The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
by Christopher Paul Curtis

Image courtesy of Randomhouse

We have just finished reading The Watson's Go to Birmingham -1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. This is a historical fiction book about the Civil Rights Movement throughout the mid 1900's. The story is narrated by Kenny Watson, a ten-year-old boy, growing up in Flint, Michigan during the time period. Kenny's thirteen-year-old brother, Byron, is an "official juvenile delinquent" and his parents decide it is time for the family to travel to Birmingham to visit Grandma, in order to help Byron get back on track. The book contains details about the tragic bombing of a church in Birmingham and the racial tension felt by African Americans in the Southern United States.

Your Quest

To explore the issues talked about in The Watsons Go to Birmingham, we will be using the internet to find information on prominent people and events concerning the Civil Rights Movement. You will be working both individually and in groups. As a final project, we will make a class book about the important figures and events of the Civil Rights Movement we covered; we will publish it for others to read. You must complete the tasks listed below in order to fulfill this quest. Good luck!

Some ideas to think about:
How did your person affect life for African Americans living in the South?
What event is your person connected with that helped to promote equal rights for African Americans?

Task One: Below, I have given a list of four important people of the Civil Rights Movement from which you will chose one to research. You will individually research and take detailed notes on the person of your choice. You will conduct your research using the internet; I have given you several websites to choose from. Don’t forget, you must write down the sources you have used for your bibliography!

Before Starting: Read through the rubric listed at the bottom of the page in order to get a complete picture of what is expected of you both on an individual and group level. Collecting important information is a hard job, so I have given a few websites to assist you. Read through the websites listed below for tips on how to write research and take good notes. Once you have chosen the person you would like to research, you must report it to me, because only a limited number of students are allowed to report on the same person.

People to choose:

Task Two: You will now meet with the other members of the class who have chosen the same person as you. You need to get together and share the information each member collected. As a group, you need to work together to analyze and synthesize the information into one cohesive paper, which will be one chapter for our book. Your chapter needs to be at least 2 double-spaced pages word processed. Allow every member of the group to participate and make decisions; let everyone's opinions be heard.

Task Three: Each group must give a presentation to the class about the person you researched. Each group must give both an oral and visual representation. You may choose the way in which to present your topic, but all members must participate! Some examples of different ways of presenting and how to give a good presentation are listed below.

Task Four: As a class we will decide in what order to put the chapters to form our book. Together, we will write our introduction, stating what the book is about, and our conclusion, stating why this book is important for others to read. We also need someone (or a few individuals) to design a cover for our book! I will publish our book and make copies for everyone to have. First, each group needs to come up with a list of at least 4 things you have learned about the Civil Rights from both the individual research and the group presentations. We will use this information to help write our final conclusion for the book.

Rubric:

Questions for self-evaluation:

• After looking at the rubric for the individual research, how would you score yourself and why?
• Is there anything you would change about this webquest?