What Are You Figuring Now?: A Story about Benjamin Banneker

by Jeri Chase Ferris

Book Overview

In 1791 plans for the new capital city, Washington, DC, were in the works, but someone was needed to help with the surveying. Thomas Jefferson recommended Benjamin Banneker for the job. Banneker was a free black man who lived at a time when black Americans had few, if any, rights. Yet he was an accomplished farmer, mathematician, astronomer, and surveyor. What Are You Figuring Now? is the story of a man who was never afraid to try something new,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0876145217
• ISBN13: 9780876145210
• Release Date: August 1988
• Publisher: Lerner Classroom
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 9 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 9

Customer Reviews

An excellent biography for children!

My mother bought me these books when I was in the 3rd grade. They got me through many book reports and biography assignments in elementary school. I had never heard of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth or Benjamin Banneker before. Even now that I am in college I remember things I learned from these books! I can't listen to a lecture on Washington D.C., slavery or African-Americans and not think about this book! These books are simple enough for any child to understand, and it might just spark they're interest in history too.

What Are You Figuring Now-Teaching History Through Literatur

The story of Benjamin Banneker has been a great addition to my class. I teach 7th,8th grade resource special education students in an economically disadvantaged part of rural east Texas. We read the story and study it with the use of vocabulary and questions which I have developed. The story is well written and easy enough for my slow readers to enjoy. I am very pleased to be able to teach history in this manner. My class is a reading class but we are able to use this simple book as a jumping off place to teach invention, hard work, overcoming obstacles and a myriad of other character building concepts. Highly recommended...