I had the hardest time deciding what books to read for Women’s History Month. The list of great women to read and talk about: ENDLESS!
In the end, I decided to read two awesome books, Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark, and I am Sonia Sotomayor. Both Bader and Sotomayer are activists in their own right.
Before the reading began, I pulled out two black robes. The student were puzzled and excited. Ms. Butler selected two girls to dress and serve as Justice Ginsburg with her various collars and Justice Sotomayor for the day.
As I read, our students discovered that although these Supreme Court Justices lived in very different New York neighborhoods, one middle class and the other not so much, they both shared a love for reading, especially the Nancy Drew series. Both engaged in extracurricular activities--music and opera for Ruth, and forensics for Sonia (public speaking).
They were excellent students. Ruth attended Harvard and Columbia Law school, and Sonia attended Princeton. It was no surprise that they became outstanding lawyers before ascending to the Supreme Court.
These justices also experienced similar tragedies. As I continued to read one book and then the other, I thought of Zak and his loss. Justice Ginsburg’s mother died the day before her high school graduation, and Justice Sotomayor’s father died a few months after she was diagnosed with diabetes. She was just nine years old.
In their grief, they kept aspiring. What a great lesson for Zak, his classmates, Papa K, and me.
For each book, the students were given a vocabulary list and critical thinking questions to complete, and of course, the students had to pull out their maps supplied by Staples to locate the various cities and states named in the books.
We all learned so much about working hard and dealing with tragedy. There is light at the end of the tunnel if you don’t give up.
