Nov 30

I was reading the epilogue of "Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963" with a small group. Unfortunately the reading level jumps from something they can handle to something way out of their league -- new vocab, long sentences, and it's history. It's the history of the Civil Rights Movement, written way over the students' heads. So we really had to study each sentence and discuss. Meanwhile, whose group went way over time? I just love history. But if this book wants to make an impact, which it clearly does, something has to be done about the Epilogue, Newbery Award or no Newbery award. It's not so difficult to think about students' reading levels when preparing text, but so much text is so far above so many students' heads.