We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson
Publisher: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children
Copyright: 2008
Citation: Nelson, K. (2008). We are the ship: The story of Negro League baseball. New York, NY: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children.
Publisher: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children
Copyright: 2008
Citation: Nelson, K. (2008). We are the ship: The story of Negro League baseball. New York, NY: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children.
Literary Awards, Honors, and/or Nominations
- 2009 Robert F. Sibert Medal Award: Winner
- 2009 Coretta Scott King Award: Winner
- 2009 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work- Children's: Nominee
- 2009 Coretta Scott King Award for Illustrators: Nominee
Reading Level:
Grade Level Equivalent: 5
Lexile: 900L
DRA: 60
Guided Reading: W
-Original description of the book
Kadir Nelson’s book describes the story of gifted African American athletes, racial discrimination and international sportsmanship, triumphs and defeats on and off the field, and more about the Negro Leagues. He focuses on how these players overcame segregation, prejudice, and unfair pay just to play baseball. The book starts in the 1920s and includes when Jackie Robinson joined the Major leagues in 1947. When you read this book, the voice is so well written that you feel as if you are in that time period. Kadir’s oil painted illustrations are phenomenal and show the most incredible details.
-Corresponding Common Core State Standard
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.9: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. (Activity that addresses the standard: After Reading Comprehension Activity)
-Suggested delivery
1) Independent read
2) Read aloud
-2 electronic resources
1) We Are The Ship website
2) Kadir Nelson Read Alouds and Interviews
-3 teaching suggestions for grades 4-6
1) Kadri Nelson describes the hardships and triumphs that African American baseball players had to go through in order to play this favorite American pastime. We are the Ship is just one of many books that can be used to teach students of all ages about segregation and integration. Students should learn about segregation and integration of not just African Americans, but also Native Americans and other ethnicities because it plays a large role as the history of the United States. Here are some links that can help with teaching segregation in an elementary classroom, creating a classroom segregation experience, and an example of a segregation lesson plan.
2) This book also includes a lot about the history of baseball, and how it progresses over the years. Students can research more about how baseball started (where, when, what was used, etc.) and how it has changed to fit today’s expectations. Where there originally nine innings or the seventh inning stretch? Who decided that mascots were needed? Students and teachers can find more information by looking at the online Negro league baseball museum, baseball history, math games, biographies and lesson plans, and looking at a variety of baseball history lesson plans.
3) We are the Ship also shows how African Americans dealt with the prejudice white Americans showed them. Being tolerant towards peoples’ beliefs, whether they are just or not, has helped African Americans prove themselves as higher than what they were being stereotyped for. Teaching students about the tolerance that they showed and teaching them about how being tolerant can be beneficial in the real world can make a difference. I have provided some resources that can help teaching prejudice in America, provides a variety of grade appropriate activities and Black History Month lessons and activities, and Diversity lesson plans and activities for an elementary classroom.
-Key vocabulary
1) Wit: mental ability
2) Prohibit: command against
3) Migration: the movement of persons from one locality to another
4) Dignity: the quality of being worthy of respect
5) Unsavory: morally offensive
6) Inexplicable: unable for being explained
7) Segregation: a social system with separate facilities for minority groups
8) Integration: incorporating a racial or religious group into a community
9) Mediocre: moderate to inferior in quality
10) Thrive: make steady progress
11) Epithet: an offensive or abusive word or phrase
12) Debut: the act of starting something new
-An inferential comprehension writing activity
After reading the excerpt below from We Are the Ship, do you agree or disagree that the Negro League players were treated fairly? State your opinion, and explain the reasons for your opinion. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Students will need to: introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose; provide reasons that are supported by facts and details; link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g., for instance, in order to, in addition); and provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.
"Most of the owners didn’t make much money from their teams. Baseball was just a hobby for them, a way to make their illegal money look good. To save money, each team would only carry fifteen or sixteen players. The major league teams each carried about twenty-five. Average salary for each player started at roughly $125 per month back in ‘34, and went up to $500–$800 during the forties, though there were some who made much more than that, like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. The average major league player’s salary back then was $7,000 per month. We also got around fifty cents to a dollar per day for food allowance. Back then you could get a decent meal for about twenty-five cents to seventy-five cents. Some of the owners didn’t treat their players very well. Didn’t pay them enough or on time. That’s why we would jump from team to team. Other owners would offer us more money, and we would leave our teams and go play for them. We were some of the first unrestricted free agents. There were, however, a few owners who did know how to treat their ballplayers. Cum Posey was one of them. He always took care of his ballplayers, put them in the best hotels, and paid them well and on time. Buck Leonard said Posey never missed a payday in the seventeen years he played for the Grays."
-Before Reading Comprehension Activity: The teacher will model how to do a think-aloud and encourage students to join in the think aloud. Write down or mark the page where new vocabulary words or unusual sentences appear. Create opportunities where students can practice doing a think-aloud and give feedback on how students can better their own think-aloud. Engage students with questions such as:
-What do I know about this topic?
-What do I think I will learn about this topic?
-Do I understand what I just read?
-Do I have a clear picture in my head about this information?
-What more can I do to understand this?
-What were the most important points in this reading?
-What new information did I learn?
-How does it fit in with what I already know?
-During Reading Comprehension Activity: As they are reading, students can chose to create a character map, visual vocabulary definitions, different point of views, examples of integration or segregation to support their reading. Here are some We are the Ship storyboard examples that can be used to show students how their own storyboard could look like.
-After Reading Comprehension Activity: Once students are done reading We are the Ship, they will pair up to create a presentation that focuses on what they learned from this book. The presentation could be a slide show, timeline, essay, etc. as long as the students include the major events that occurred. Students should also use other resources, such as newspaper articles or books, to look up more information about the time period.
"Most of the owners didn’t make much money from their teams. Baseball was just a hobby for them, a way to make their illegal money look good. To save money, each team would only carry fifteen or sixteen players. The major league teams each carried about twenty-five. Average salary for each player started at roughly $125 per month back in ‘34, and went up to $500–$800 during the forties, though there were some who made much more than that, like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. The average major league player’s salary back then was $7,000 per month. We also got around fifty cents to a dollar per day for food allowance. Back then you could get a decent meal for about twenty-five cents to seventy-five cents. Some of the owners didn’t treat their players very well. Didn’t pay them enough or on time. That’s why we would jump from team to team. Other owners would offer us more money, and we would leave our teams and go play for them. We were some of the first unrestricted free agents. There were, however, a few owners who did know how to treat their ballplayers. Cum Posey was one of them. He always took care of his ballplayers, put them in the best hotels, and paid them well and on time. Buck Leonard said Posey never missed a payday in the seventeen years he played for the Grays."
-Before Reading Comprehension Activity: The teacher will model how to do a think-aloud and encourage students to join in the think aloud. Write down or mark the page where new vocabulary words or unusual sentences appear. Create opportunities where students can practice doing a think-aloud and give feedback on how students can better their own think-aloud. Engage students with questions such as:
-What do I know about this topic?
-What do I think I will learn about this topic?
-Do I understand what I just read?
-Do I have a clear picture in my head about this information?
-What more can I do to understand this?
-What were the most important points in this reading?
-What new information did I learn?
-How does it fit in with what I already know?
-During Reading Comprehension Activity: As they are reading, students can chose to create a character map, visual vocabulary definitions, different point of views, examples of integration or segregation to support their reading. Here are some We are the Ship storyboard examples that can be used to show students how their own storyboard could look like.
-After Reading Comprehension Activity: Once students are done reading We are the Ship, they will pair up to create a presentation that focuses on what they learned from this book. The presentation could be a slide show, timeline, essay, etc. as long as the students include the major events that occurred. Students should also use other resources, such as newspaper articles or books, to look up more information about the time period.
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