Many schools across the country use Kekla’s books in the classroom. Each of her books has appeared on several state reading lists, and all are excellent for fulfilling Common Core Standards, including:
- Common Core Standards for English Language Arts: Reading: Literature (Grades 5-12)
- Common Core Standards for English Language Arts: History/Social Studies (Grades 6-12)
Discussion Guides
- Guide for The Rock and the River
- Guide for How It Went Down
- Guide for X: A Novel
- Guide for Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People
Readers Theater Scripts
Readers Theater is a tool for engaging students. Kekla uses these scripts in her school visit presentations, and shares them here for teacher and library use. These scenes contain the actual text a scene from each novel, converted into a multi-reader format.
- Readers Theater: The Rock and the River
- Readers Theater: How It Went Down
- Readers Theater: Camo Girl
- Readers Theater: Shadows of Sherwood
- Readers Theater: X: A Novel
Classroom Activities
Additional activities that teachers around the country have used:
The Rock and the River: Hallway Transformation
7th grade students at Ruidoso Middle School in New Mexico decorated their hallway to look like the neighborhood from the book, complete with storefronts for local businesses and silhouettes of demonstrators. They memorized and performed the Readers Theater scene for other students in the space.
The Rock and the River: Life-Sized Character Analysis
Students traced human figures onto large pieces of paper, then created wall-sized collages for each character, including Sam, Stick, Bucky, Mama, Father, Maxie and others. They created clothing and accessories on which they wrote character traits and features, and decorated cutout hearts to identify what is most central to each character’s heart.
Camo Girl: Masks
Students at Ruidoso Middle School created a mural titled “If you could see me with your heart instead of your eyes.” By decorating two faces—one that conceals another beneath it—they played with the idea that people can be more than what you see on the surface.
How It Went Down: Research Skills Resource
Teacher Laurel Taylor led her students in an exercise about research practices. She says:
“I’ve been using passages from the book as an intro to our research efforts. I took Brian’s account on pages 11-13, Brick’s account on pages 17-18, Sammy’s account on pages 25-26, Edwin’s account on pages 23-24, and The Incident. Students get one of the four accounts to use for the first section and then I give them The Incident to answer the second section. Then they find the other three accounts and fill out the chart before they do a second round of assertions.
“I’ve found it gets them invested, helps them understand the way we are often emotionally attached to the first information we hear even if new information comes out to contradict it. This helps them become better at vetting the information they gather during the research process and makes them more willing to consider multiple sources instead of finding one and clinging to it.”
Here is the Intro to Research handout she created.
How It Went Down: Character Chart
For many students, keeping track of the many characters and viewpoints in the novel is a project in itself! Each student can develop their own character map or chart while reading to support their reading, comprehension, and discussion of the novel.
How It Went Down: Mind Maps
Students created mind maps on paper, asking questions like “how did it actually go down?” and drawing their observations and gathering information.
If you have activity suggestions or text pairings that have worked well with your students and you’d like to share, please send Kekla an email!
Text Pairings
The Rock and the River and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia (Grade 6)
The Rock and the River and Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals (Grade 7-10)
The Rock and the River and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
X: A Novel and The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley (Grade 9+)
How It Went Down and All-American Boys by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds (Grade 8+)
How It Went Down and Dear Martin by Nic Stone (Grade 8+)
How It Went Down and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Grade 8+)
Revolution in Our Time and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Grade 8+)
Revolution in Our Time and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Grade 7+)
Revolution in Our Time and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (Grade 9+)
Revolution in Our Time and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Grade 5+)
