Teaching Suggestions for Elementary
(Grades 3-5)
(Grades 3-5)
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Phillis Wheatley: The Girl Who Wrote Her Way To Freedom (Legends of Africa)
by Bunmi Oyinsan 
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This 56-page book for young readers and writers tells about the life of Phillis Wheatley Peters. It opens by imagining her African family as possible griots. It closes with an excerpt of her poetry.
This book may require further knowledge-building around the following: abolition, John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson. The book closes with an excerpt from one of Phillis Wheatley Peter's poems: "To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth" (click here for the poem). For a dramatization of "To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth," click here (this is a video that includes reflections on the appointment of William, Earl of Dartmouth, by Phillis Wheatley, 1772, and the 1773 Petition for Manumission from Felix to Governor Hutchinson.) Because the language of the 1700s may not be familiar to young students, we recommend extended discussion of this excerpt that closes the book. Follow-up discussions and writing activities to accompany the closing of the book might include students' own poetry about their own reverence for family and heritage. Please consider having young readers and writers submit these writing/drawing activities to the 2023 DFW-Writes-WheatleyPeters Contest (click here for more). |
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Phillis Wheatley: Pioneer African American Poet (The Heritage Collection for Young Readers)
by Letitia deGraft Okyere 
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This 34-page book for young readers and writers tells about the life of Phillis Wheatley Peters. It opens by imagining what her life might have been like in Africa before she was kidnapped into slavery. It also includes a glossary and quiz.
We imagine that the opening pages of this book will be especially difficult for young students (as it is, in fact, difficult for adults to hear of such trauma also). The opening of the "Your Story Hour" podcast (there is a link below) might also help with this. This book does a good job of explaining things slowly. There are TEN one-page chapters with an illustration for each chapter in the book. We recommend accompanying a read-aloud of each chapter with a follow-up discussion and writing and drawing activities. Please consider having young readers and writers submit these writing/drawing activities to the 2023 DFW-Writes-WheatleyPeters Contest (click here for more). |
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Phillis Wheatley: She Loved Words (American Heroes)
by Sneed Collard III 
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This 48-page book for young readers and writers tells about the life of Phillis Wheatley Peters. It is a picture book that offers historical detail and description in each picture frame and can be read across multiple days.
The book opens by imagining a group of men who quiz Wheatley so she can prove that she can write. To sell the books of Wheatley Peters, the "founding fathers" offered an attestation of Wheatley Peters as author. Perhaps, students can discuss what they think of the need for Wheatley Peters's work to be endorsed. Perhaps with a partner, they can write a letter/endorsement of sorts that claims the unequivocal importance of Wheatley Peters's poetry. Please consider having young readers and writers submit these writing/drawing activities to the 2023 DFW-Writes-WheatleyPeters Contest (click here for more). The book ends by asking if Wheatley Peters wrote enough about abolition. We'd ask teachers to consider instead that Wheatley Peters's poems are always coded as such even if contemporary readers do not realize this. |
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Project IdeasWrite a letter or poem to Phillis Wheatley like this TUMBLR account from 2012 (click here for examples) that you will turn into a pocket book. These letters were part of Alexis Pauline Gumbs's Pocket Poetry Prayer Meeting in 2012 where writers gathered to produce poems. Together, they produced a box-set of tiny origami books of poems dedicated to Wheatley Peters to send out into the world. Please consider having young readers and writers submit these writing/drawing activities to the 2023 DFW-Writes-WheatleyPeters Contest (click here for more).
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