Brown Girl Dreaming

By Eirin Jensen

In this blog entry I will first present an analysis of the theme family in Jaqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming. Secondly I will discuss how this text can be used in teaching. I chose to do an analysis of family because I think that it is a relatable theme for pupils in primary school.

Family

Brown Girl Dreaming was written by Jacqueline Woodson in 2014, and is a memoir of her childhood and how it was for her as an African American growing up in the USA in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. The memoir is told through poems with free verses, and are divided into short chapters with connected memories and stories with different themes. There are many relevant themes in the book, for instance friendship, religion, prejudice, growing up and the Civil Rights Movement. The stories are told by Jacqueline, but through other people’s perspectives.

Jacqueline’s memoir tells the story of her family through their and her own perspectives, and the reflections reveals a grown up author writing through the eyes of a child. The poem sometimes, no words are needed (Woodson, 2014, p.131), is an example of this: You don’t need words / on a night like this. Just the warmth / of your grandfather’s arm. Just the silent promise / that the world as we know it / will always be there. Here she reflects on how much her grandfather meant for her, and how important he was in her family.  Jacqueline gives impressions of the value of family through her reflections and feelings. Family is represented by feelings and actions, and examples of this are the poems Gunnar’s children and sometimes, no words are needed (Woodson, 2014, pp. 50-52, 131) where we meet Jacqueline’s grandfather, and how he is a symbol of home, safety, belonging, warmth, love and unity. In the poems the ghosts of the nelsonville house and genetics (Woodson, 2014, pp. 10-12, 148), Jacqueline expresses the importance of family history, how being in family means staying together and how family means resemblance and having something in common. The connection between family and home is a continuous theme, where Jacqueline felt halfway home because her family were not all together in one place. This feeling is conveyed in the poems halfway home #1, halfway home #2 and family (Woodson, 2014, pp.104, 183-184, 207).

The theme family includes different aspects of our life, such as love, compassion, support, pride, security, closeness and the feeling of belonging. It seems like family was very important for Jacqueline’s childhood, and it is a highly relatable theme for giving context to language learning.

Teaching

The poetic design of Jacqueline’s memoir is an excellent basis for using the text in teaching in primary school, because of the short chapters and sentences. Jacqueline has exact and vivid descriptions which I believe is easy for children to make mental imagines of. When using a story in language learning, it is important that the language is authentic and the content relatable and interesting (Munden & Myhre, 2015, p.111). Therefore, it is advisable to be careful when choosing a suitable text to use in teaching.

There are several competence aims that may be relevant in a teaching situation when it comes to using Brown Girl Dreaming. I have chosen competence aims from the English subject curriculum after Year 7 (Utdanningsdirektoratet, 2013, pp.7-8), and I will give some examples of activities than can be carried out.

Express own opinions about familiar topics / express own reactions to English literary texts

It is easier to express oneself orally than through writing because the words flow more naturally. Family is a major theme in the book, and a familiar topic for pupils. Therefore, I believe it can help pupils expressing themselves orally. To begin with, it is important to activate any pre-knowledge and prepare the pupils for the theme and activities. Then as a preparation for the poem Roman (Woodson, 2014, p. 138), one can talk about family and siblings. Afterwards, the pupils can be divided into pairs (or groups) and read the text first silently alone, and then out loud together, this to give them a chance to practice any difficult words. Then they would be given questions to discuss orally, for example: What does it mean to be jealous? Have you ever been jealous before? Why? As a follow-up activity, the pupils can make a role play where someone is jealous of another, and how (s)he deals with it. The jealousy might end up in a conflict, and since it is a role play, the pupils can improvise and exaggerate (Munden, 2014, p.230).

Express oneself creatively to produce different types of text

There are many ways to express oneself creatively, but since the book is written in poetry, it can inspire the pupils to write their own memoir poems. The teacher can choose a poem, read it aloud and have a small class discussion of the theme(s). Before the pupils write their own poems, it is advisable to model the activity. To differentiate, one can offer writing frames with starting sentences or word banks. Jacqueline’s poems are not structured the way the pupils might be used to, which can be inspirational for those who struggle to write poems of a certain structure. For inspiration, the teacher may ask the pupils questions that triggers their memory. After they have written their poems, the pupils can draw an illustration and share their poems for the rest of the class, this to give value to the activity and their achievement (Munden, 204, p. 289).

Given these examples of using Brown Girl Dreaming in teaching, it is also good to remember the importance of encouraging pupils to read English texts. Reading for pleasure is not only important in Norwegian, but also in a second language and can thus be a motivation for reading in other subjects (Munden, 2014, p.325). Although, Brown Girl Dreaming is not a typical children’s book as it demands a little pre-knowledge about The Civil Rights Movement and relatable themes, it might be motivational for some pupils to read short poems. It can definitely be used in higher levels because of the central historical themes. Brown Girl Dreaming can serve as a starting point for both written and oral activities, but can also be used in cross-curricular projects with Social Studies (civil rights, righteousness) and Religion (Jehovah’s witnesses). The advantage of Brown Girl Dreaming is the poetic structure, which makes it easy to find a suitable poem.

Sources:

Munden, J. og A. Myhre (2015). Twinkle Twinkle, English 1-4, 3.ed. Oslo: Cappelen Damm AS

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown Girl Dreaming. New York: Penguin Group (USA) LLC

Munden, J. (2014). Engelsk på mellomtrinnet. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag

Utdanningsdirektoratet (2013). National Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion, English subject curriculum. Sourced 09.04.16 from http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-7.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng