Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot by Matthew Clark Smith

You can buy Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot here.

Citation: 
Smith, M.C. & Tavares, M. (Illustrator). (2017). Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.

To Use or Not to Use:
An engaging story your students will love for it’s beautiful writing and unbelievable protagonist!

 Themes:
Breaking barriers, brave women, brave girls, gender norms, gender expectations, women’s history, defying expectations, persistence, career education, passions.

Type:

Picture Book Biography

 Grade Range: 
3-5

Curricular Connections:

Big Ideas:

• Grades 2-3 – Career Education
  • Confidence develops through the process of self-discovery
  • Everything we learn helps us develop skills
• Grade 4-5 – Career Education
  • Public identity is influenced by personal choices and decisions
  • Exploring our strengths and abilities can help us identify our goals

Curricular Competencies:

• Grades 2-5 – Career Education
  • Set and achieve realistic learning goals for themselves
• Grades 4-5 – Career Education
  • Demonstrate respect for differences in the classroom
  • Appreciate the influence of peer relationships, family, and community on personal choices and goals

Content:

• Grade 2 – Career Education
  • Risk-taking and its role in self-exploration
• Grade 2-5 – Career Education
  • Cultural and social awareness (exploring self-identity, etc.)
  • Goal-setting strategies

 

Summary: 
My students fell in love with Sophie Blanchard’s story and the era of early balloonists right away. They were hanging onto every word! This book talks about the life of a daring woman whose passions for piloting hot air balloons in Napoleonic France defied all expectations. At the time, such dangerous work was already considered crazy, so for a woman it seemed to be downright ludicrous and impossible! Blanchard proved many people wrong (before her untimely death which, unfortunately, may have convinced some of the doubters that she was right…but your students are plenty smart enough to see through that logic!).

 

Teaching Tips:

• Sophie Blanchard still faced discrimination because of her gender. What kinds of discrimination might your students see today?
• Many people thought Sophie could not become a pilot simply because she was a girl. How did she make choices and take action to influence her own public identity? Ask your students how people perceive them. Are there stereotypes that people have about who they are? What do/can your students do to influence their own public identities?
• Sophie’s goal was to become a pilot even though many people thought she was crazy. What ‘crazy’ goals might your students have?
• Ask students to set their own short- and long-term goals. How can they make plans to achieve them? Who can support them as they work toward their goals?
• Discuss biases and stereotypes we hold today. Are there things people thing girls, boys, kids, etc. can or cannot do? Are these biases and stereotypes accurate?

 

Other Notes:

• This book is a great read-aloud for Women’s History month…but stories about strong women shouldn’t be confined to a particular time of year.

 

You can buy Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot here.

 

the world is not a rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid by Jeanette Winter

You can buy the world is not a rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid here.

Citation: 
Winter, J. (2013).  the world is not a rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid.  New York: Beach Lane Books.

To Use or Not to Use:
An awesome read-aloud that can be used to spark discussion about gender expectations. The illustrations were a hit in my classroom!

 Themes:
Creative thinking, breaking barriers, brave women, brave girls, gender norms, gender expectations, women’s history, defying expectations, persistence, careers

Type:
Picture Book Biography

 Grade Range: 
2-5

Curricular Connections:

Big Ideas:

• Grades 2-3 – Applied Design, Skills, and Technology
  • Designs grow out of natural curiosity
• Grade 2 – Arts Education
  • Creative expression develops our unique identity and voice
  • Inquiry through arts creates opportunities for risk-taking
• Grade 3 – Arts Education
  • Creative experiences involve an interplay between exploration, inquiry, and purposeful choice
  • The arts connect our experiences to the experiences of others
• Grade 4 – Arts Education
  • Exploring works of art exposes us to diverse values, knowledge, and perspectives
• Grades 4-5 – Arts Education
  • Artists experiment in a variety of ways to discover new possibilities
• Grade 5 – Arts Education
  • Works of art influence and are influenced by the world around us
• Grades 2-3 – Career Education
  • Confidence develops through the process of self-discovery
  • Everything we learn helps us develop skills
• Grade 4-5 – Career Education
  • Public identity is influenced by personal choices and decisions
  • Exploring our strengths and abilities can help us identify our goals

 

 Curricular Competencies:

• Grades 2-3 – Applied Design, Skills, and Technology
  • Generate ideas from their experiences and interests
  • Make a product using known procedures or through modelling of others
• Grades 3-5 – Arts Education
  • Interpret symbolism and how it can be used to express meaning through the arts (grade 2) OR Interpret and communicate ideas using symbolism in the arts (grade 3) OR Interpret and communicate ideas using symbolism to express meaning through the arts (grade 4) OR Interpret and communicate ideas using symbols and elements to express meaning through the arts (grade 5)
  • Explore identity, place, culture, and belonging through arts experiences (grades 3/4) OR Explore connections to identity, place, culture, and belonging through creative expression (grade 5)
  • Describe and respond to visual and performing art pieces and provide constructive feedback (grade 3) OR Describe and respond to works of art and explore artists’ intent (grades 4-5)
• Grades 2-5 – Career Education
  • Set and achieve realistic learning goals for themselves
• Grades 4-5 – Career Education
  • Demonstrate respect for differences in the classroom
  • Appreciate the influence of peer relationships, family, and community on personal choices and goals

 

 Content:

• Grades 2-5 – Arts Education
  • Symbolism as means of expressing specific meaning (grade 2) OR symbolism as ways of creating and representing meaning (grade 3) OR symbolism and metaphor to create and represent meaning (grade 4) OR symbolism and metaphor to explore ideas and perspective
• Grade 4 – Arts Education
  • Image development strategies
• Grade 2 – Career Education
  • Risk-taking and its role in self-exploration
• Grade 2-5 – Career Education
  • Cultural and social awareness (exploring self-identity, etc.)
  • Goal-setting strategies

 

Summary: 
When I first saw this book I thought it might be ‘too primary’ for my grade fives because there wasn’t much text. It was not. They absolutely loved Zaha Hadid’s story and I loved hearing the gasps and murmurs every time I flipped the pages. The depictions of Hadid’s designs are beautiful and my students ate them right up! The next day we looked at real pictures and once again, I couldn’t help but smile as they whispered and gasped with delight. My kiddos were cheering for Zaha right from the beginning, they were indignant when she was cheated out of a rightful contest win and celebratory when she started getting opportunities to have her designs built. I loved this book and think there are so many possibilities to link it to Arts Education, Career Education, and ADST. It also provides awesome opportunities to link to biographical writing or discuss our expectations around gender.

 

Teaching Tips:

• Before reading, have students make predictions based on the title. You may want them to also suggest possible reasons for why the title is not capitalized conventionally.
• Talk about how Zaha found inspiration for her buildings in the environment around her. Where might you and your students find inspiration for their own creative endeavors?
• Even though this story is relatively recent, Hadid still faced discrimination because of her gender. How did she make choices and take action to influence her own public identity? Ask your students how people perceive them. Are there stereotypes that people have about who they are? What do/can your students do to influence their own public identities?
• Zaha Hadid’s goal was to become an architect. Ask students to set their own short- and long-term goals. How can they make plans to achieve them? Who can support them as they work toward their goals?
• Have students write about a time they did something they were proud of or a time when they did something no one thought they could.
• Discuss biases and stereotypes we hold today. Are there things people things girls, boys, kids, etc. can or cannot do? Are these biases and stereotypes accurate?
• Have students create their own innovative buildings or structures out of recycled and found materials. Alternatively, they could draw up blueprints for buildings. Encourage them to look for inspiration in nature like Hadid did.

 

Other Notes:

• This book is a great read-aloud for Women’s History month…but stories about women shouldn’t be confined to a particular time of year.

 

You can buy the world is not a rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid here.

 

Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo and illustrated by Dom Lee

You can buy Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story here.

Citation: 
Yoo, P., and Lee, D. (Illustrator). (2005). Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story. New York:  Lee & Low Books.

To Use or Not to Use:
This book was a hit with my students and I have heard many of them reference it since our read aloud. I think it struck a chord because it was different from the other stories we had heard about segregation so far (which had all been about characters of African descent). It also tied in nicely with the opening day of the 2018 Olympics.

I have five Korean students and in my class and about a dozen Asian students overall. This was the first read aloud we read this year that had an Asian American character. Have you read books that reflect all your students’ ethnicities this year? I would encourage you to try!

 Themes:
Racism, exclusion, segregation, exclusion, feeling different, setting goals, dreams, athletics, proving oneself, hard work

Type:
Picture Book Biography

Grade Range: 
3-6

Curricular Connections:

Big Ideas:

• Grade 4-5– Career Education
  • Exploring our strengths and abilities can help us identify our goals

Curricular Competencies:

• Grades 4-6 – Career Education
  • Set realistic short- and longer-term learning goals, define a path, and monitor progress.
  • Appreciate the influence of peer relationships, family, and community on personal choices and goals.
• Grades 4-6 – Social Studies
  • Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to – ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions
  • Construct arguments defending the significance of individuals/groups, places, events, or developments (significance)
  • Differentiate between short- and long-term causes, and intended and unintended consequences, of events, decisions, or developments (cause and consequence)
  • Take stakeholders’ perspectives on issues, developments, or events by making inferences about their believes, values, and motivations (perspective)
  • Make ethical judgements about events, decisions, or actions that consider the conditions of a particular time and place, and assess appropriate ways to respond (ethical judgement)

Summary: 
Sammy Lee, a Korean American boy, lives in California in the 1930s. Because he is a person of colour he is only allowed to swim in the public pool on Wednesdays. One summer Sammy realizes that he likes to dive…and he’s good at it! His father, a first generation immigrant, wants Sammy to focus instead on becoming a doctor and stop wasting time on diving. Sammy listens but he has other ideas; he wants to be an Olympic diver! When Sammy turns eighteen he is spotted by a coach named Jim Ryan. Ryan tells Sammy he will coach him and digs a sandpit in his backyard so Sammy can practice every day rather than just Wednesday. Sammy learns to dive off a diving board into the sandpit, which means he has to land on his feet so he doesn’t hit his head! He starts taking gymnastics so he can achieve his goal. At the same time, Sammy succeeds in school. He is voted Most Likely to Succeed, elected as student body president, and given a full scholarship. However, he is still subject to racial discrimination; he cannot attend his senior prom because he is not white and he watches people treat his father with disrespect because he is Asian. Sammy starts to understand why his father thinks becoming a doctor will make people respect him. Sammy agrees to become a doctor and his father agrees to let him continue diving as long as he keeps his grades high enough to get into medical school. After lots of hard work and a stint in the United States Army medical training program, Sammy becomes a doctor in 1946. He is given permission to take time off work to train for the 1948 Olympic games. Sammy competes as a member of the U.S. Olympic diving team and wins a bronze and gold medal.  He is the first Asian-American to win a gold medal and the first male diver to win gold diving medals in two back-to-back summer Olympics.

Teaching Tips:

• Examine the first picture with your students. The sign on the pool fence reads “Members Only Except Wednesdays”, but the author says that Wednesdays were the only days that people of colour were allowed into the pool. Why might this be?
  • North American pools have a fascinating history of racial segregation. I have included some interesting links below for further reading. Consider having older students investigate community responses to segregation and desegregation.
    • Transcript of a National Public Radio interview with Jeff Wiltse, author of Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in North America.
    • This article by Jeff Wilste reiterates and elaborates on the aforementioned interview. It also includes a video of police and civilian reaction to the McKinney Pool Party incident in 2015. Be warned that the video contains violence and explicit language.
    • This article from the Guardian tells interesting stories about how desegregation lead to a number of pools being paved over and parks being closed down. It also talks about the construction of country clubs in response to desegregation laws.
  • In alignment with the Social Studies Big Idea for grade six, students could examine media portrayals of desegregation across the United States. Include newspaper articles, picture books, novels, films, news coverage, and this book. Contemporary and historical sources could be used. Ask students to examine these sources and attempt to determine their credibility. Have them consider how these portrayals impact the way people viewed and continue to view these events.
  • Encourage students to make connections with other kinds of racial segregation, both historical and contemporary. There were attempts at various times in British Columbia to segregate schools, particularly in areas with a large Asian population. In many areas of North America, schools are virtually segregated today; although laws may not mandate this, socio-economic status makes it a reality. Even within racially-diverse schools we often have segregation in clubs and friend groups; students may wish to discuss this. Encourage students to suggest possible solutions for current issues or alternative solutions for historical issues.

You can buy Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story here.

 

 

Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton by Meghan McCarthy

You can buy Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton here.

Citation: 
McCarthy, M. (2013).  Daredevil: The Daring Live of Betty Skelton.  New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

To Use or Not to Use:
A fun read-aloud that can be used to spark discussion about gender expectations.

  Themes:
Bravery, breaking barriers, brave women, brave girls, gender norms, gender expectations, women’s history

Type:
Picture Book Biography

Grade Range: 
2-5

Curricular Connections:

Big Ideas:

• Grades 2-3 – Career Education
  • Confidence develops through the process of self-discovery
  • Everything we learn helps us develop skills
• Grade 4-5 – Career Education
  • Public identity is influenced by personal choices and decisions
  • Exploring our strengths and abilities can help us identify our goals

 Curricular Competencies:

• Grades 2-5 – Career Education
  • Identify and appreciate their personal attributes, skills, interests, and accomplishments and their growth over time
  • Recognize the need for others who can support their learning and personal growth
  • Set and achieve realistic learning goals for themselves
• Grades 4-5 – Career Education
  • Demonstrate respect for differences in the classroom
  • Appreciate the influence of peer relationships, family, and community on personal choices and goals

 Content:

• Grade 2 – Career Education
  • Risk-taking and its role in self-exploration
• Grade 2-5 – Career Education
  • Cultural and social awareness (exploring self-identity, etc.)
  • Goal-setting strategies

Summary: 
Betty Skelton was an incredible woman; her story had my students hanging on to every word! As a child living in the early 1930s, Betty dreamed of becoming a pilot. Her parents, particularly her father, supported her interest in planes. Her father helped her take her first solo flight when she was only twelve years old. Despite her skills and experience, Betty was turned away from jobs as a commercial pilot and a navy pilot because of her gender. Undeterred, Betty became a stunt pilot. When she tired of flying, she became a racecar driver. She broke women’s racing records and, when she tired of racing, became a boat jumper! Than NASA called and asked Betty to join their Mercury 7 team as the first woman to train as an astronaut. Unfortunately, Betty was not allowed to go to space; the story does briefly introduce the first women to do so. The book ends with “Fun Facts”, quotes, a timeline, and a bibliography.

Teaching Tips:

• Discuss skills Betty may have learned through her endeavors. Discuss what she may have discovered about herself through her exploration.
• At the time this story took place many people had certain ideas about what it meant to be a girl or a woman. How did Betty make choices and take action to influence her own public identity? Ask your students how people perceive them. Are there stereotypes that people have about who they are? What do/can your students do to influence their own public identities?
• Betty’s goal was to become a pilot. Ask students to set their own short- and long-term goals. How can they make plans to achieve them? Betty was supported by her parents. Ask students who can serve as support systems for them.
• Have students write about a time they did something they were proud of or a time when they did something no one thought they could.
• Discuss biases and stereotypes we hold today. Are there things people thing girls, boys, kids, etc. can or cannot do? Are these biases and stereotypes accurate?

Other Notes:

• This book is a great read-aloud for Women’s History month…but stories about women shouldn’t be confined to a particular time of year.

You can buy Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton here.