The last entry crabbed about what I felt was an unfair review of our book. After rereading it, I can still feel the sting of that careless review. But, much has happened since so it’s time to move on. It’s been quite some time since I last posted here, but I’m really excited to be a Goodreads author. Both of our books have been finding homes with social studies teachers, so it’s time for a fresh start.
Over the past several years, Mark and I have traveled to Birmingham, Morgantown, WV, Harrisburg, PA and to schools in the Rochester area to present our on-going research and conduct workshops for teachers and teachers to be. We feel strongly that the work we’ve done and included in our book is an important addition to understanding the African American experience. It may sound obvious, but African American history IS American history. In order to understand our past, we have to strive to know, as Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story.”
We’ve also again turned our attention to helping teachers by adapting our book as a student edition. It follows the teacher edition but addresses students directly in the narratives. When I wrote the high school level American history text for the National Migrant Education Assoc.’s PASS (Portable Assisted Study Sequence) curriculum, the text needed to reach students with all levels of learning abilities, reading levels, and learning styles. We took that to heart in our student edition so that any student using it would find it accessible.
As we continue to find new ways to share the work, we’ll make sure to pass our progress along.
Before Jackie: The Negro Leagues, Civil Rights & the American Dream 