We Came to America - Poem

Poetry

Title: We Came to America

Author/Illustrator: Faith Ringgold

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Copyright: 2016

# of Pages: 32

Genre: Fiction

     We Came to America is a story about different cultures, colors, races, and religions around the world moving to America. The book tells of how they got there, whether by plane or boat, and why they came. “We are ALL Americans, just the same.”

     Faith Ringgold’s illustrations are very colorful and bold. They seem to be painted, but they each have a texture to the people I have not seen. The characters have textured lines through underneath the painting. She does a wonderful job showing the different types of people came to America over the years.

     Content Area and Grade: Social Studies – 2^nd Grade

ALSDE

Identify past and present contributions of a variety of individuals who have overcome difficulties or obstacles to achieve goals.

I would have students break down the poem and write about what they think these people thought when they came to America.

For an ELL student, I would give them access to a dictionary to help them break down the poem to give understanding to the vocabulary. For the writing assignment I would let them share their own thoughts about when they first came or when their family first came.