When Ruby Bridges entered an all-white school in New Orleans in 1960, she also entered history. Scholars consider what the experience must have been like for the young girl using two books that document her experience as well as a double entry journal. In small groups, they discuss the commonalities between their stories and hers. 

Concepts

segregation, desegregation, the law of segregation, ruby bridges, civil rights, civil rights leaders, the civil rights movement, schools, personal narrative writing

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Have students respond to the story of Ruby Bridges in their double journal entries 

Classroom Considerations

• Lesson requires class sets of the books The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges, which the resource does not include
• Class members need a background in segregation to understand the stories

Pros

• Double journal entry allows class members to build text analysis skills
• Activities build empathy for others

Cons

• Lesson seems to side-step issues of racism by not directly addressing it

Common Core

RL.3.1 RL.3.2 RL.3.3 RL.3.10 RL.4.1 RL.4.2 RL.4.3 RL.4.6 RL.4.10 RL.5.1 RL.5.2 RL.5.3 RL.5.6 RL.5.10