(Image taken from Google.com)
Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s
Fight For Desegregation
Tonatiuh, D. (2014). Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez
& Her Family’s Fight For Desegregation. New York: Abrams Books for Young
Readers.
Awards: 2015 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book, NCTE Orbis
Pictus Honor Book 2015, and 2015 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
Suggested Delivery: Read Aloud or Individual
Lexile Reading Level: AD870L
Age Range: 6-12 years
Grade Level: 1-5
About the Book: Sylvia Mendez and her siblings tried to
attend the school in their town but were denied entry and were sent to the rundown
Mexican school far away. Even though she was an American citizen of Mexican and
Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, she still could not
attend the “Whites Only” school. Her father decided to take action by filing a
lawsuit in court to end segregated education in California.
Keywords: History, Prejudice, Racism, Education, Rights
Electronic Resources:
This website contains documents and records of the original
case Mendez v. Westminster. Students can do further research on the case and
look at similar educational segregation cases.
Sylvia Mendez received the 2010 Presidential Medal of
Freedom Award. This website has information about Sylvia, the award she
received, and a video of Sylvia herself explaining her involvement with Mendez
v. Westminster.
Vocabulary:
-Petition: a formal written document requesting a right or
benefit from a person or group in authority
-Inferior: of lesser quality
-Degrading: causing a loss of self-respect
-Segregate: to separate people based on race, ethnicity,
class or other factors
-Citizen: a person who owes allegiance to the government and
is entitled to full civic rights and privileges
-Integrate: to open to members of all races, ethnicities,
and other groups
Reading Strategies:
-Before reading the text, the teacher can do a picture walk
with the students to pique interest, activate prior knowledge, and introduce
the book. To do this, show the covers of the book and have the students predict
what the story is about. Then flip through the pages without reading and
encourage students to ask questions and make inferences based on their
observations.
-During the reading of the text, students can make a
timeline of events to keep track of the causes and effects that occur in the
text.
-After reading the text, have students compare their
predictions to what happened in the story. They can make a chart listing their
predictions next to the actual occurrences in the book. Ask them follow up
questions to engage their schema and enhance their comprehension.
Writing Activity:
Students can write arguments to support claims on the topic
of the text using valid reasoning and relevant evidence. These can then be
turned into a letter written to the federal court asking for an end to
segregation in education.
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