Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle and Illustrated by Rafael Lopez

Engle, Margarita and Rafael Lopez. Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music. HMH Books for Young Readers, 2015.

Lexile Level: AD1150

Read Aloud Video: 

Learning Activity

Drum Dream Girl tells the story of a young girl who dreams of playing as many percussion instruments as possible. She hears the beats and rhythms of the world wherever she goes, yet her community refuses to allow her to play the drums, as only boys are allowed to. For this activity, after reading this book aloud to the class, students will take time to consider dreams of their own. They will then write them down and, if they wish, share them with the class.

Learning Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Goal

The goal of this activity is to help students see that even though the main character of the book was told she cannot accomplish her dream, she continued to believe and pursue it anyway, eventually succeeding in her goal.

Objective

The objective of this activity is for students to recall their dreams, as well as to put them into words to potentially be shared with their peers.

Outcome

The outcome of this activity will be that students have written a short piece about their dream(s), gained the encouragement to pursue those dreams, and hopefully the courage to share those dreams with others.