We are the Ship

Nelson, K. (2008). We are the ship. New York: Hyperion.

We are the ship is set up in nine innings, it begins back in the 1800's when baseball was just beginning, talking about how the blacks moved north so they could play baseball.  Mr. Nelson talks about the hardships, the conditions, and the joys these players went through just to play.



A lesson for We are the ship:

After reading the story, write down all the places the teams played in. You can choose to limit the number of places depending on your group of students.  Print out US maps with states to be labeled by students and set up a legends for how many miles in an inch.  Then have students draw the lines from one place to another and figure out how many miles the team would travel in a year.
More ideas here: http://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=10325

b)  Knowledge and skills.

(1)  Mathematical process standards. The student uses mathematical processes to acquire and demonstrate mathematical understanding. The student is expected to:

(A)  apply mathematics to problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace;

(B)  use a problem-solving model that incorporates analyzing given information, formulating a plan or strategy, determining a solution, justifying the solution and evaluating the problem-solving process and the reasonableness of the solution;