All The Way To The Top
Jennifer is so excited for her first day of kindergarten and can't wait to make new friends. However, when she shows up on the first day she is told she doesn't belong because of her wheelchair. Even at her knew school she is only allowed to attend for half of the day and is shunned by her classmates. Despite this, she wouldn't give up. Jennifer and her family started working with activists who were fighting to make public places-like schools, government buildings, and transportation-accessible to everyone. Inspired by all the grown ups with disabilities working together to create change, Jennifer wanted to join them. Jennifer and her family protested all over the country, even travelling to Montreal. At these protests Jennifer learned about a law being proposed called the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This law would require all schools, governments, and businesses are accessible for disabled people. Despite all the protesting Jennifer and her activist friends felt like no one was listening to them. None of the news stations ever mentioned the ADA! Jennifer knew it was time to go, to Washington, DC. Jennifer marched all the way to the U.S. Capitol and participated in the "Capitol Crawl", where activists in wheelchairs physically climbed the steps of the U.S. Capitol to make sure congress heard their voices. And that's exactly what Jennifer did. Pictures of Jennifer's climb travelled all over the country and everyone started talking about the ADA. Finally, Congress decided to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act. Jennifer's life began to change, slowly but surely more and more places became accessible. Jennifer understands that change is slow, but she is never going to stop using her voice to fight for what is right.
Element 3: This book aligns so well with Element 3 (Exploring Issues of Social Justice) by introducing students to the history of the Disability Rights Movement that put in place the ADA from the perspective of a 9 year old. As we read we see Jennifer being segregated from her able-bodied peers and barred from libraries, buses, museums, even crossing the street. This context helps students to understand why Jennifer and her activists friends were fighting so hard for laws like the ADA. Her story models how students can go about advocating for issues they think are important.
Activity: A great extension activity for this book would be a story mapping activity. After reading this book aloud as a class, the teacher would guide the students in filling out the story map together. The purpose of this activity is to identify all the story elements of this book and accurately retell the events of the narrative.
Example below:
No comments:
Post a Comment