I wrote about Kadir Nelson's We Are the Ship in an earlier post, but have developed lesson ideas that have been used since then by a class of fifth graders at my school.  It seems to have worked pretty well, so I decided to share them in more detail.  We emphasized point of view because of Nelson's interesting choice of narrator. The book was nonfiction, but the narrator was actually a fictional character representing "everyman" in the league.  We spent some time on this since it is a unique viewpoint.



They engaged in some rich discussions about the Negro race and their fight for equality.  The majority of students at my school are African-American and are taught about their history each year so they are familiar with these issues.  However, presenting the history from the baseball league perspective put a little different spin on the subject for them.  I made a 9-square choice board and allowed students to choose activities to complete.  The choices reading across the top, then the middle, and the last rows are as follows:

1.  Make a “scorecard” showing the “white” and “black” rules of baseball during the era of the Negro League (2^nd inning).
2. Create baseball cards for at least three players from the Negro league (5^th inning).
3. Write three journal entries as a player from the Negro League (3^rd inning).
4. Write a news report about Rube Foster (1^st inning).
5. Write a speech from a manager trying to convince the other managers that it is a good idea to have Negro players on the major league teams.
6. Create a timeline for the Negro Baseball League from 1920 until 1948.
7. List notable team owners in the Negro League.  What was special about Gus Greenlee and Abe and Effa Manley?
8. Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the Latin Leagues and the Negro league (6^th inning).
9. Create a poster encouraging people to come to a Brooklyn Dodgers game after Jackie Robinson joined the team.

I found this idea at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic and adapted it for use at my school. 

Summary:  Kadir Nelson narrates this story through the use of a character who played in the Negro Baseball League.  He is not a real person, but represents all those who played.  The book tells a lot about the hardships faced by African American baseball players.  Nelson doesn’t sugarcoat the facts about how prejudicial and unfair life was for these baseball players.  However, many of these men were made stronger because of their difficult lives.  These were the men who were able to persevere and help change the American view of African Americans.  We Are the Ship is structured in a timeline sequence to tell the story of how the Negro Baseball League came into existence.  We learn how players are finally welcomed, although in a not-so-friendly way at first, into Major League Baseball, beginning with Jackie Robinson.  It ends with a recounting of African Americans playing in the majors today, including a list of all the Negro Baseball League Players who made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Additional Lesson Idea:  Read Teammates by Peter Golenbock.  Do a text comparison.  Both are about baseball, but students can compare the themes, characters, events, etc.

 

The fifth grade teacher who used this lesson with her students said they really seemed to enjoy reading We Are the Ship and thought the choice board worked well for them to dig a little deeper into the meaning of the text while having some choice of activities.