{"id":2035,"date":"2009-11-17T12:38:12","date_gmt":"2009-11-17T17:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/2035"},"modified":"2009-11-17T12:38:12","modified_gmt":"2009-11-17T17:38:12","slug":"teaching-civics-with-childrens-literature-phillis-wheatly-let-freedom-ring-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2009\/11\/17\/teaching-civics-with-childrens-literature-phillis-wheatly-let-freedom-ring-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Civics with Children&#8217;s Literature: Phillis Wheatley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/files\/2009\/11\/phillis.jpg\" title=\"phillis.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/files\/2009\/11\/phillis.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"phillis.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">The Let Freedom Ring book series is published by Capstone Press and includes 46 kid-friendly biographies of important Americans.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Phillis-Wheatley-Let-Freedom-Ring\/dp\/0736844988\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1258474855&amp;sr=8-1\">Phillis Wheatley<\/a> biography is written by Susan R. Gregson and includes a glossary of important words, poems written by Phillis, maps of the slave trade, and diagrams of slade ships, among other things.\u00a0 Surprisingly, the book is only 40ish pages long, but really contains an impressive amount of information, much of which is perfect for use in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">The book begins with background information about Phillis Wheatley&#8217;s capture from Africa, journey to the United States, and purchase by John and Susannah Wheatley.\u00a0 It details her early years living with the Wheatley family (John and Susannah named her Phillis) and explains how her talent as a writer was evident from an early age:<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8220;The Wheatleys started by teaching Phillis to read, write, and speak English.\u00a0 After she had mastered these skills, the Wheatleys taught her subjects such as Latin, philosophy, and mathematics.\u00a0 Phillis loved to read and memorize poems.\u00a0 She also read the Bible and was interested in religion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Facts are presented in a straightforward, easy to understand format that makes this book easy to read aloud to younger students, as well as conducive to silent reading or research for upper-elementary schoolers.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>Curriculum Connections<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Because Phillis Wheatley isn&#8217;t covered by a specific VA SOL, the book could be adapted for use with related topics like History 1.1 (distinguishing the present from the past because of the timeline incorporated) and Civics 1.10, 2.10, and 2.12\u00a0(traits of good citizenship and diversity in America).\u00a0 It could also be used during a lesson on the Revolutionary War because some of those battles are touched on in the text, as well, or in lots of US History SOLs (for example, US1.5, 1.6, 1.7).\u00a0 It could even be used in an English lesson about poetry.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p align=\"left\">This Thinkquest website, entitled <a href=\"http:\/\/library.thinkquest.org\/TQ0312848\/home.htm\">Voices of the American Revolution<\/a>, is a neat way to show students the everyday lives of some lesser-known people who contributed to the war.\u00a0 It has lots of information and a resource page for even further reading.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p align=\"left\">This website, focused on another book series, provides <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patriapress.com\/wheatleyre.html\">lesson plans and a webquest<\/a> focused on poetry to teach about Phillis Wheatley.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pocanticohills.org\/revolution\/revolution.htm\">The American Revolution for Kids<\/a> is a website put together by a class of students with lots of information about all parts of the war.\u00a0 Phillis Wheatley has a page, but the website is very comprehensive and would be good to have students use for\u00a0some type\u00a0of\u00a0websearch assignment.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>\u00a0General Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>Book<\/strong>: Phillis Wheatley (Let Freedom Ring series)<br \/>\n<strong>Author<\/strong>: Susan R. Gregson<br \/>\n<strong>Publisher<\/strong>: Bridgestone Books (Capstone Press)<br \/>\n<strong>Pages<\/strong>: 48<br \/>\n<strong>Grade range<\/strong>: 2-5<br \/>\n<strong>ISBN<\/strong>: 0736844988<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Let Freedom Ring book series is published by Capstone Press and includes 46 kid-friendly biographies of important Americans.\u00a0 The Phillis Wheatley biography is written by Susan R. Gregson and includes a glossary of important words, poems written by Phillis, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2009\/11\/17\/teaching-civics-with-childrens-literature-phillis-wheatly-let-freedom-ring-series\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4424,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80,50,848],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-african-american","category-biography","category-book-review","category-civics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}