Search for Identity: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

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Search for IdentityBud, Not Buddy by
Christopher Paul Curtis

• Spring 2002 Unit PlanJaime Hecht, Jaime Zanocco,
  Elizabeth Becker, Colleen Fitzgerald, Gwen Hale
  and Charry Shouf

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Background Information

• Newberry Medal and Coretta Scott King Medal
  winner for an inspirational and educational novel
  for children.
• Bud Cadlwell searches for his father, traveling
  around Michigan from an orphanage, a foster home,
  sleeping in the library yard and finding helpful
  people on the way.

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Information on Author

• Bud, Not Buddy is Christopher Curtis second
  novel.
• The story is based upon his two grandfathers
  experiences growing up during the depression.
• The themes are based upon the authors research
  on the thirties and the United Auto Workers Union
  strikes that took place in Michigan during the
  time as well.
• Curtis was heavily influenced also by the works
  of Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston.

Christopher Paul Curtis
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Textual Analysis

• Bud, Not Buddy deals with major themes that may
  need to be addressed in class
• Racism
• Search for Identity
• Jazz and Blues in relation to the
  African-American community
• Difficulties may arise with they style of the
  writing
• Written from Buds perspective
• Style may confuse young readers because words are
  often misspelled, as with human bean instead of
  human being.

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Introduction to Text and Historical Issues

• Research Project in Web Page Credibility
• Flint, MI in the 1930s
• Hoovervilles
• The Great Depression
• Blues and Jazz Music
• Orphanages
• Handout

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Reading

• Class Structure
• Teacher directed reading
• Guided reading questions chapter-by-chapter
• Silent reading with journal prompts for
  reflection
• Group activities
• Readers Theater
• Guided reading and DRTA question-and-response
• Reading Circles

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Sample Questions

• DRTA
• What do you think Buds Momma means when she
  says, when one door closes, dont worry, because
  another door opens?
• What do you think the numbers and words on Buds
  rocks stand for?
• How do you think the story will end now that Bud
  knows Mr. Calloway is his grandfather?

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Writing

• Projects
• Journal Prompts
• Buds mom tells him When one door closes,
  another one opens. Write about a time in your
  life when a door closed. What happened? How did
  you deal with it?
• Write about a time when you had the blues or
  felt depressed. How did you overcome it?
• Blues and Jazz Poems
• Middle School Blues model poem written as a
  class.
• Poems may be based upon journal entries or other
  problems that students wish to discuss.
• Class will read collection of Langston Hughes
  poems.

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Blues Poetry

• Has a call and response format antiphonal
  response
• Contains a problem that is not resolved, but is
  alleviated through the singing the blues to an
  audience.
• Having the blues is a kind of depression, but
  singing the blues, as in poetry, acts as a forum
  for emotional uplift.
• Example is Langston Hughes The Weary Blues
  (1925).

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The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
He made that poor piano moan with melody. O
Blues! Swaying to and for on his rickety stool He
played that sad raggy tune like a musical
fool. Sweet Blues! Coming from a black mans
soul. O Blues! --1925 excerpt
Click for full-text
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Jazz Poetry

• Came about as an outgrowth from Blues Poetry and
  was made famous through Langston Hughes.
• The speakers voice takes on the qualities of a
  Jazz instrumental performance.
• Often is improvisational with spontaneous changes
  in melody
• Syncopated stressing unstressed syllables, beats
  or words.
• Rifts in poetry repeated thematic figures, as
  with a refrain or repeated line
• Scat rhyming improvised mixing of syllables to
  form a melody.
• Example of scat is Langston Hughes Dream Boogie

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Dream Boogie by Langston Hughes

• Good Morning, daddy!
• Aint you heard
• The boogie-woogie rumble
• Of a dream deferred?
• Hey, pop!
• Re-bop!
• Mop!
• Y-e-a-h!
• --excerpt

Click for full-text
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ISBE Standards

• 1B3a Preview reading materials, make
  predictions and relate reading to information
  from other sources. 
• 1B3d Read age-appropriate material with fluency
  and accuracy.
• 1B3c Continuously check and clarify for
  understanding. 
• 2A3d Identify ways that an author uses language
  structure, word choice and style to convey the
  authors viewpoint. 
• 2B3c Analyze how characters in literature deal
  with conflict, solve problems and relate to
  real-life situations. 

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ISBE Standards Continued

• 3B3a Produce documents that convey a clear
  understanding and interpretation of ideas and
  information and display focus, organization,
  elaboration and coherence. 
• 5B3a Identify appropriate resources to solve
  problems or answer questions through research. 
• 5C3b Prepare and orally present original work.