My favorite women: My Great Aunt Arizona

These three (or four) 45-minute lessons will introduce kindergarteners and first graders to Women's History Month. The students listen to the story of author Gloria Houston's great-aunt, Arizona Houston Hughes. During and following the listening and viewing experiences, the students will discuss their experiences with women in their own history who are helping them become good citizens and grow up well.

A lesson plan for grades K–1 English Language Arts and Information Skills

By Floanna Long

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Related topics

• Learn more about National Women's History Month, biographies, information literacy, interviews, language arts, pre-reading strategies, print awareness, read-alouds, and women.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• learn that there is a special month for recognizing the contributions women have made in American history.
• compare the actual book to the larger-than life images captured by a digital camera and projected on the Smart TV’s monitor.
• look at the women in their world and choose one or two who are especially important to them.
• interview one or two of these women and prepare a picture and short, dictated or self-written paragraph explaining her importance to them
• present their work orally or the work may be posted on the library media center’s web page.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

3 weeks

Materials/resources

• My Great-Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston
• Drawing paper
• crayons
• National Women’s History Month Parents’ Letter
• Picture Frame
• Interview Questions
• Interview Note Format
• Attached documents

Technology resources

• Digital camera
• Smart TV
• Computer interfacing with the TV
• Microsoft PowerPoint

Pre-activities

Before beginning this lesson, students should have:

• some pre-reading skills
• the ability to sit and be a good listener for about 15 minutes
• training in good audience skills
• understanding and some competency with participating in a group discussion.
• familiarity with the parts of a book cover: title, author, illustrator, spine, and spine label
• an understanding of the function of the spine label as it applies to books from the Media Center

Prior to the lessons the librarian/media specialist should prepare a slide program using slide show software. Using the pictures from the book, take several pictures of the whole page and smaller zoomed in pictures of the details on the page.

Activities

Session 1

1. Gather the students around the storytelling area and discuss with them what National Women’s History Month is all about. Solicit their comments about any ladies in history they remember. (Martha Washington, Mary Todd Lincoln, Harriett Tubman).
2. Tell them that they have not been in school long enough to really know much about American history but that they have their own personal history. At this point, ask them to think about very special, important women in their own lives--their own history. The discussion should be lively and the students should be lead to recall their teachers and principal (if she is a woman).
3. Show the copy of My Great-Aunt Arizona and tell them that you will read to them a very special story about a lady who had a strong influence. Explain that the book IS a beautiful picture book, but that it was written about a real person who had lived in a real time and that the story is true. Continue to explain that books written about real people and their real lives are called “biography.”
4. Read the story, stopping to explain unfamiliar terms and to encourage close observation of the illustrations. Ad-lib repetition of the phrases:

   “…with her long braids wrapped around and around her head, her long full dress, a pretty apron, high-topped buttoned up shoes and many petticoats (It sure is difficult to explain what a petticoat is to the children today!),”

   and

   “she taught the children about words and numbers and all the faraway places they you go one day.”

   The students will catch on and soon become co-readers.
5. Demonstrate what it would have been like to read your lessons all at one time in a one-room school by singing three different children’s songs at the same time. For example, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
6. After the story, use the strategy of “shared talking” and allow the students time to interact with each other about the parts of the story and illustrations they liked.
7. Take the class from the storytelling area to where the presentation station is set-up. Show them some slides from the book. Especially effective are close-ups of the deer on the dedication page, the baby in the schoolroom, the lunch pails, and the globe. Explain briefly how the visual effect was achieved (camera, disk, cable connecting the TV and computer, etc).

Session 2

1. Remind the students of the previous lesson. Review the meaning of biography. Re-read the story using the slide show presentation. Stop to explain unfamiliar terms and to encourage close observation of the illustrations.
2. After the story, use the strategy of “shared talking” and allow the students time to interact with each other about the parts of the story and illustrations they liked. Ask them to compare the previous lesson to the one presented today. What was different and the same about each one? A Venn diagram could be made if there is the time and space.
3. Continue using the presentation to explain the interview assignment. See the attached parent letter, drawing sheet, interview questions, and writing/drawing prompt.

Session 3

1. The students should bring back their pictures and short paragraphs.
2. Remind them that they started by talking about women who have help change the lives of others.
3. Allow each student to present his/her “favorite lady” and the picture. Use the digital camera to take quick snapshots, download them into a slideshow program, and set it to loop as the students go about their book check out.

Assessment

See attached rubric

Supplemental information

Comments

I was inspired to become a teacher by my grandmother, Flora Atchley Large, who taught in a two-room Appalachian school for 35 years and the founder of the college that my parents and I attended in the Appalachian mountains of Georgia, Martha Berry. When I first read this story, it reminded me so much of the influence these women had on the hundreds and thousands of lives of which many became teachers. What a great vehicle to use to introduce young children in a North Carolina school to National Women’s History Month and the genre of biography!

I love the tech connection, not so much for the tech, but that the children could actually appreciate the beauty of the illustrations.