Process
BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
Download and print the NOTES GUIDE. Use this guide to keep track of information you find during the WebQuest in preparation for writing your persuasive essay. You may work with a partner while conducting your research, but each person must have his or her own note guide completed.
STEP ONE: What is censorship?
Visit THIS SITE from the American Library Association and define the following terms: expression of concern, oral complaint, written complaint, public attack, censorship.
ALA Frequently Challenged Books
Check out the Banned Books Timeline
STEP TWO: How does the First Amendment relate to students and censorship?
Visit the First Amendment Center to learn what freedoms are protected. Focus especially on the freedom of speech.
Familiarize yourself with the Pico case.
Check out these articles on censorship in the news in the K-12 environment.
Watch this video of children's author Anita Silvey discussing how censorship can backfire.
Visit the National Coalition Against Censorship and explore some of the primary threats against free speech currently.
STEP THREE: What is the historical significance of censorship, especially book burning?
"I ate, drank, and slept books. . . . It followed then that when Hitler burned a book I felt it as keenly, please forgive me, as his killing a human, for in the long sum of history they are one and the same flesh. Mind or body, put to the oven, it is a sinful practice, and I carried that with me."
-Ray Bradbury
Visit the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee BOOK BURNING site. Click through the links on the left to gather information on the history and reasons behind this type of censorship.
Explore how the Nazis used book burning from the Holocaust Museum. Make sure to view the historical film footage and photos linked on the right.
Research the deeper, symbolic meaning of book burning in history and today?
Watch this book burning scene from The Waltons.
Book burning slideshow.
STEP FOUR: What are some reasons for censoring library materials and why are they valid or invalid?
Read the American Library Association Bill of Rights Consider their stance on censorship.
Read the American Library Association Bill of Right Interpretation focusing on non-print materials for minors. Does their view change based on a patron's age? Who should censor materials in their view?
Watch this video interview of Anita Silvey, children's book author and critic.
Noted children's author Judy Blume talks about censorship.
Laurie Halse Anderson, author of popular young adult novel Speak, talks about why her controversial book works as part of the curriculum.
Explore the PABBIS(Parents Against Bad Books in Schools) site.
Check out these censorship surveys from Scholastic.
Explore titles on this Goodreads list of disturbing children's books.