A notable phenomenon in US schools is the recent increase in book bans. Between 2021-2023, book bans rose 33% in K-12 public schools. The most consistently challenged books are those that center the lives, histories, and perspectives of people of color and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale is a trade book that describes this movement to censor in a child-accessible way. The book tells the story of Kanzi, an Egyptian American Arabic elementary school student who suddenly can’t find books with characters who look like her in her school library. She is dismayed to learn the district banned them. Rallying around this injustice, Kanzi and her classmates decide to have a bake sale to raise money to buy the books that were banned to keep them accessible. Eventually the district reverses the ban. This story is based on what happened in a Pennsylvania school district in 2021. We use this trade book to engage the students in the inquiry’s compelling question, “How can we solve big problems?” In doing so, fourth and fifth graders learn about how children can work together to solve real world problems, and with those models in mind, decide how to act and organize around community issues.
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About the inquiry
Compelling Question
How Can We Solve Big Problems?
Staging Question
See/Think/Wonder: Examine the cover of the The Great Banned Books Bake Sale/Think about what is happening in the illustration/Make predictions about what the kids are doing and why they might be having a bake sale.
How did the school community solve the problem?
Formative TasksDefine the problem facing Kanzi and her classmates and what they did to solve the problem.
SourcesThe Great Banned Books Bake Sale, 2023 Written by Aya Kahlil, Illustrated by Analt Semirdzhyan
How did William and his community work to solve a problem?
Formative TasksAnnotate a photograph with an explanation of how William and his community work together to solve a problem.
SourcesSource A: William Winslow interview
Source B: The Food Drive Kids
Summative Performance Task
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Taking Informed Action
Understand: Brainstorm problems that students face at the school.
Assess: Make a list of possible solutions to the problems and deliberate which solutions are most effective and can be implemented by students.
Act: Create an action plan including a rationale/argument for what the problem is and why your solution makes the most sense.