Our 5th grade students are reading the whole class novel, Bud, Not Buddy. My hope was that they would fall in love with the book, just as I have. Fortunately, Christopher Lee Curtis did not let me down; our students are thrilled with the author’s words and enamored with his main character, Bud. Because Bud, Not Buddy naturally engages children, I wanted to design a writing unit that feeds off of and fuels their excitement. Integrating reading and writing is something I have aspired to do since I began teaching and now I have the chance!
Somewhere around my 10th read of Bud, Not Buddy I began to imagine this research project taking shape. Christopher Lee Curtis makes countless references to historical events and happenings of the 1930’s. I noted these references as potential research topics for students and came up with the following list:
- The Great Depression
- The Labor Movement
- Michigan in the 1930’s
- Racism in the 1930’s
- Women’s rights in the 1930’s
- Unions
- Jazz Music in the 1930’s
- The Stock Market Crash
- The New Deal
I introduced the project to students via the following documents:
General Expectations of the Project
Potential Topics
An Opportunity for Students to Reflect and Share Feedback after Day 1
Inclusion Fusion 
A great way to teach writing for the students. Writing is a difficult skill for most of the students.