Historical Fiction Display

HISTORICAL FICTION DISPLAY

For my historical fiction display assignment I wanted something that would be beneficial to multiple classrooms and grades. Being February, I have been getting requests in from teachers for books that honor Black History Month. Teachers are playing videos, reading stories, and doing lessons around this month’s theme. We are a very diverse school and it is important that we honor everyone. As I began pulling books I realized they would make a great display and would correspond perfectly with this assignment. I swept the entire library for books that featured strong African American characters and ended up with stacks of books. Great! I used what I thought students would be most attracted to on the main display. These were both fiction and non-fiction, from Martin Luther King to Stephen Curry. From superhero comic books featuring Max Axiom, an African American super scientist to Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist. I had books at all levels, from very young to older-elementary. Books such as Feast For 10 and BIGMAMA’S for K-2, to books for older students such as Brown Girl Dreaming and Let It Shine, both award-winning books.

I did notice that many of the books were featuring mostly men, so I pulled strong female leads to the forefront like Mae Jemison, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Venus Williams. Girl Power! To keep my display modern and popular like Susan Brown suggested, I included the new Miles Morales book featuring an African American Spiderman, a biography of Jay Z, and When the Beat was Born, the story of hip hop. I also kept my font simple and readable, as Brown suggested. Once completed I had to take pictures quickly because students immediately began pulling books from the display, it was a success! I emailed teachers to let them know, included the pics, and received encouraging responses. Some teachers have even come in, enjoying perusing through the display and pulling books to check out. Overall I believe it was a great success! A fun, productive assignment.