Educator Book Club discussion

I have an 8th grade resource room that I need to teach a unit about coal/coal miners in WVa in conjunction with our 5hr long field trip to the Beckley Coal Mines. My kids are non-whimpy but only reading at a 3rd to 4th grade level. Any ideas?

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynold Naylor might work...

Some chapters in River of Earth by James Still are about a young boy's life in a coal camp in the 1930s. It may be accessible by fifth grade-level readers.

In 1920, a violent incident took place in a coal mining community in Mingo County, WV. A good movie is made about it: Matewan by John Sayles. There is a scholarly article about the same incident: "Bloody Mingo--1920" by Malcom Ross in Machine Age in the Hills, 1933, 139-154. This article is not difficult, but it is not for fifth grade-level readers; rather it is for the teacher to read to them.

Several years ago, when I taught WVa for a Sp. Ed class, I showed Matewan. Excellent movie and my tough hard core kids understood. I wouldn't even DARE to show that movie today. There are many very conservative parents who couldn't tolerate profanity or the mention of rape even in the diluted way it is presented in that movie.A

THE ACCEPTANCE OF OTHERS

In my award winning children's book, "I Lesson My Cat Taught Me," Jennifer
learns the lesson of accepting others for who people are instead of what they
are. The book doesn't hit the child over the head with the lesson, nor does it
talk down to the child. While the book is an early reader and is geared to
children between the ages of 5 - 8, it is an enjoyable read by readers of any age.


A Lesson My Cat Taught Me

Check the link on Amazon to see the virtual award presentation for the book.

It is also available on
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.de
Amazon.es
Amazon.fr
Amazon.it

So please check it out.

THANKS and have a BLESSED DAY

P.S. If anyone is interested in multiple copies for a school please send me a message.