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Amy Krzoska

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Todd Osterman
The book Same, Same but Different is a picture book about two little boys who are pen pals. One lives in a large city in the United States. It is a short, but somewhat dense book, where the two boys write letters back and forth to each other, drawing pictures to show how their “world looks.” They draw pictures comparing families, houses, what they do for fun, and what the world works from their point of vies. The book ends with the pictures that they drew for each other hanging in their respective rooms, and realizing that their worlds while different are also very much the same.  It’s a very cute book, and a fun easy read.

This book would be an ideal launching point for many different social studies topics. This ideally could be used to talk about culture, This would be a great book to start looking at how cultures, are both different, and the same at the same time. The boys in this story compare what makes them different, but also how they are the same. In social studies students could start by comparing their own family cultures, and look at how they are different, and the same, and expanding that into looking into different cultures in the world.

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Megan Malloy
Just as Good How Larry Doby Changed America’s Game
Chris Crowe

Homer, a young African American boy, was told that he was unable to play little league baseball due to his race. He was very excited to listen to the World Series baseball game on the radio with his family. Lary Doby, the second African American baseball player, plays for the Indian’s. Homer looks up to Lary Doby as a role model and inspiration. Lary Doby became the “World Series her” with his winning homerun hit. Homer and his parents were so excited! Now, Homer sees that change isn’t just coming, but is already here.

The story of race and the division of American culture are important for American culture and history. Integration in baseball occurred of the beginning of desegregation. Jim Crow laws existed in many states, making “normal” life unrealistic for many people of color. Students’ interest in sports, diverse lifestyles, and racial injustice, can help students understand and synthesize information learned about the Civil Rights Movement and the racial injustices still present today. Learning history not only clarifies the past, but also helps us understand the world around us.

https://www.amazon.com/Just-Good-Larry-Changed-Americas/dp/0763650269

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March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World,’ is about Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington told from the perspective of Christine King Farris, Martin’s sister. She begins the story by saying how people from all over the United States came to the Washington Monument to protest in favor of equal rights, having a sense of belonging in the U.S. and for freedom. She describes how hardworking her brother had always been and how passionate he had always been. This is what made his “I have a dream speech” so memorable and impactful. The march was a significant event in history, thousands of people from all over had joined together to stand up for a cause they believed strongly in. Farris gives such high praises to her inspirational brother as she describes his speech and how positively he impacted the thousands of people who were listening. She describes how her brother changed the world and was making history in America.

This is an excellent source to use for teaching social studies. It describes a major event in history from a personal perspective, which helps make the even more prevalent and real. It speaks about a time when Martin was transcending American culture and what Americans valued, believed, behaved etc. This book can teach students that cultures have changed and are currently changing because of motivated individuals who seek change. This book gives good insights into what one day in 1963 looked like, which can help give them perspective about the past. Understanding the past is an incredibly important aspect for understanding the present and why it is the way it is. This book can help students understand other people, places, and environments and how they can affect them and their own lives. Social, cultural, economic and civic issues all have so much history behind them and this book gives good insights to a moment that changed all four of those issues. This book may help students understand individuals, groups, and institutions and what controls and influences them. These three categories are constantly changing in history and understanding why they are changing or being maintained is important to understand. There are so many cultural universals in this book that can help broaden the perspective of students. This book embodies a common theme amongst American culture and that is conquering an adversity. So many different ethnic groups and races have made it in America by speaking up for themselves and protesting for their rights. We have seen it with Native Americans, Latinos, Chinese Americans and so many more groups. If America values freedom and equality, then various groups are going ensure that these values hold true.

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March On!: The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World | IndieBound.org

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From Dr. Martin Luther King's sister, the definitive tribute to the man, the march, and the speech that changed a nation.On a hot August day in 1963, hundreds of thousands of people made history when they marched into Washington, D.C., in search of equality.

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Children's Literature and Social Studies 

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Children's Literature and Social Studies 

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Grace Lennon

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Sara Douvalakis

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Picture Book Reflection Esterllita in the big city 

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By: Ellen Hays
I read the book White Water by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein. This was inspired by a true story in which a young boy is intrigued by the differences between his colored drinking fountain and the white drinking fountain. He has this image in his head that their water is fresh and pure unlike his grungy, dirty water. However, he devises this plan, and he pretends he is sick so he can stay home from school and he sneaks into town and tries the white water, and he realizes its all the same. It still tastes like grungy dirty water. The boy then realizes that he can do anything that he puts his heart and mind to.

Ways that this could be used with social studies is the fact that it is in the perspective of an African American boy. Most stories are told in the white person view or an adult African American. However, to hear from what a boy thinks is very intriguing and very important for elementary students to understand. Children, at this time in America, didn’t understand why they couldn’t do things that other little boys were doing. To them they looked and seemed just as nice as friendly as them but they couldn’t be by each other or attend the same events. This can be used in social studies to start a discussion within the classroom talking about how they thought the students felt about segregation at the time, or how they would have felt if they would have lived during that time period. This is a great book for K-8 students to read to understand a different point of view of people during this time period.

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In The Family Book, it illustrates different aspects of family that might be controversial in society to children in a way that they can understand. It gives many different scenarios, types of families, and characteristics of families so that every individual that reads the story can identify with it.

In I Love Saturdays y domingos, the story is written in both English and Spanish. This book would be helpful in a classroom with bilingual students or students that speak Spanish. By depicting a family with interracial parents, it talks about the relationship of a child with two grandmas of different races. The story highlights the similarities and differences between cultures through language and daily life.

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In The Family Book, it illustrates different aspects of family that might be controversial in society to children in a way that they can understand. It gives many different scenarios, types of families, and characteristics of families so that every individual that reads the story can identify with it.

In I Love Saturdays y domingos, the story is written in both English and Spanish. This book would be helpful in a classroom with bilingual students or students that speak Spanish. By depicting a family with interracial parents, it talks about the relationship of a child with two grandmas of different races. The story highlights the similarities and differences between cultures through language and daily life.

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Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman

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Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman

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We can tell the students to draw a picture of their family and then have them talk about what they drew and why. They can talk about their own families and find similarities and differences. Then they can read the book to see not every family is the same.

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Rene Has Two Last Names - boy with two last names

And Tango Makes Three - gay marriage

Pecan Pie Baby - single mother and having children

These books are beneficial in teaching about family in that they discuss "controversial" topics such as homosexuality and single parenting in a child friendly way.

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The use of animals makes the story kid friendly and makes the story ambiguous. It does stick to a traditional structure of a family, but they do add in divorce and adoption to broaden the spectrum. Illustrations are fun.

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"The Great Big Book of Families" by Mary Hoffman discusses varying aspects of families that may not be common in every household. Each page shows a different part of what a family can mean like school, transportation, hobbies, celebrations, etc. It shows the diversity that is seen every day and brings in a more multicultural aspect that is not typically considered.

This book would be beneficial to a classroom when discussing families because of how unique it is. There should be at least one aspect of the story that almost every student should be able to connect with their prior knowledge and previous experiences.

This book could be used as the launch of a unit on families since there are so many varying aspects covered. From this launch the teacher can differentiate upcoming lessons to accommodate the needs of each student.

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Children have a different perception of what family means to them. We can use literature to show that there is not one definite way to define family. Using a variety of picture books to use to compare and contrast different structures of family. This will encourage students to feel mosre comfortable sharing about their family and more understanding of other family circumstances.

Examples of books: Knock Knock, The Relatives Came, Who's In My Family?

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Children's literature can be a great introduction to discuss diverse familes in the social studies classroom.

"Two Old Potatoes and Me" describes the quality time a girl spends with her dad, who is separated from her mom.

"Jin Woo" teaches us that family does not need to be biological in order to be considered family.

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If we use literature that has a wide range of cultures represented then we can expand what a "normal" family is.

Ex. Visiting Day by James Ransome represents a real situation about a father who is in prison and a daughter who visits him. This book helps us talk about a topic for kids of all socioeconomic status. This book introduces a difficult topic to students who would have no prior knowledge about it, and it also can help students who may deal with it on a daily basis feel more validated.