By

Doris Braun

Mifflin Elementary School

Contents of Curriculum Unit

• Narrative
• Sample Lesson 1
• Sample Lesson 2
• Sample Lesson 3
• Sample Lesson 4
• Sample Lesson 5
• Sample Lesson 6
• Sample Lesson 7
• Sample Lesson 8
• Pittsburgh Encarta Article
• Research Topics
• Interview Questions
• Writing Rubrics
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Student Reading List
• Communication Standards

I have chosen to develop a unit on Pittsburgh Writers for many reasons. I am currently teaching Reading, English and Computers to fifth and seventh graders at Mifflin School. Mifflin School is located in the Lincoln Place community of Pittsburgh. With very few exceptions, the families of my students have lived in this area for several generations. I would like my students to recognize and be able to write about some of the good qualities germane to their own city. I want to make them aware that Pittsburgh can and does serve as a setting for many fictional and factual stories. I would like to introduce them to some of the writers from their own city who have been published and are successful. The focus in the Pittsburgh Public Schools is literacy, so why not read and write about what is most familiar to us - our own city?

As a part of our Standards Based Portfolios, the students are required to include a response to information, a personal narrative, a response to literature, a report, and a persuasive essay. They are also required to demonstrate the ability to make an oral presentation to share information. I have included the rubrics that accompany these requirements in the appendix. The students are given these rubrics early in the year so that they may familiarize themselves with them and use them to achieve their requirements and meet the goals of the standards that were established by the Pittsburgh Public Schools. (Please see more about standards in the appendix.) I’m positive that all of these goals could be achieved within the framework of the Pittsburgh Writers’ Unit. I would set the following objectives for the students as we proceed through the unit:

1. The student will be able to do independent research using the library and the computer. I will insist on at least three sources for any written or oral report.
2. The student will write a personal narrative.
3. The student will formulate questions for written and oral interviews.
4. The student will be able to compare different periods of Pittsburgh history.
5. The students will reach conclusions about the desirability of living in Pittsburgh and write a persuasive essay.
6. The student will become familiar with a variety of Pittsburgh authors and their published works.
7. The student will become familiar with a variety of Pittsburgh locales.

I will begin the unit by discussing the history of Pittsburgh. Whenever I’m starting a new research topic, I always have the students make a list of what they already know and then an adjoining list of what they want to find out. We would also review the appropriate chapter in our writing book, Elements of Writing by James Kinneavy, that gives the guidelines for writing a good report. I would also distribute and discuss the rubric for writing a report of information. We would then read the Encarta encyclopedia article about Pittsburgh together. I have included a copy of the article in the appendix. I will fill in some additional information from other resources. Even though many of my class members have never been much farther away from home than Kennywood Park, I feel sure that they do possess the following information:

1. The city was named after William Pitt
2. Tom Murphy is the current mayor.
3. We have sports teams named the Pirates, Steelers, and Penguins
4. We have three rivers named the Monongahela, the Allegheny, and the Ohio.
5. We have many bridges to cross those rivers.
6. We have a museum and a science center.
7. We have several universities and hospitals.
8. They also know about our opera, ballet, symphony and civic light opera, because they have been to our school.
9. We once had many steel mills.
10. Mister Rodgers lives here.

I would have to add that George Washington did sleep in Pittsburgh and actually surveyed the land that became Fort Pitt in 1753. William Pitt was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Pittsburgh became a borough in 1794 and a city in 1816. The original population of Pittsburgh was the Shawnee and Delaware Indians. The Indians referred to the city as the Land of the Fork. The first European settlers came mainly from Great Britain, Ireland and Germany. Poles, Hungarians, Serbs Croatians, Italians, and Russian Jews arrived in a later wave of immigration. Because of its access to the Ohio River, Pittsburgh was known as the "Gateway to the West" well before St. Louis and its famous arch. Pittsburgh was also known as the "Gateway to the North" for slaves traveling to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Thanks to Andrew Carnegie and other entrepreneurs Pittsburgh became a leading steel producer in the 1870’s. I would encourage my students to do some individual research on him and some of the other steel barons who are mentioned in my list of possible topics since so many of their family members did work in the mills. The research will be addressed in Lesson Plan I. The lesson plans follow at the end of the narrative. I would also mention that not only was Pittsburgh the home of the first radio station, KDKA, but also the second, KQV, where a man named Frank Conrad became the first D. J. and had the first advertising.

The second part of the unit will focus on personal Pittsburgh histories through the use of personal narratives and interviews. I will begin by reading the chapter pertaining to personal narratives in our Kinneavy Elements of Writing books. We will then read and discuss the rubric pertaining to personal narratives. I would read selected descriptive passages from The Spencers of Amberson Avenue by Ethel Spencer, and An American Childhood by Annie Dillard. This will be a part of lesson plan 2 which pertains to writing a personal narrative.

Being a native born Pittsburgher myself, I would then model my own Pittsburgh narrative for them. My personal history of Pittsburgh begins before I was born, for my father, Samuel Zelmanovitz, was also born here in the early 1900’s. His father, a native of Hungary, came to the United States to escape conscription into the Russian Army. He and my grandmother, Dora, whom I was named for, came to Pittsburgh because my grandmother’s cousins, the Lebovitzes, were already living and prospering here. You can still see the Lebovitz name on some storefronts in Swissvale. I wish my father were still alive so I could ask him all of the questions about early twentieth century Pittsburgh that have come to my mind while researching this unit. I do know that he learned to swim in the Pittsburgh rivers, and that for a short period of his life he was a song and dance man. His dancing partner was Gene Kelly’s sister, with whom he entered dance marathons in the 1930’s. He also performed in minstrel shows and was in the background of a movie with Al Jolson. My cousin, who is older than I, remembers seeing the movie. My other grandparents met in Vienna. My grandmother was a Norwegian Gentile, and my grandfather was an Austrian Jew. Neither family approved of the marriage so they decided to come to the United States. They first settled in South Dakota, where my grandmother probably had relatives. They then moved to St. Louis where my mother, Margaret Greibach, was born, and finally arrived in Pittsburgh about 1920, where my grandfather went to work in a cigar factory. By this time my grandmother had converted to Judaism and they lived in a row house on Webster Avenue in the Hill District. I don’t know how my parents met, but luckily for me, they did. I was born in Swissvale. My original home, a duplex on Sailor Place, was torn down and there is now a condominium there. At the time I had many cousins who lived nearby, and I spent many hours playing outside with them even as a small child under five. I moved to Squirrel Hill when I was five years old and except for a brief sojourn in New York, I lived in the same six-room half-double until I got married. I attended Colfax School in Squirrel Hill. My elementary school days were uneventful. My classes were large, and mostly we read aloud, copied from the board, and memorized things. I walked home and back every day, even though it was more than one and one half miles from my home. I remember trips to the stores downtown, to the Carnegie Library, to Frick Park at Forbes and Braddock, and to Phipps Conservatory. There were no malls or fast food chains. Eating dinner out was a rare occurrence. Even though we did have a T V when I was young, outside of Captain Video and Milton Berle, I didn’t watch much. Mostly, my sister and I and other neighbors played games like Release, Mother May I, You Can’t Cross the Mississippi, Hopscotch, Jump Rope and Jacks. If it was rainy or cold we contented ourselves with board games such as Parchesi, Monopoly, or Clue. Of course there were no video games. Every Saturday my sister and my cousins and me were dropped off at the Manor Theater to watch a double feature and seventeen cartoons, while my mother and my aunt shopped downtown. The movies cost 25 cents in those days!!

From seventh to twelfth grade I attended Taylor Allderdice High School. It was in the seventh grade that I met my best friend Sara who encouraged me to become a good student. It became a contest between us as to who would get the most A’s. It was a pleasant rivalry that served us both well because we both ended up with college scholarships. It was also with Sara that I pursued two of my lifelong loves, Pirate baseball and swimming. By this time we were old enough to leave the neighborhood alone so we could take a bus to Forbes Field to see the Pirates. We always arrived early and left late so that we could get autographs. I do have Roberto Clemente’s autograph. In the summers we took a streetcar (yes, I said streetcar) to Kennywood Park to swim in the huge Kennywood pool. During these years my movie attendance shifted to Friday nights with all of the other teenagers. At that time the Manor had only one screen, but it did have a balcony which you seldom see in movie theaters any longer. My father was a luggage salesman and my mother was a nurse, so we weren’t exactly swimming in money. It was unusual for families of my economic class to take many vacations other than to visit family, but I do remember three memorable trips to Atlantic City, thus cementing my third lifelong love, the beach!!!

I never even left Pittsburgh to attend college, as I matriculated at the University of Pittsburgh on a full scholarship. My father had died during my senior year in high school, and I felt that my mother had too many other things to cope with to worry about the expense of sending me away to school. I went to college with the main idea of being able to get a job when I graduated. I went through school in two and one half years and did graduate with a degree in education.

About a year after graduation, I met my husband Seymour Braun. I was teaching and he was in law school at the time. We had grown up five blocks apart and I had actually seen him in his class play when I was in seventh grade and he in twelfth, but we didn’t meet until he found my phone number in his drawer. It had been given to him by a friend of a friend, and about a year later he called me. Seymour was firmly committed to staying in Pittsburgh because of its cultural, educational and medical facilities, even though both of his brothers had moved to Chicago and my only sister lives in Washington D.C. Seymour wouldn’t even leave Squirrel Hill because of the convenience of being able to walk everywhere one needed to go. Both of my children were born in the same Squirrel Hill home I live in now. They went to Minadeo Elementary, Reizenstein Middle School, and Allderdice High School, where they actually had some of the same teachers that I had. After many stops across the world my son has returned to Pittsburgh and my daughter lives in New York but I’ll let them tell their own stories. I never expected to live my whole life here, but I do find Pittsburgh a nice place to live because it does have some of the same cultural advantages as New York or Chicago but the same small town atmosphere as Clarksburg, West Virginia where my cousins grew up.

I certainly wouldn’t expect my students to write as long a narrative as I have. After all I have lived much longer than they, but I do want them to realize that they must write several paragraphs.

After each student has presented his/her own personal Pittsburgh history, I would have them generate a list of questions to ask an older relative or friend about his/her own particular history and life as a Pittsburgher. Most specifically, I would want to find out how they happened to settle in the neighborhood that they lived in, why they stayed in Pittsburgh, and if they would have left if given the choice. I would have the students present audio or video tapes of these interviews. (See the attached list of questions.) This would all be included in lesson plan 3.

I would hope that by the time we completed all of these written and oral reports and narratives, the students would be anxious to know more about Pittsburgh writers and locales. As a part of the English/Language Arts curriculum, each student is required to read twenty-five books each year. They must be by several different authors and several different genres. They are free to read both fiction and non-fiction as long as they include works in at least four different genres by four or five different authors. It is acceptable to include magazine or newspaper articles. The students are required to do two oral book reports and three written ones for their portfolios. I would give each class member a copy of the book list that I acquired at the Carnegie Library (See appendix ) so that they might choose some books by Pittsburgh authors. Some of the books are about Pittsburgh locales. Some are fact and some are fiction or historical fiction thus fulfilling several requirements at the same time. Anne Faigen, a Pittsburgh resident and former teacher turned author, has agreed to come to speak to my class and answer questions about why she wrote her novel and how she got it published and any other pertinent questions the students might have. Before she visits I would read her novel, Finding Her Way, to my classes. I would probably read a chapter a day. I may also read some other chapter books aloud to them as part of our literacy plan. If they find an author that they particularly like they may choose to contact her/him by letter or e-mail. (See lesson plan 4.)

The next part of the unit will be the persuasive essay, also a required part of our portfolio requirements. This is addressed in lesson plan 5. Since most of my students are not that familiar with persuasive essays, we would first study together the appropriate chapter in Elements of Writing by James Kinneavy that pertains to writing a persuasive essay as it is quite detailed and helpful. I would also give them the persuasive essay rubric so that they would know what is expected of them. We would then list the pros and cons of living in Pittsburgh. Of course that would vary from person to person as one person’s pros might be another’s cons, but in general, we may come up with a list like the following:

1. Major League sports teams
2. Well-known colleges and universities
3. Diverse ethnic communities
4. Outstanding medical facilities
5. Nearby families
6. Variety of cultural activities
7. Reasonable cost of living
8. International airport
9. Ease of walking to shopping and entertainment

1. Unpredictable climate
2. Shortage of sunny days
3. Poor transportation system
4. Lack of job opportunities
5. Distance from the beach

Each student would now write an essay either persuading someone to live or not to live in Pittsburgh. I am including my own pro and con models, but I would not present them to the class until after they write their own first draft, because I want to see what their reasons for staying or leaving might be, before I influence them with mine. I would include my own essays to model the format for the class since they seldom write persuasive essays, and I would like to compare my reasons for living in or leaving Pittsburgh to theirs. My essays are as follows:

I feel that Pittsburgh is one of the nicest cities to live in because it has everything to offer that any major city should. First of all, it has really nice neighborhoods with affordable housing. You can get a good education here because we are known for having one of the best urban school systems in the country and are home to eight major universities and colleges. They are Allegheny Community College, Point Park College, Carlow College, Robert Morris College, Chatham College, Duquesne University, Carnegie Mellon University and my alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh. If you happen to become ill in Pittsburgh, you couldn’t be in a better place as we have one of the best medical centers in the United States, and Pittsburgh is home to the famous retired transplant surgeon, Dr. Thomas Starzl. We are also privileged to have three major league sports teams, the Penguins for hockey, the Pirates for baseball and the Steelers for football. Three Rivers Stadium is one of the first places that I take any visitor from out of town. My cousins from West Virginia and Ohio come here just to see games. There is also a wealth of other cultural and fun activities to keep Pittsburgh residents entertained. We have major Broadway productions at Heinz Hall and the Benedum Center. The Pittsburgh Public Theater stages excellent production at the new O’Reilly Theater. We also have the Pittsburgh Opera, the Pittsburgh Ballet, the renowned Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Pops with Marvin Hamlisch conducting no less. For those not so culturally inclined, we have The Carnegie Museum and the Carnegie Science Center. For animal lovers we have The Pittsburgh Zoo and The Aviary. One can also go fishing right in Highland Park and there is deer hunting nearby as well. Pittsburgh is fortunate enough to have many parks such as Frick, Highland, Mellon, and Schenley, which are close to my neighborhood. They have outstanding facilities for everyone from physical fitness gurus to young children. Some even have dog runs. Our three rivers make the city unique. In addition to all the above attributes, Pittsburgh is a beautiful city especially when you’re entering at night from the Fort Pitt or the Veteran’s Bridges. There is also a magnificent view from atop Mt. Washington. Our varied climate and change of seasons also make Pittsburgh an interesting city to live in. If one feels the need to leave the city for a short trip, we do have one of the nicest international airports around. Pittsburghers are known to be very friendly people. I feel that we have just the right balance of big city culture and events and small town atmosphere. I’m happy to have grown up here and that I have had the opportunity to raise my own family here. I can’t think of a reason that I would ever leave.

I find Pittsburgh a very depressing city to live in. The weather is gloomy most of the time. The sun seldom shines, even in the summer. If you don’t have a car, it is almost impossible to get where you want to go. Sometimes, it’s even hard with a car. The streets sometimes start, stop, and then continue a block or so away. They are not arranged in any systematic way. There are also many potholes. There is no subway system to speak of, and the buses don’t run that often or are not on schedule. They never seem to go where I need to get. The parkways are more like parking lots much of the time. Even though we do have theaters, they certainly can’t compare to the New York stage. Our Science Center pales by comparison to Toronto’s. As for our zoo, have you seen San Diego’s lately? Many members of my family have had to move because the jobs that they trained for are not available here. Speaking of jobs, salaries here aren’t even close to what the people in New York or Chicago earn. Pittsburgh may have three rivers, but they are smelly and dirty. Other cities have beaches and oceans. I say, "Thumbs down to Pittsburgh." I will be leaving as soon as I can.

Even though journalistic writing is not a part of our requirements, some of my students do write for the school newspaper and since both of my own children have friends who write for newspapers and magazines, I would have Rona Kobell, an Allderdice graduate come to talk to the class about that style of writing and her experiences as a journalist. This is mentioned in lesson plan 7.

Interspersed among these activities, I would show some of the movies or videos made in or about Pittsburgh--Flashdance and Things That Aren’t Here Anymore and Kennywood Memories by Rick Sebak, and Out of This Furnace by David Demarest. (See lesson plan 6.)

Finally as a culminating event we would take a mini tour of the city including a visit to the incline, a tour of the three rivers on the Gateway Clipper Fleet and a visit to the Pittsburgh History museum. If the art teacher agrees, we could also make tee shirts and/or posters with the standard Pittsburgh sayings such as S’liberty, redd up and you’ns etc. (I think you have to have been born here to be familiar with this language. It is commonly spoken in restaurants by waitresses i.e. "What’ll you’ns have?") Another nice project would be for each class member to visit some of the locales mentioned in the particular books that he or she read and draw pictures or take photos. An alternative suggestion would be to take photos or draw pictures of their own favorite Pittsburgh landmarks. (See lesson plan 8.)

All staff members of the Pittsburgh Public Schools expect all students to achieve at high standards of academic performance and behavior. The academic standards describe the knowledge and skills which students will be expected to demonstrate before graduating from public school. Pittsburgh has sixty-two academic standards. My curriculum unit is mainly concerned with the communication standards which are as follows:

1. All students use effective research and information management skills including locating primary and secondary sources of information with traditional and emerging library technologies.
2. All students read and use a variety of methods to make sense of various kinds of complex texts.
3. All students respond orally and in writing to information and ideas gained by reading narrative and informational texts and use the information and ideas to make decisions and solve problems.
4. All students write for a variety of purposes, including to narrate, inform, and persuade in all subject areas.
5. All students analyze and make critical judgments about all forms of communications, separating fact from opinion, recognizing propaganda, stereotypes and statements of bias, recognizing inconsistencies and judging the validity of evidence.
6. All students exchange information orally, including understanding and giving spoken instructions, asking and answering questions appropriately, and promoting effective group communications.
7. All students listen to and understand complex oral messages and identify their purpose, structure, and use.
8. All students compose and make oral presentations for each academic area of study that are designed to persuade, inform, or describe.
9. All students communicate appropriately in business, work, and other applied situations.

 

Time Four or five class periods (forty-five minutes each). Some of these will be in the computer room.

Objectives    1. The student will recall basic facts about Pittsburgh history.

2. The student will list things he would like to find out about Pittsburgh.

3.  The student will choose a topic for a research report.

4.  The student will review the requirements for writing a research report.

Materials Copies of the Encarta article about Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, The History of American City by Stefan Lorant, Pittsburgh, Our City by Nancy Ward

Balderose, The Story of Pittsburgh by Rosemary Coffee, Elements of Writing by James Kinneavy and John Warriner, overhead projector or blackboard, lists of possible research topics

Procedure    1. The teacher will introduce the topic and the reasons for discussing the history of Pittsburgh.

2. The students will take turns listing things they already know on the overhead projector.

3. The students will take turns listing some things they want to find out on the blackboard.

4. The students will take turns reading the Encarta article aloud.

5. The teacher will fill in some missing pieces of information.

6. The lists of possible topics will be handed out and discussed.

7. The students will take turns reading Chapter 10, pp.313-352 in the writing book.

8. The students will read over the research rubric and question the teacher about anything they don’t understand.

Homework Begin researching a topic of choice in the library and on the web. These will be turned in in written form but will be presented to the class orally at a later date.

Communication Standards: #1, #2, #3, #4, and #8

Time Four or five class periods

Objective     The student will understand the requirements involved in writing a personal narrative that may or may not include multiple biographical incidents.

Materials    Elements of Writing by James Kinneavy and John Warriner, An American Childhood by Annie Dillard, The Spencers of Amberson Avenue by Ethel Spencer, Teacher’s own personal narrative about Pittsburgh

1. Procedure
   
   The students will take turns reading Chapter 4, pp.114-147 in the Kinneavy text.
2. The teacher will read portions of the Ethel Spencer novel,
3. The teacher will read portions of the Annie Dillard novel
4. The students will compare and contrast the two time periods during class discussion. They will also compare and contrast the two time periods with their own time period.
5. The teacher will model her own personal narrative for the class.

Homework
Each student will write his own personal narrative about life in Pittsburgh which will be read orally to the class at a later date. The students will be encouraged to include pictures and/or drawings of their favorite Pittsburgh places.

Communication Standards: #1, #4, #6. #8, #9

Time Two or three class periods

1. Objectives
   The student will be able to formulate questions for a personal interview
2. The student will be able to compare and contrast different time periods of Pittsburgh history.

Materials
Overhead, pencil and paper

1. Procedure
   The students will listen to the narratives from lesson plan II.
2. The students will hypothesize how life in Pittsburgh might have been different for their parents and/or grandparents.
3. The students will prepare a list of interview questions.
4. The teacher will xerox the list.

Homework The student will interview one or more older friends or relatives using the prepared list of questions. If the subject permits the student will video or

audiotape the interview.

Communication Standards: #1, #4, #6, #9

Time Three or four class periods

Objectives 1. The student will meet an actual Pittsburgh author.

2. The student will read books by Pittsburgh authors.

3. The student will report on books by Pittsburgh authors.

Materials A copy of Finding Her Way by Anne Faigen, library copies of other available books by Pittsburgh authors, lists of books by Pittsburgh authors.

Procedures

1. The teacher will have previously read Finding Her Way aloud to the the class.

2.  Anne Faigen will discuss her novel and answer questions.

3.  The teacher will hand out the book lists obtained from the Carnegie Library.

4.  Homework: Each student will select a book to read and report on to the class.

Communication Standards: #3. #6, #7, #8, #9

Time Four or five class periods

Objective               The student will be able to write an essay persuading someone to reside or not to reside in Pittsburgh.

Materials

Elements of Writing by James Kinneavy and John Warriner, pencil, paper, Overhead projector, computers

Procedure

1. The students will take turns reading Chapter 8, pp. 242-273.
2. The students will read and discuss the persuasive essay rubric.
3. The students will generate a list of pros and cons of living in Pittsburgh

Homework

1. Write an essay convincing someone that they should live in Pittsburgh. or
2. Write an essay convincing someone not to live in Pittsburgh. These will be debated in class at a later date.

Communication Standards: #3, #4, #8, #9

Time Two or three class periods

Objectives

1. The student will be able to compare and contrast current and past scenes of Pittsburgh.

2. The student will be able to view a movie filmed in Pittsburgh and try to locate the sites.

Materials

Video tapes of Things That Aren’t Here Anymore, Things That Are Still Here, and Kennywood Memories by Rick Sebak, Flashdance, and The Wonder Boys

Procedure

1. The students will discuss what they have already learned about  Pittsburgh from the previous activities.

2. The students will view portions of the assorted videos.

3. The students will identify some of the Pittsburgh locales that they have personally visited.

Homework

Bring in a photo or drawing of a place in Pittsburgh that you have visited.

Be prepared to tell the class about it.

Communications Standards: #6, #8, #9

Time One class period

Objective

The student will be able to write an article in the journalistic style of writing.

Materials

Pencil and paper and Microsoft publisher.

Procedure

1. Rona Kobell, a Post Gazette staff writer, will speak about the Educational requirements of becoming a newspaper reporter.

2. Rona will discuss her own newspaper background.

3. Rona will answer students’ questions.

Homework

Write a newspaper article about a past or present Pittsburgh event.

Communications Standards: #1, #4

Time One or two class periods

Objective

The student will visit sights of interest in the city

Materials

Incline, Gateway Clipper, Heinz History Center

Procedure

1. The teacher will make plans with the above mentioned locales and Facilities.

2. The teacher will prepare the appropriate permission slips.

3. The teacher will organize the necessary fundraising activities.

4. The students will visit the museum in the morning, then ride the incline.

5. They will board the boat, have lunch and sail the three rivers.

Homework:           Bring a camera along and share your pictures with the class.

Communication Standards: #6, #9

1. Anne X. Alpern                                                                    27. David Lawrence

2. Nellie Bly                                                                               28. Liberty Bridge

3. Edward Braddock                                                                  29. Sophie Masloff

4. Diamond Jim Brady                                                                30. Richard Mellon

5. Bridges in Pittsburgh                                                              31. William Pitt

6. Selma                                                                                    32. Pittsburgh Penguins

7. Andrew Carnegie                                                                  33. Pittsburgh Pirates

8. Richard Caliguiri                                                                    34. Pittsburgh Steelers

9. Mary Cassatt                                                                         35. Pittsburgh Symphony

10. Roberto Clemente                                                                  36. Fred Rogers

11.John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed                                    37. Jane Grey Swisshelm

12. Perry Como                                                                          38. Henry Tanner

13. Billy Conn                                                                              39. Robert L. Vann

14. Delaware Indians                                                                    40. United States Steel

15. Fort Duquesne                                                                        41. George Westinghouse

16.Fort Pitt                                                                                 42. Fritzie Zivic

17. Fort Ligonier                                                                          43. Pittsburgh Crawfords

18. Stephen Foster                                                                      44. Pittsburgh Post Gazette

19. Helen Clay Frick                                                                   45. Gene Kelly

20. Henry J. Heinz                                                                      46. Michael Keaton

21. Homestead Grays                                                                  47. Shirley Jones

22. Iron City Beer                                                                      48. Andy Warhol

23. Edgar Kaufmann                                                                  49. Pittsburgh Zoo

24.KDKA radio                                                                      50. Shawnee Indians

25. Ralph Kiner                                                                        51. Kennywood Park

26. KQV radio                                                                          52. Pittsburgh Inclines

The above is just a suggested list. If the students are more interested in writing about any of the more modern day personalities or topics that they read in the newspaper, they may certainly do so.

How did your family happen to settle in Pittsburgh?

 

Which Pittsburgh neighborhoods have you lived in?

 

How large was the family that settled here?

 

How did your family earn their living when they first came to Pittsburgh?

 

Describe what your house looked like.

 

What games did you play as a child?

 

What else did you do for fun?

 

Where did you go to school?

 

What was a typical school day like?

 

What places in the city did you visit?

 

Did you have a favorite?

 

Are your favorite places still here?

 

Which sports teams did you enjoy watching?

 

If you had had the chance to move somewhere else would you have moved? Why?

 

15. What is your favorite thing about Pittsburgh?

Alexander, Sally Hobart Mom’s Best Friend

Maggie’s Whopper

Sarah’s Surprise

Mom Can’t See Me

Taking Hold

Brincklow, Julie Gordon Goes Camping

Gordon’s House

Cathon, Laura Tot Botot and His Flute

Fielder, Jean Call Me Juantia

A Yardstick For Jessica

The Year the World was Out of Step with

Jancy Fried

Fritz, Jean How to Read a Rabbit

The Animals of Dr. Berweitzer

Fish Head

The Late Spring

The Cabin Faced West

121 Pudding Street

Tap, Tap, Lion-1,2,3

What’s The Big Idea Ben Franklin?

Gulbransen, Margery The Kite Song

Lyncoya

Simon’s Way

The Sword with the Golden Hilt

Haskins, Ilma Color Seems

Hilton, Suzanne Getting There: Frontier Travel Without

Power

Today and Gone Tomorrow: The Here

World’s Fairs and Expositions Story of

The Way It Was—1876

Who Do You Think You are?: Digging For

Your Family Roots

Hodges, Margaret The Avengers

Baldur and his Mistletoe

A Club Against Keats

The Fire Bringer: Apaiute Indian Legend

The Gorgon’s Head

The Hatching of Joshua Cobb

The High Riders

Hobkins of the MayFlower

Knight Prisoner: The Tale of Sir Thomas

Malory and His King Arthur

Lady Queen Anne

The Little Humpbacked Horse: A Russian

Tale

The Making of Joshua Cobb

One Little Drum

The Other World: Myths of the Celts

Persephone and the Springtime

The Secret in the Woods

Sing Out, Charley!

The Wave

What’s for Lunch, Charley?

Howard, Elizabeth Aunt Flossie’s Hats

Crabcakes Now

What’s in Aunt Mary’s Room?

Kimmel, Margaret Magic in the Mist

Konigsburg, E.L. About the B’nai bagels

Altogether, One At a Time

Father’s Arcane Daughter

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E,

Frankweiler

George

Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William

MeKinley and Me

Journey to an Eight Hundred Number

A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver

The Second Mrs. Giaconda

 

Manes, Stephen Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days

The Hooples’ Haunted House

Socko!: Every Riddle Your Feet Will Ever Need

Strange Thing That Happened to Oscar

Noodleman

McClenathan, Louise The Easter Pig

My Mother Sends her Wisdom

McDonald, Megan The Potato Man

Is This a House for Hermit Crab?

Sinberg, Janet Divorce is a Grown Up Problem

Skurzynski, Gloria Bionic parts for People: The Real Story of Artificial organs and Replacement Parts

Honest Andrew

Lost in the Devil’s Desert

The Magic Pumpkin

Manwolf

The Tempering

Two Fools and a Faker: Three Lebanese

Folk Tales

What Happened In Hamelin?

Venable, Alan Hurry the Crossing

William, Karen Galimoto

When Africa was Home

The above books are all written by authors who have lived in Pittsburgh.

Balderose, Nancy Ward, Pittsburgh, Our City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: School District of Pittsburgh,1991.

Bell, Thomas jr., Out of This Furnace,

Chabon, Michael, Wonder Boys, New York: St.Martin’s Picador, 1995.

Coffee, Rosemary, The Story of Pittsburgh,

Davenport, Marcia, Valley of Decision, New York: Scribner’s, 1943

Dillard, Annie, An American Childhood, New York: Harper Perennial, 1987

Faigen, Anne G., Finding Her Way, New York: Fireworks Press, 1997.

Gutkind, Lee, God’s Helicopter,

Lorant, Stefan, Pittsburgh, the Story of an American City, New York: Doubleday, 1964.

Pittsburgh,®Encarta ® 98 Encyclopedia, 1993-1997, Microsoft Corp.

Shiloh, Ailon, By Myself I’m a Book: An Oral History of the Immigrant Jewish Experience in Pittsburgh, Waltham, Ma.: American Jewish Historical Society, 1972.

Smucker, Anna Egan, No Star Nights, New York: Alfred A Knoph,1989.

Toker, Franklin, Pittsburgh, an Urban Portrait, University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986

Demarest,David, "Out of This Furnace, A Walking Tour of Thomas Bell’s novel"

Sebak, Rick, " Kennywood Memories," QED Communications, 1990.

Sebak, Rick "Things That Are Still Here," QED Communications, 1990.

http://www.realpittsburgh.com your town and neighborhood list