Just as Free as I am: A Tennessee Common Core Reader

This 60-page booklet is a non-fiction reading text for grades 7-12. It was created because of the Common Core requirement that reading and language arts teachers expose students to more non-fiction.

The booklet contains 16 chapters. 13 of them are primary sources. All segments were chosen by how interesting the subject matter is and how well they were written.

Click on the images to the right to see parts of the book.

Chapters include

* Fascinating excerpts from autobiographies of legendary hunter David Crockett, civil rights activist Ida B. Wells; Cumberland County doctor May Wharton; newspaper reporter Louis Brownlow; businessman James E. Caldwell; and Morris Frank, the first blind man ever led by a seeing eye dog

* A part from Sam R. Watkins gripping Civil War memoirs

* A first-person account of the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12

* A transcript of an interview with civil rights leader Bernard Lafayette

* A section called "a sample of insults" written by former newspaper editor and Tennessee Governor William Brownlow -- who may have been the best insulter to ever live!

* The actual newspaper articles that appeared the day after the 19th amendment to the US Constitution was approved by the Tennessee State House

* An excerpt from an 1858 Harper's magazine article describing a wild ride through the part of the Tennessee River then known as "the suck."

* History columns by Jack Neely (of the Knoxville Metro Pulse), McMinn County historian Joe Guy, and Bill Carey

Booklets are $2 each, which means an entire classroom set costs less than a single hardback textbook!

Click here to order.