Board game drops Portland kids into history
Bre Hoggans and T'aira Turner could win 200 points. With it, they'll move one step closer to freedom as they travel the Underground Railroad.
But this challenge isn't easy. They must research Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and write two paragraphs on how he used literacy to fight for freedom.
The two start reading a two-page biography aloud.
"He taught other people to read the Bible," says Turner, 13. "He formed a church using literacy."
In her journal, Hoggans, 13, writes, "Church was the place that blacks could have freedom and self-expression."
Each week, about 30 students from several middle schools in Portland gather in a first-floor classroom at Jefferson High School. For an hour and a half, they are South Carolina slaves.
They use a plastic board game to reinforce basic literacy concepts, increase reading comprehension and discover what it was like to live through one of the most tumultuous and divisive parts of American history.
The game -- Journey to Freedom: The Power to Read and Write -- is the creation of Jefferson teacher Karanja Crews.
As an elementary school teacher in Beaverton nearly five years ago, Crews started trying to inspire kids to read, write and learn history by sharing the stories of slaves who learned to read and write even though they faced dire consequences, such as whippings, separation from family members and even death.
He devised the game last year, tried it out on students at Jefferson and last month began working with middle school students in North and Northeast Portland.
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But this challenge isn't easy. They must research Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and write two paragraphs on how he used literacy to fight for freedom.
The two start reading a two-page biography aloud.
"He taught other people to read the Bible," says Turner, 13. "He formed a church using literacy."
In her journal, Hoggans, 13, writes, "Church was the place that blacks could have freedom and self-expression."
Each week, about 30 students from several middle schools in Portland gather in a first-floor classroom at Jefferson High School. For an hour and a half, they are South Carolina slaves.
They use a plastic board game to reinforce basic literacy concepts, increase reading comprehension and discover what it was like to live through one of the most tumultuous and divisive parts of American history.
The game -- Journey to Freedom: The Power to Read and Write -- is the creation of Jefferson teacher Karanja Crews.
As an elementary school teacher in Beaverton nearly five years ago, Crews started trying to inspire kids to read, write and learn history by sharing the stories of slaves who learned to read and write even though they faced dire consequences, such as whippings, separation from family members and even death.
He devised the game last year, tried it out on students at Jefferson and last month began working with middle school students in North and Northeast Portland.