Jackie Robinson

Lesson Procedure:

Print the reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions. Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt:

Jackie Robinson may be one of the best baseball players of all time, but he was more than just an athlete. He was also a civil rights advocate. In 1947, Jackie became the first African American to play major league baseball. That was the year the Brooklyn Dodgers signed him to play first base. Before that, there was a separate league called the Negro League for black players. People say that Jackie Robinson “broke the color barrier” and opened professional sports to anyone good enough to play.

Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia in 1919. His full name was Jack Roosevelt Robinson. Jackie was the youngest of five children and his family did not have much money. Jackie’s father left soon after Jackie was born, leaving his mother to raise five children on her own. Jackie was so good at sports that he played on almost every one of his high school teams and won many awards.

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