Nonfiction Monday: Slavery

This slave narrative/poetry book is two books in one for grades 6-8.

Facts First

The Freedom Business
including A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa
Poems by Marilyn Nelson
and Art by Deborah Dancy

Reading level: Grades 6-8
Hardcover: 72 pages
Publisher: WordSong

This amazing book is two books in one. Open the book and you'll see a true story on the left, a slave narrative written in the eighteenth century by Venture Smith. On the right side are poems that bring that capture the essence of the prose on each page.

Activities...

Introduce your students to primary sources with Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 at the Library of Congress.

Listen to audio interviews of Voices from the Days of Slavery at the Library of Congress.

Visit the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco online and listen to the narration by Maya Angelou.

Did you know that Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday today is also a Day of Service?

Ask students to write their own poetry about this week's historic events with Scholastic's Poetry Workshop.

If you're blogging about nonfiction books on this Nonfiction Monday, go to SimplyScience and add your blog to this week's Round-up. (Classroom blogs welcome!)