{"id":218,"date":"2023-04-27T11:01:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T15:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/?page_id=218"},"modified":"2023-04-27T11:01:36","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T15:01:36","slug":"henrys-freedom-box-ellen-levine","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/read-alouds\/henrys-freedom-box-ellen-levine\/","title":{"rendered":"Henrys Freedom Box &#8211; Ellen Levine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A book that serves as a vehicle for critical literacy is<i> Henry\u2019s Freedom Box <\/i>by Ellen Levine. Based on a true story, Henry was not aware of how old he was or his birthday. He dreamed about freedom which felt out of reach when he was torn from his family and sent to work in a warehouse. Growing up, Henry started a family of his own with his wife but soon was faced with devastation when his family was sold at the slave market. While working in the warehouse, one day, Henry became fond of an idea that would make his dream come true. Partaking in a difficult journey, with help from a friend, Henry mailed himself to the North, giving him his first day of freedom, which now stands as his birthday. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The book <i>Henry&#8217;s Freedom Box<\/i> can be used to engage in critical literacy because of the book&#8217;s ability to give cultural understanding to students by drawing on history. <i>Cultivating Genius <\/i>by Gholdy Muhammad defines critical literacy as an approach that encourages students to examine texts from multiple perspectives, question underlying assumptions and power structures and take action to promote social justice. The book <i>Henry&#8217;s Freedom Box<\/i> demonstrates the element of critical literacy defined by Muhammad by encouraging students\/readers to question the power structures that allowed slavery to exist and to reflect on the importance of freedom and human dignity. The book also invites readers to examine the experience of slavery from a perspective of an enslaved individual, highlighting the dehumanizing effects of slavery on both the enslaved person and their loved ones. Through Henry&#8217;s story, students can see the importance of action and self-determination in the face of oppressive systems. Furthermore, the book inspires students to take action to promote social justice by highlighting the courage and bravery of Henry. While the book creates cultural awareness, it also engages in critical consciousness allowing students to reflect on their environment through a socio-political lens. Engaging in conversations about power structures and how it affects each individual leads to discussions of how students can be activists themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A book that serves as a vehicle for critical literacy is Henry\u2019s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine. Based on a true story, Henry was not aware of how old he was or his birthday. He dreamed about freedom which felt out of reach when he was torn from his family and sent to work in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2983,"featured_media":0,"parent":26,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218\/revisions\/220"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/criticalpedagogy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}