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Image 3 of Rosa Parks Papers: Recipe for featherlite pancakes

Rationale By
Kelly E. Tumy
Link/Citation

Image 3 of Rosa Parks Papers: Miscellany, 1934–2005; Recipe for featherlite pancakes, undated. 1934–2005. Recipe card. The Library of Congress. Washington, D.C. https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss85943.002606/?sp=3&r=-1.259,0.053,3.517,1.98,0

Source Type:
ManuscriptsPhotographs and prints
Suggested Grade Level and Audience: Grade 3
Instructional value of primary source for the curriculum and/or classroom

There are so many elements from the life of Rosa Parks that are well documented, but the collection of “miscellany” at The Library of Congress offers a glimpse into the personal life of a very public figure. She was a daughter, wife, sister and aunt. She was close to family and received countless birthday cards and letters throughout her lifetime. This primary source shows a more personal side of the civil rights activist.

Summary/Description

This is a recipe for featherlite (sic) pancakes from Rosa Parks’ personal papers.

Context for the Primary Source

Rosa Parks was a civil rights icon from Tuskegee, AL who grew up in Mobile, AL. While there is no date on this recipe, it appears to have been written on a library pocket. For most of her life, she was a seamstress and she joined the NAACP in 1943 to fight for racial equality in the South.

Focus Question(s)

If you leave the title off at first, there is a truer reading and more critical reading of the photo.

  • What do you notice about the ingredients?
  • What do the abbreviations mean?
  • Where are the directions?
  • Could you follow this recipe? Explain why or why not?
Standards Connections

Texas ELAR TEKS, Texas Mathematics TEKS, and Texas Social Studies TEKS 

ELA Standards

Mathematics Standards

Social Studies Standards

3.7F: respond using newly acquired vocabulary as appropriate.

  • This standard allows teachers to show students that new vocabulary associated with different content is still a reading skill.

3.3C: explain that the unit fraction 1/b represents the quantity formed by one part of a whole that has been partitioned into b equal parts where b is a non-zero whole number.

  • This is the core of the teaching principle , allowing students to apply a mathematical principle to a primary source.

3.1A: describe how individuals, events, and ideas have changed communities, past and present.

  • This standard allows teachers to take a historical document and bring it forward to make modern connections.
Suggested Teaching Approaches
  • This could easily be a cross-curricular lesson that has students examine the primary source with the focus questions and then start to generate ideas about the source.. They could be given a year associated with Rosa Parks’ civil rights work (1950), and they could research the cost of all the ingredients for the pancakes. Students could then make a comparison to prices now and record the differences in a chart and use greater (>) and less (<) for the middle of the chart.
  • Students could examine the measurements, and with concrete manipulatives, could put the ingredients in order from smallest to largest. They could also examine the fractions to draw out how many parts of wholes are present (½, 1 ¼, and ⅓ are all listed in this recipe).
  • Another activity could be to give students Rosa Parks’ name and ask them to find three facts about her and then connect her to two other historical figures. Using the Rosa Parks Papers at the Library of Congress could yield some strong research and help students develop new vocabulary. They could locate items using ESPN—Economic, Social, Political, Natural—connections using other primary sources.
  • All of these activities are showing students how to synthesize information to create new understanding.
Potential for Challenge

The potential for challenge for this information seems quite low. Most English language arts and reading standards ask students to synthesize information and think critically about that information.

Alternative or Complementary Primary Sources
  1. Letters from Children (1996) (Image 4) - This collection of forty-one images of letters from children could be an option for parents. These letters were written practicing correct correspondence formats in 1996. There are requests for information, as well as letters of gratitude. The math cross-curricular lesson could include counting the letters that request information and comparing them to letters that express a kindness or a gratitude.
  2. Letters from Children (2000) - This is another collection of letters from children. Children could make a list of newly acquired vocabulary, and they could keep a list of requests to again compare and contrast the number of letters and what kind of information they contain.
Additional References

  1. There is a site called Americans Who Tell the Truth, and they have an extensive Rosa Parks biography. They also have posters and paintings of many of their subjects.
  2. For older children, there is the arrest record of Rosa Parks, as well as teaching activities. The National Archives hold these documents. She is also part of the National Archives “Pieces of History”
  3. The Women’s History Museum has a biography of Rosa Parks, and it has research options of people who are similar to her throughout history.
Subject:
Social Studies/Social Sciences/History/Geography
Topics:
Arts and Culture , History , Nonfiction/Informational Text
Year/Date of Creation or Publication
2005