The Watsons Go to Birmingham

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The Watsons Go to Birmingham

• 3A

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Prompt 2 August 123A

• Some kids in Kenny's school make fun of him
  because he's smarter than most and because of his
  "lazy" eye. Then they pick on Rufus because of
  his clothes and his Southern accent. How does the
  teasing affect each of the two boys?

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Prompt 3 August 13

• What does Kenny find out about Larry Dunn?
• How does this change Kennys opinion
• of him?

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Prompt 4 August 14

• Choose one of the characters read about so far.
• Describe the characters actions and appearance.
• Tell why you selected this character for your
  journal.

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Prompt 5 August 18

• If you lived in the 1960s, what would you expect
  to see and hear when you walked down a city
  street in the South?

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Prompt 6 August 20

• What is segregation?
• How does it affect us today?
• Give examples.

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Prompt 7 August 24

• Describe the Wool Pooh through Kennys eyes.

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Prompt 8 August 26

• What made the birds and bugs stop and wonder?
• Describe what Kenny must have seen on the day
  these animals stopped and wondered.

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Prompt 9 September 3

• Who is your research topic?
• What was the persons role in Civil and Human
  Rights?
• What are his/her birth and death dates?

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Vocabulary
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Vocabulary - Watsons

• Narcissus
• (or as Joey says Nar-sissy)
• A character in Greek mythology who met tragedy
  when he fell in love with his own image.

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Vocabulary List One

• Potent powerful
• Oracle a person or place believed to reveal
  messages from a god or spirit.
• Imperious arrogant
• Emissary a person sent on a mission.
• Interim a period of time between two events.
• Capricious tending to change suddenly and
  without reason.
• Malevolent wishing to harm others

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Vocabulary

• Hostile showing ill will
• Intimidate frighten or make afraid
• Emulate copy or try to be equal with
• Nazis followers of Hitler or members of his
  political party

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Vocabulary

• Pomade hair ointment with perfume
• Sugar Ray Robinson a great welterweight and
  middle weight boxing champion in the late 50s
  and early 60s
• Snake in the Grass someone who is sneaky and
  deceitful

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Vocabulary Notebook

• Plot
• Characters
• Setting
• Theme

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Settings
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Times and Settings

• Settings
• Flint, Michigan
• Birmingham, Alabama
• Interstate I-75,
• In 1963, Birmingham was a focal point for the
  civil rights movement.
• Most of the action takes place in
• the Watson home in Flint
• in the Brown Bomber on the way to Birmingham
• at Grandma Sands house in Birmingham.
• Times
• In 1963, the differences between Flint and
  Birmingham were far more serious than just the
  weather. Throughout the country, African
  Americans were discriminated against.
• Many public areas were segregated.
• The facilities were of poorer quality.
• Laws and tests prevented African Americans from
  voting.

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Times and Setting - continued

• An important step toward ending racial
  discrimination was the
• 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
  Kansas.
• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools
  could no longer be segregated.
• In 1963, the civil rights movement begun again,
  led by
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
• Thurgood Marshall,
• John Lewis,
• Medgar Evers,
• Fannie Lou Hamer
• On August 28, 1963, 200,000 people marched on
  Washington, D.C.
• Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his famous I
  Have a Dream speech.
• President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil
  Rights Act of 1965
• Most Southern states voluntarily opened their
  registration lists to blacks.

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Chapter Summaries
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Chapter Summaries

• Ten-year-old Kenny lives with his family.
• Some children the Weird Watsons.
• Kenny's older brother Byron is tough and mean
• Kenny is an excellent reader and does well in
  school.
• His "lazy eye" makes him a target for cruel
  remarks.
• One day a boy named Rufus from Arkansas becomes a
  new target for the children's teasing.
• Kenny finds himself becoming friends with Rufus.
• He nearly loses this friendship when he laughs at
  a cruel joke on Rufus.
• Rufus forgives Kenny when Momma arranges for an
  apology.

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Chapter Summaries

• Thirteen-year-old Byron is skipping school and
  getting into trouble.
• One day Momma catches him playing with fire.
• She threatens to burn his finger to show him the
  serious danger of fire.
• Her youngest child Joetta frantically protects
  Byron from this punishment.
• Later Byron comes home with a hairstyle known as
  a conk." another thing his parents have warned
  him not to do.
• Dad simply shaves Byron's head.

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conk

• a lye-straightened hairdo popularized in the
  1920s by Cab Calloway
• image the KINGS of SWING _at_ http//www2.kenyon.ed
  u/Depts/IPHS/Projects/swing1/music/kings.htm

Cab Calloway
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Chapter Summaries

• Momma and Dad feel that they are losing control
  of Byron.
• They decide to take him to stay with his
  grandmother in Birmingham, Alabama, for the
  summer.
• Byron is loaded into the car with the rest of the
  family.
• Momma has made an hour-by-hour plan for the trip,
  
• Dad has installed an Ultra-Glide machine to play
  records in the car.

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Outhouses
Open, black hole Flies Gagged Sears Catalogs
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The Brown Bombers TT AB-700, Ultraglide probably
looked like this.
PHILIPS Car Record-Player 45 rpm
Image http//home.swipnet.se/w-49476/100.htm
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Yakkety Yak

• Kennys favorite song ?
• Written by The Coasters
• Trivia! The group began in Los Angeles as The
  Robins. Later part of the group split off and
  formed a new group in New York. They called
  themselves The Coasters because of their
  coast-to-coast roots.

Info Rock and Roll Hall of Fame _at_
http//www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id81 Ima
ge http//www.clarksvilleriverfest.com/images/Coa
sters.jpg
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Chapter Summaries

• At Grandma Sands's house, Kenny is surprised to
  see a tiny woman emerge from the front door.
• She is much nicer than Kenny expected.
• She expects to be addressed as "ma'am,"
  however--and Byron immediately adopts good
  manners.
• After a few days he gets the urge to start
  misbehaving.
• Against the warnings of his grandmother, he goes
  swimming at a place called Collier's Landing and
  is nearly drowned in a whirlpool.
• Byron saves him in the nick of time.
• Kenny is convinced that his brother had to battle
  a creature called the Wool Pooh in order to do
  so.

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The Wool Poo
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Whirlpool
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Chapter Summaries

• A few days later, Kenny is still feeling
  exhausted from his near-death experience.
• He waves to Joetta as she leaves for Sunday
  school and then settles under a tree in Grandma's
  backyard.
• He is awakened by a loud boom.
• When Kenny arrives at the scene, he sees a giant
  hole in the side of the church.
• A man is pulling a little girl in a blood-stained
  dress out of the building.
• Kenny wanders into the building himself and sees
  a patent-leather shoe like the one Joey was
  wearing sticking out of the rubble.
• He takes hold of it and imagines that the Wool
  Pooh is fighting him for possession.
• Kenny pulls the shoe off and goes home, convinced
  that his sister has been taken by the Wool Pooh.
• Even when she comes into the house and speaks to
  him, he thinks that she is merely a ghost.
• Finally, he concludes that the Wool Pooh
  somehow missed Joey.

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Joeys Buster Brown shoes
image http//www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/show
s/fashion/fa1152.php
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Chapter Summaries

• The Watsons return to Flint immediately.
• Momma and Dad talk about it when they think they
  are alone, but Kenny is usually hiding under the
  couch listening to what they say.
• Finally Byron discovers his hiding place and
  tries to involve him in normal activities again.
• One day he leads Kenny to the bathroom to show
  off a newly sprouted whisker.
• When Kenny sees his own ravaged face in the
  mirror, he begins sobbing.
• Byron comforts him and explains why he doesn't
  have to feel guilty about what happened.
• After thinking about what his brother has said,
  Kenny takes Byron's advice and gets ready to
  start his life again.