Juneteenth
My name is Charles Johns and I teach 6th grade ELA at Detroit Prep School.
My students have been learning about Juneteenth. They learned that five years ago, most of the United States didn't even know what Juneteenth was, its history, or why we should celebrate it at all. I, myself, was fortunate to grow up in a small town in Southern California that did celebrate it. As I grew up and began to travel I realized that I was the minority. To be involved with educating young people on this important part of our history is an honor. My kids have had awesome questions and have actively participated in the education process. I am so encouraged by their excitement to learn about this topic.
I asked the crew to read an article about Opal Lee. If you don't know who she is, please do some research. She did something amazing. Let's just say she'd make a heck of a Lobbyist. The kids had to read and annotate the article and write the main idea of the article. Once that was done, they used a template of a combined single paragraph outline. This outline gets them in the practice of organizing their thoughts so that they can write a clear, well thought out paragraph that will summarize the article.
Below is the finished product of one of my students. Also see the pictures of the writing process:
This is the story of how Opal Lee worked hard just to make Juneteenth a national holiday for everyone. At 90 years old, Ms. Lee is so passionate about Juneteenth and its importance to the American story, she decides to bring awareness to people by marching all over the United states. Ms. Lee's goal was to make Juneteenth an official Federal holiday for everyone but she also had a huge impact on everyone in the U.S. as well as accomplishing her goal. At one point, Ms. Lee asked President Obama to walk with her but he was in Chicago and unavailable. She wasn't ready to quit though. Ms. Lee asks rapper and producer, P. Diddy to march with her. He helps her to get 1.5 million signatures to make Juneteenth an official holiday. Finally, after about five years of marching, educating people and asking for help, Ms. Lee makes it to the White House as President Biden signs the Bill to make Junetheenth a United States Federal holiday. Opal Lee marched for five years around the U.S. to make Juneteenth a holiday for everyone.