Collection
Teaching Mockingbird Media and Readings
Enrich your teaching of To Kill a Mockingbird with this set of videos, photographs, and readings that will help students contextualize the novel.
Subject
- English & Language Arts
Grade
9–10Language
English — USPublished
Overview
About This Collection
These materials were selected to help readers contextualize the setting and understand the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are videos on themes ranging from growing up in the south during the Jim Crow-era, to the history of lynching in the United States, to the role of stereotypes and bias in our culture, and on Scout's character. You can also find photos, art, and audio interviews here to help stimulate discussion and understanding of the many themes of the novel that continue to resonate today.
Preparing to Teach
A Note to Teachers
Lesson Plans
Understanding Jim Crow (Setting the Setting)
David Cunningham, chair of the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University, explores systems of racial separation and institutionalized segregation known as Jim Crow.
The Origins of Lynching Culture in the United States
Paula Giddings, professor of Afro-American Studies at Smith College, discusses the history and origins of lynching.
Custom and Conscience: Margot Stern Strom reflects on growing up in Memphis, TN in the 1950s
Margot Stern Strom, the founder and President Emerita of Facing History & Ourselves, describes growing up in Jim Crow-era Memphis.
Studs Terkel Interview with Virginia Foster Durr
In an interview with Studs Terkel, Virginia Foster Durr, a prominent American civil rights activist, reflects on life during the Great Depression, particularly the way that people on government relief felt shame and guilt over their own suffering and poverty, rather than blaming the capitalist system.
Studs Terkel Interview with Eileen Barthe
In this segment of an interview conducted by Studs Terkel, Eileen Barthe, a government relief case worker during the Great Depression, remembers an experience that caused a recipient of relief to face deep humiliation.
Glenn Ligon's Untitled: Four Etchings
Artist Glenn Ligon created Untitled: Four Etchings using quotations from writer Zora Neale Hurston's essay, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" and Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man.
![Artist Glenn Ligon created Untitled: Four Etchings [B] using a quotation from writer Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.”](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_622x400_2x/public/2022-07/D15968_Medium_res.webp?h=c15025bd&itok=oMMTHJR5)
Teaching Mockingbird: Images
These photographs were taken by Walker Evans in the 1930s for the Farm Security Administration of the United States Government. The government established the FSA to help document the reality and effects of the Great Depression on farmers and communities in the rural South.
Firsthand Accounts of the Great Depression
Read and listen to firsthand accounts of the shame, humiliation, and deprivation experienced by those who lived through the Great Depression.
Being Well Born: New Civic Biology by George William Hunter
Read excerpts of George William Hunter’s book about the now-disproved idea that traits like intelligence and morality are handed down from generation to generation.
You Worked Long Hours
Essie Favrot gives a firsthand account of working as a domestic worker for a white Southern family.
The Birthday Party: Outside the Magic Circle by Virginia Foster Durr
In her autobiography, Outside the Magic Circle, white southerner Virginia Foster Durr recalls how the customs of the Jim Crow South affected her seventh birthday party.
Understanding Jim Crow
Deepen students' understanding of the systems of racial separation and institutionalized segregation known as Jim Crow to better grasp the time and setting of To Kill A Mockingbird.
H. J. Williams Recalls Learning About the Rules of Jim Crow in Yazoo County, Mississippi
H. J. Williams, in an interview about living in the segregated South, describes when he first realized that blacks and whites were treated differently.
H. J. Williams Recalls Work and School In Yazoo County, Mississippi
H. J. Williams describes what it was like to go to school and work in the segregated South.
H. J. Williams Recalls Lynching in Yazoo County, Mississippi
H. J. Williams, in an interview about living in the segregated South, shares a memory of a lynching that took place in Yazoo County, Mississippi.
Roosevelt Williams Recalls Moving for Work in Alabama and Mississippi
Roosevelt Williams describes different jobs he held and how he moved around the segregated South to find work in the 1930s and 1940s.
Roosevelt Williams Recalls Learning about the Rules of Jim Crow in Alabama
Roosevelt Williams describes his memories of interactions between races in the segregated South.
Roosevelt Williams Recalls Farming During His Youth in Alabama
Roosevelt Williams shares his memories of farming cotton in segregated Alabama.
Roosevelt Williams Recalls Voting in Alabama
Roosevelt Williams describes voting in segregated Alabama in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Scottsboro Affair
Consider the nature of justice with this reading about the Scottsboro Affair in which nine black teenagers were accused of raping two white women in the 1930s.
The Redneck Stereotype
Authors Joseph Flora and Lucinda MacKethan describe the characteristics of the “redneck,” a specific stereotype of a poor white Southerner.
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Exploring ELA Text Selection with Julia Torres
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Listen to #DisruptTexts founder Julia Torres about taking a critical lens to text selection in ELA classrooms.
Working for Justice, Equity and Civic Agency in Our Schools: A Conversation with Clint Smith
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Listen to writer and educator Dr. Clint Smith as he shares his poetry and reflections on working for justice, equity, and civic agency in our schools.
Centering Student Voices to Build Community and Agency
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Explore approaches to centering student voice, building authentic relationships and cultivating community with Molly Josephs, the creator of This Teenage Life, a youth-driven, story-sharing podcast that started as a school club.
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