Over fifty years ago, a fourteen-year-old Chicago boy was brutally murdered in Mississippi. Media coverage of his open-casket funeral and the mock trial of his killers outraged the world and sparked the civil rights movement. Today, few Chicago teens know who Emmett Till was and what his murder represented. Using Getting Away with Murder, a nonfiction text, and A Wreath for Emmett Till, an award-winning poem series, this workshop will explore the historical and literary legacy of this national tragedy and what it means to us in 2007. Along the way, the presenters will demonstrate how to use multiple texts and interactive strategies to help students read challenging literature with deeper understanding and think critically about complex events..
