Alerie Flandez

Professor Warner

Engl 112B

29, November 2006

Using YA Sports Literature To Complement a Unit on the Civil Rights Movement

�The reason I didn't read when I was in school was because nobody would give me a story I cared about. I would have read if teachers had given me some stories I could care about and let me draw parallels between the classic stories.� Chris Crutcher (during an interview with Debbbie Erenberger) Clearly, Chris Chrutcher, author of sports-themed young adult literature such as Whale Talk, was one of many non-elective readers who presented a challenge well-known to any English or Language Arts teacher of all levels: how to get the student interested in reading. This challenge, however, can be overcome by incorporating more modern young adult literature not unlike those written by Chris Crutcher himself.

Young adult (YA) sports literature, for example, can be paired up with a unit on the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement was a time in which an uprising of the oppressed minority triumphed over issues of discrimination and blatant institutionalized racism. Jackie Robinson is a notable civil rights hero who used sports as his conduit to make change. Using Whale Talk as a part of the unit on the Civil Rights Movement, students can discuss issues of racism and discrimination which greatly parallels the same experiences which plagued Jackie Robinson and other minorities fighting for change. Furthermore, as Literature For Today�s Young Adults state, �Teenagers like to read about other teenagers� (17). If students were to read about teenagers, they will definitely have an easier time relating to the issues of racism and discrimination which happened during the civil rights movement.

Launching the Unit:

A. Before reading Whale Talk begin the unit with a class discussion on the civil rights movement.

1. Ask the students, �What is racism?� Discuss.

2. After students have tried to define racism, ask students for examples of racism in U.S. history. Students will probably come up with broad ideas such as slavery, segregation, hate crimes, etc. Suggest events leading up to the civil rights movement and lead the discussion to focus on Jackie Robinson.

3. Show a film such as Remember the Titans or a documentary on Jackie Robinson.

B. Before the next class, have students do an internet research activity for homework on athletes who broke racial barriers in American sports history. Have each student do an informal 2-minute oral presentation on the athlete of his or her choice concentrating on at least one example of racism and discrimination their athletes faced. This is a great opportunity for students to expand their own knowledge on American sports history while contributing to the knowledge of the class as a whole. Students should have the option of looking up any athlete who overcame racism in sports, but here is a small list of athletes students can use:

1. Arthur Ashe (tennis player)

2. Jackie Robinson (baseball player)

3. William Richmond (boxer)

4. Jack Johnson/ a.k.a. John Arthur Johnson (boxer)

5. Tommie Smith and John Carlos (Mexico City games 1968)

6. Muhammed Ali (boxer)

7. Joe Frasier (boxer)

8. Francis Ouimet (golf)

II. While Reading Whale Talk.

A. Whale Talk has a lot of fun vocabulary words which could used for the next vocabulary test. That the vocabulary words are used in the novel, students can learn how the words can be used properly, which can be more valuable than simply memorizing the dictionary definition.

B. Have student group off and make a �huddle� to discuss some questions. The groups can then break off and bring the discussion back to the whole class.

C. While reading Whale Talk consider using the following discussion questions:

1. Whale Talk not only deals with racism but also with prejudice. Find examples of prejudice in Whale Talk. Is prejudice a problem at your school? What can you do to reduce prejudice at your school?

2. Look at your school campus during a lunch break. Do you notice that certain groups of people seem to stay together? How are these group categorized/labeled? Do you see this as a problem?

3. The members of the swim team are �different.� What do they learn about one another from their experiences on the team? How do they learn it? What can we learn about being �different� from this book?

4. Why does T.J. agree to help create Cutter High�s new swim team? What did Chris Coughlin and a Letterman jacket have to do with T.J.�s decision to create the swim team?

D. The discussion questions can work as journal topics as well.

E. Have students think back to the mini reports the class did on individual athletes who broke racial and discrimination barriers. How are the participants of the swim team breaking barriers in Cutter High? Have the students write a journal entry on this topic.

F. As a final project for this unit, have the students choose one of the following project suggestions: (suggestions taken from �Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher �A Unit Plan� Source: http://www.viterbo.edu/personalpages/faculty/GSmith/Chris_Crutcher.htm#activities )

1. Research Taoism and write a brief summary of what you learn. How is Taoism important to the novel?

2. Research whales. Find out how whales �communicate.� Why is this information important in this book?

3. Research white supremacist groups and write a brief summary of what you learn.

4. Be nice to someone in your school who often takes the brunt of cruel pranks. Record your actions and responses for several days in a journal.

5. Go on the internet and find out about Chris Crutcher. Share your information with the class.

6. Choose your favorite passage in the book. Then draw a �snapshot� of that passage. Share your passage and drawing with the class and explain why the passage was meaningful to you.

7. Design a T-shirt for TJ, Mike Barbour, Chris Coughlin, Rich Marshall, Oliver Van Zandt, Simon DeLong, Jackie Craig, Andy Mott or Tay Roy Kibble. Be prepared to discuss how the T-shirt reveals what the character is all about, and what ultimately the book is about.

8. Design a book cover for Whale Talk.

9. Act out one of the scenes in the book and videotape it for the class.

III. Extending the Unit

A. Many wonderful movies about sports and racism can help supplement this unit. As Chris Crowe says in his article, �Young Adult Literature: Sports Literature for Young Adults� coaches in YA literature are often portrayed negatively. Since the majority of the unit deals with the �underdogs� �people who are being discriminated�and highlights the negativity of mean-spirited authority figures or people with power, it might be a good contrast to introduce movies which have coaches who are strong, admirable leaders. After reading Whale Talk, allow a couple of class sessions to watch any of the following movies:

1. Remember the Titans (2000) If you chose to the documentary instead of this film, this would be a great movie to include. The true story of a newly appointed African-American coach and his high school team on their first season as a racially integrated unit. (source: Internet Movie Database )

2. Glory Road (2006) In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship. (source: Internet Movie Database)

B. After watching either film, students can journal then discuss the difference between the coaches in Whale Talk and the movie and how poor versus strong leadership affected the teams.

IV. Closing the Unit

A. The opening of the unit depended on a discussion on racism which transitioned to the narrower topic of racism in sports. The closing will do the opposite in that the unit will go from the more specific topic of racism and discrimination in sports to a broader topic of possible solutions to ending discrimination.

B. In the section, �Extending the Unit,� students will discuss good versus bad authority leaders. In truth, the educational institution fails T.J. since many of the authority figures in his school are all about conformity and discrimination of the �others;� therefore, as part of extending the unit, the class can engage in a discussion on who is the �authority;� who are the policy makers. Thinking in terms of the �letterman jacket rule� in the book, as a part of extending the unit, students could think about various government policies on issues such as immigration, past voting laws, and other civil rights issues. The class can have a debate on the justification of such issues.

C. In keeping with the theme of sports, students can do further reading on other ethnic groups such as Asian Americans in sports as well as other disadvantaged groups such as women or those with physical disabilities. The following is a list of books for further reading:

1. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher: Louie Banks has the world by the tail. It's his last year in high school; he has wheels, a starting spot on the football team, good friends, and the girl of everyone's dreams. If he can stay away from Boomer Cowans long enough to graduate, he's got it made. But the world suddenly turns and snatches Louie by the tail, and it just won't let go. His visions of sportsmanship and fair play go up in smoke by the second game of the season; his expectations of life are shattered by spring (all synopses of Chris Crutcher authored work from ChrisCrutcher.com webpage).

2. Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories by Chris Crutcher: These six powerful short stories chronicle bits of the lives of characters, major and minor, who have walked the rugged terrain of Chris Crutcher's earlier works. They also introduce some new and unforgettable personalities who may well be heard from again in future books. As with all Crutcher's work, these are stories about athletes, and yet they are not sport stories. They are tales of love and death, bigotry and heroism, of real people doing their best even when that best isn't very good. Crutcher's straightforward style and total honesty have earned him an admiring audience and made readers of many nonreaders.

3. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli: About a kid who runs clear across the state of Pennsylvania. He finally stops in Two Mills, and the town is never the same again. (source: Jerry Spinelli Official Website).

4. The Crazy Horse Electric Game by Chris Crutcher: Willie is a top athlete, the star of the legendary game against Crazy Horse Electric. Then a freak accident robs him of his once-amazing physical talents. Betrayed by his family, his girlfriend, and his own body, Willie's on the run, penniless and terrified on the streets, where he must fight to rebuild both his body and his life.

5. �Lines of Scrimmage� short story by Elsa Marston in First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants, edited by Donald Gallo: A Palestinian-American boy in New Mexico thinks his dreams have come true when he gets the chance to quarterback his high school football team. But he soon meets prejudice, loses his confidence, and finds it again in a most unexpected way (source: Elsa Marston Official Website).

6. Ultimate Sports: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults edited by Donald R. Gallo: A knockout collection of 16 original stories featuring young adults playing basketball and football, running track and cross-country, and training for the triathlon. Challenges abound in water sports, racquetball and tennis, boxing and wrestling, and the "ultimate" sport of the future (source: http://www.buy.com/prod/ultimate-sports-short-stories-by-outstanding-writers-for-young-adults/q/loc/106/30067409.html?dcaid=17379).

D. Students can also practice their writing skills and their knowledge of YA literature by writing their own YA literature short stories.

1. Using the criteria for YA literature in Literature for Today�s Young Adults by Kenneth L. Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen, students can create their own sports literature.

2. Since the unit is about racism, have students research other discriminated groups of people�women, people with disabilities, other races such as Asian Americans or Hispanic Americans�and make them the protagonist.

Works Cited

Chris Crutcher Official Website. Retrieved: November 18 2006.

<http://www.chriscrutcher.com/content/blogcategory/71/60/>.

Crutcher, Chris. Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories. New York: Greenwillow Books

(1989).

---. Crazy Horse Electric Game. New York: Harper Teen (2003).

---. Running Loose. New York: Greenwillow Books (1983).

---. Whale Talk. New York: Random House (2001).

Crowe, Chris. �Young Adult Literature: Sports Literature for Young Adults.� English

Journal. July 2001: 129-133.

Donelson, Kenneth L. and Alleen Nilsen. Literature for Today�s Young Adults. Boston:

Person (2006).

Elsa Marston Official Website. Retrieved: November 18, 2006.

<http://www.elsamarston.com/work18.htm>.

Gallo, Donald R. ed. First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants. Cambridge:

Candlewick Press (2004).

---. Ultimate Sports: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults. New York:

Delacorte Press (1995).

Glory Road. (2006). DVD, James Gartner, director. Starring: Josh Lukas, Dereck Luke,

Austin Nichols, et al.

Jerry Spinelli Official Website. Retrieved: November 18, 2006.

<http://www.jerryspinelli.com/newbery_018.htm>.

Internet Movie Database. Retrieved: November 15, 2006.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210945/>.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385726/>.

Remember the Titans (2000). DVD, Boaz Yakin, director. Starring: Denzel Washington.

Smith, Grant T. �Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher: A Unit Plan� Retrieved: November 15,

2006

<http://www.viterbo.edu/personalpages/faculty/GSmith/Chris_Crutcher.htm#activ ities>

Spinelli, Jerry. Maniac Magee. New York: Little, Brown Young Readers (1999).