Winter, Jeanette. (1988). Follow The Drinking Gourd. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Brief Annotation: Peg Leg Joe did what he could do to help free the slaves. Peg Leg Joe would work for the master, who owned the slaves and at night he would teach the slaves a very important song. This song gave them the directions to follow to freedom. Peg Leg Joe would move from plantation to plantation teaching more slaves this song. Follow a family as they walk, hide and sing the song that Peg Leg Joe taught them leading them to the Underground Railroad and to Freedom.
Genre: Historical Fiction Picture Book
Grade Level: Pre K-4
Readers who will like this: Students wanting to learn about history. Those interested in the Civil War.
Response/Rating (1-4): 4. A story of courage and determination by both the slaves and those that helped the slaves to freedom using the Underground Railroad. Great illustrations are used to help teach young children about history.
One question you would ask before a read aloud: What do you know about the Underground Railroad?
Reading Strategies Connection: Story Retelling (Tompkins, p. 119). Teachers will introduce the story, read the story and then discuss the story. Students will then create an organizer or a series of drawings and then retell the story. Teachers can see if the students comprehended the story, what happened, where it took place, who was in it and what happened at the end.
Was Peg Leg a real person in history? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteYou can make an even stronger case for "retelling" as your strategy choice by pointing out that sequencing was very important in terms of Joe giving accurate directions to the other slaves and for the slaves to follow those directions exactly.
Kids asked to retell the story would see the significance of getting the narrative straight--one left out step or a direction out of order would have meant trouble for escaping slaves, right?