Is your book club reading R is for Rebel? Here’s a one-page roundup of discussion questions to get you started!
Want to use R is for Rebel in your history or language arts class? This classroom discussion guide includes a range of questions intended to address a variety of learning styles, levels of interest, and levels of ability. The content is designed for grades 5-9 and aligned to Common Core and Teaching Tolerance’s Social Justice Standards.
To supplement the guide, here are some resources and links:
Primers
Background Information
Examples
- The New England Primer
- The Comic Military Alphabet
- Anti-Slavery Primer
- Primers (via Harvard University Library)
- Nineteenth-Century Schoolbooks (via the University of Pittsburgh)
Protest Songs
Background Information
- Songs of War: The Evolution of Protest Music in the United States
- The Sixties and Protest Music
- The history of American protest music, from “Yankee Doodle” to Kendrick Lamar
- This is what protest sounds like
Examples
- “I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be a Soldier” by Alfred Bryan (1915) – Context * Lyrics * Clip
- “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol (1937) – Context & Lyrics * Clip
- “Deportee (The Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” by Woody Guthrie (1948) – Context * More Context * Lyrics * Clip
- “Backlash Blues” by Nina Simone (1967) – Context * Lyrics * Clip
- “The Men Behind the Wire” by Paddy McGuigan (1971) – Context * Lyrics * Clip
- “Free Nelson Mandela” by Jerry Dammers (1984) – Context * Lyrics * Clip
- “Sefr” by Haitham Nabil (2011) – Context & Lyrics * Clip
- “Stand Up/Stand N Rock” by Hip Hop Caucus & Taboo (2016) – Context * Lyrics * Clip
Oral Histories
- African-American Migration to Philadelphia
- Middletown Digital Oral History Collections
- Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project
- September 11th (via Storycorps)
“Original” Names
Denali / Mt. McKinley
- Mount McKinley will be renamed Denali
- Denali or Mount McKinley?
- Mt. McKinley to Denali: How A Mountain’s Renaming Got Tied Up in Politics
Uluru / Ayers Rock
Pretoria / Tshwane
- Pretoria (Tshwane): The Naming of a City
- Name change for Pretoria causes heated debate
- A city, by any other name
Ongoing Conversations
- Queensland moves to remove racist place names
- After Denali name change, attention turns to South Dakota’s Harney Peak
- Tribal Alliance Seeks To Restore Native Name For Mount Rainier
- Devil’s Tower – Proposals to Change the Name
Inspirational People