Hungry for Change

Introduce the Story (5 minutes)  

Engage Students, Build Knowledge, and Preview Vocabulary

• Ask students whether they’ve ever participated in or attended a bake sale. Then have a few students share for which cause(s) the bake sales they are familiar with helped raise money. Tell students that they’re going to read a play that’s based on the true story of a brave woman who sold homemade food to help raise money for an important cause.

• To give students context for the time period in which the play takes place, show our Background Builder: The civil rights movement.

• Introduce domain-specific words related to the civil rights movement with the Vocabulary Skill Builder. Highlighted terms: racist, boycott, protest, justice, segregation, bankrupt, defense, Supreme Court, illegal

• Call on a volunteer to read aloud the Up Close box on page 22 for the class.

• Assign parts and read the play aloud as a class or in groups. You can also listen to an Editor Read-Aloud of the play!
  

• After reading, discuss the close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions

• What clues in Scene 1 tell you that Ritchie will probably attend the bus boycott meeting Monday night? (text evidence) One clue is that Ritchie is upset that his tired mother has to give up her seat to the White teenagers. He seems motivated to do something about this injustice. Also, the narrator says that a plan is forming in Ritchie’s mind when he gets the flyer.

• In Scene 2, why does Ritchie lie to his parents about where he’s going? Do you think he was right to lie? (character) Ritchie lies to his parents about where he’s going because he knows his parents don’t want him to attend the meeting, since he has homework and needs to stay at the top of his class. However, Ritchie believes he needs to go because he is angered by the segregation on the buses and wants to help change things. Answers to the second question will vary.

• In your own words, explain why Mrs. Gilmore, Mrs. Williams, and Mrs. Clark are making and selling meals. What are they planning to do with the money? (plot) The women are making meals that they will sell around town to raise cash. The cash they raise will help people who are boycotting the segregated buses in Montgomery. The boycotters need money to pay for the cars, gas, and repairs so that they can get to where they need to go without taking the bus.

• Look at the photos on pages 24 and 25 and reread the captions. How do they relate to what happens in the play? (text features) The photo on the left shows how buses looked when they were segregated. Maybe the photo shows what the bus Ritchie and his mother were on in Scene 1 might have looked like. The picture on the right shows the people walking during the Montgomery bus boycott, which is the protest that Mrs. Gilmore and Ritchie are working to raise money for.

• Why is Georgia fired from her job at the National Lunch Company? How do you know she thinks she did the right thing? (plot) Georgia is fired from her job because she spoke in support of Dr. King at the trial; her bosses found out and fired her. You can tell she thinks she did the right thing because she says to Ritchie that she wasn’t scared. She says you have to speak out if you want to accomplish something.

• How does Mrs. Ellis change from the beginning of the play to the end? What event causes her to change? (how a character changes) At the beginning of the play, Mrs. Ellis doesn’t want Ritchie to get involved in the bus boycott. She is worried that it will distract Ritchie from his schoolwork and that he could get in trouble. By the end of the play, she is spending time with Ritchie at Mrs. Gilmore’s restaurant. The event that leads to her changing is Ritchie expressing how he thinks the bus segregation is unjust—for his mother and other Black people. 

• What are two problems or conflicts that seem to be resolved in the final scene of the play? (problem and solution) Answers should include one of the following: Mrs. Gilmore has started running a restaurant out of her house after she was fired from her job; Mrs. Ellis is supportive of the cause her son is fighting for even though she was initially reluctant to join in; and the Supreme Court declares segregation on public buses illegal.

Critical-Thinking Question

• At the end of Scene 4, Georgia says, “You can’t be afraid if you want to accomplish anything.” Do you agree? How does what happens in the play support this idea? (evaluating ideas) Answers to the first question will vary. In the play, Mrs. Gilmore overcomes her fear of being targeted for supporting the bus boycott and testifies at Dr. King’s trial. Her brave act helped the eventual success of the bus boycott.
• In the play, how do the actions of individual characters end up making a big difference? What does this tell you about the power of working together? (main idea) In the play, Mrs. Gilmore, Ritchie, and others cook to raise money for the bus boycott. Individually, they may not have been able to raise enough money to make a difference, but when they worked together they were able to raise the money to help make the bus boycott a success. This tells you that working together can be especially powerful. If many people each do one small thing, when taken together, those actions add up to something important.

Featured Skill: Main Idea

• Assign the Main Idea Skill Builder and have students complete it independently or together with a partner. This Skill Builder will get students ready to respond to the writing prompt on page 26.

• Help make the play come to life in your classroom by playing the Editor Read-Aloud as a first read. Prompt students to listen to the expression they hear in the read-aloud and how it adds to the meaning of the lines. Then have the class do its own read-aloud, inspired by what they heard.