Brown Girl Dreaming

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse." ~Description of the book as found on Goodreads.

 Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In this novel, Jacqueline Woodson tells a story of what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960's and 1970's. She does this through the use of vivid poems, mostly written as free verse.

The book, as previously stated, can be classified under poetry, but it also is a memoir, as well as a cultural eye opener. As far as being classified as poetry, Woodson tells her tales through the use of narrative poetry. She makes the content interesting to the readers, as well as uses careful word selection as to really portray the emotions and thoughts that may have been going on at that particular time in her life. The book was published on August 28, 2014 by Nancy Paulsen Books

Motivational Activities

1)The Impact of “History”- Throughout Brown Girl Dreaming Woodson references historic events and figures that parallel and impact her life. Have students create a timeline of Woodson's life, a timeline of their own life, and then a historic timeline. Have them talk to their peers about what has happened in history during their lifetime, their parents lifetime, and Woodson's timeline. 

• Woodson’s Timeline: Students can create a timeline of Woodson’s life along with the historic events and figures she mentions in Brown Girl Dreaming. This can be extended by having students add additional historic events to the timeline. Students can also write about the impact of these events and people on Woodson’s life as evidenced in Brown Girl Dreaming, other sources or as speculated.
• Personal Timeline: Students can create a personal timeline that features events in their life as well as important events and people during their lifetime. This can be extended by having students select some events or people to write about in regards to the impact on their lives.
• Researching Historic Events or People: Students can be divided into groups and assigned people or events mentioned by Woodson in Brown Girl Dreaming to research. To extend the use of timelines, one can be created for an historic figure or event tracing how the person came to be “historic” or what led up to an event.

2) Family Map- Woodson describes a great deal of traveling between parts of her family, particularly between New York City and Greenville, SC. In this activity, students can create a map of Woodson’s family instead of a family tree, since Woodson already provides her family tree at beginning of Brown Girl Dreaming. Enhancement: Have students create their own family maps. After completed, have students compare and contrast all of the different places their families have been!

3) Writing Prompts- Have students complete a series of writing prompts throughout the whole time they are reading this book.

• During: Identify different characters in the book and infer their perspectives on dreams. Use evidence from the text to support your thoughts. As you think about the different characters - where they live, their lifestyles - how might you compare and contrast their dreams or what they think about dreams?
• After: Imagining Jacqueline Woodson's life growing up, we know her dream was to be a writer. What is your one dream? If you would have one wish come true, what would it be and why?
• Comparing and Contrasting/Reflection: Think about Jacqueline Woodson's one dream that you identified and your own one dream, do you see how you might be similar? Whether you have the same color skin as Jacqueline Woodson or not, what similarities do you see between her dream and yours? 

Discussion Questions 

1) How does the author come to find herself? What are the strongest influences on her identity? 

2) In what ways does Woodson show the power of family? How do Woodson’s siblings impact her decisions? 

3) What role does history play in this book? 

4) In what ways does Woodson manipulate words, phrasing, and white space? How does this influence your reading?

5) In the chapter “Stevie” the author talks about being excited to find a book with people that look like her. Do most books you read have people that look like you or people from other cultures and backgrounds? Why is this something to think about?

References

Galda, L., Cullinan, B., & Sipe, L. (2010). Literature and the child (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Woodson, Jacqueline. Brown Girl Dreaming. Nancy Paulsen, 2014. Print.