Texans for all
Are you a 4th grade or 7th grade Texas history teacher? These books are a must- have in your classroom library or personal reading. You can buy them at the Institute of Texan Culture and Texas A&M University Press. If you are trying to expand your knowledge of Texas history, I recommending starting at university presses.
One of the biggest struggles all history teachers have is battling the standards with incorporating diverse stories. Texans for All is a starting place. 7th graders can read the book, but it has small stories that can be incorporated into an elementary classroom. Students get so much top down history and they shouldn’t forget ordinary people have made Texas unique. Their stories deserved to be told.
The books aren’t perfect. What secondary source is? African Texans is not appropriate for 4th graders because of the mentions of rape and lynching. Asian Texans has a model minority theme to it. However, I have yet to find a resource that goes in depth on different ethnic groups in Texas. ( Please let me know in the comments if you have read one) The powerful story in the beginning of Indian Texans made me cry. The lost of culture and identity is a universal theme.
I love the variety the ways the books can be used. Here are some suggestions, but there are thousands more these books can be used.
Do you celebrate various cultures throughout the year? Here is a way to incorporate famous Texans from each group. You can add their picture or make students do a biography project.
Do you want to review Texas regions? Give students a passage to read. They can make a visual representation of the story and include what region this took place.
Do you want students to be able to include Texans in famous historic events? Students can make videos on historical events and include Texans. For example, you could add the Jingua family, who created and managed the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio,to the stories of Japanese families removed from their homes and sent to interment camps during WWII.
