Black History Month: The Harlem Renaissance

My students and I just read Me and Uncle Romie by Claire Hartfield in our Journeys book. It's a fictional story written from the first-person point-of-view of James, who was a nephew of real-life deceased artist Romare Bearden.

 They almost immediately recognized the illustrations as being familiar because we recently finished reading a poetry book called My Man Blue from our Making Meaning / Collaborative Literacy Pilot. Both books were illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue.

These books were perfect for lightly touching upon segregation and discrimination while teaching kids about friendship, family, and life in New York City / Harlem. 

Click here or on the image above to download my character trait inferencing form.

I also paired Me and Uncle Romie with Students made text-to-text connections with My Hands Sing the Blues: Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey, which is written as a form of poetry like My Man Blue.

Check out some of Romare's artwork on the Romare Bearden Foundation website. Make sure to preview images of his art before showing students! One neat project we didn't get to do just yet was collage art. Hopefully we will have some time soon!