, Nikole Hannah-Jones said that she wanted to help Black descendants of slavery in the United States craft “an origin story.” That is exactly what Hannah-Jones and her co-author, Reneé Watson, accomplish in this counternarrative to the shame Black children often experience when given this type of assignment.

After a whole class read aloud and discussion of the book,  we used  a set of text reflection protocol questions to guide our conversation on the content of the text and imagery.  As the week progressed, students followed up with a close reading, focusing on the first on the section of the book representing the life of west African people of the Kingdom on Ndongo before  1619, the arrival of the first ship transporting enslaved people to American colonies.  We repeated our text reflection protocol, recording what we noticed, what we wondered, what feelings rose in us, what we started thinking that we did not think before, and if we were able to turn our thoughts and feelings into actions, what action would we take and we did a close reading of section of the book focused from 1619 to June 19, 1865, also known as Juneteenth, or Freedom or Emancipation Day.

You can  read more about “Born on the Water”  in this article.

Authors, after finishing editing their first drafts for mechanics,  also began sharing their creative realistic fiction writing  this week to their peers.  We worked on giving specific actionable feedback to help writers revise their work with the intention to connect and communicate clearly with their audience of readers.

We ended the week, enjoying the sunshine with our first/second grade buddies, playing a rousing game of “banana tag” and free play for choice time at Strawberry Creek park.