Last year, as a response to a student, who, at 5'4", was convinced he was destined for professional basketball, we created a text set around sports. Since then, we've been listening for and working with other texts that relate to sports.
One of the questions we get when we talk about argument is how does this apply to literature. I realize that this is a blog about nonfiction, but I have been thinking about how we integrate literature with nonfiction and what argument looks like within that context.
To that end, a nice addition to a text set on sports is "At Navajo Monument". This poem, by Sherman Alexie, is based on a photograph by Skeet McCauley.
An amazing companion piece is Radiolab's amazing podcast on American Football. This piece focuses on the football team from the Carlisle Indian School and the experiences the team had playing against a variety universities. I loved learning tidbits about Pop Warner's ideas for how to win (for example, sew pockets in the jerseys to hide the football). What I loved is how this story shows the historical background of football, how the game became a proving ground for the sons of men who had fought in the wars against Native Americans, how Carlisle students take this elite sport and turn it into something that allows them to fight back. Also check out the great photos that go with the story.
These two pieces work great together. I'd love to integrate them into an argument prompt on whether or schools should support athletic programs. I think it is interesting, culturally, to bring these two pieces in because it forces a very different perspective on the value of sport.
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