Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School

How to Teach This Book

A pioneer in education, Lilly Ann Granderson faced many challenges to her efforts to teach and to encourage others to pursue education. Have students discuss what education meant to Lilly Ann and to the people who learned from her, then get students thinking about what education means to them. How do they feel about their own educational experiences? Who do they think is responsible for helping them get a good education? Have students write a letter or tribute to a teacher or someone in their lives who has helped them learn, sharing how having that knowledge has affected their lives.

Questions for Discussion or Reflective Writing

1. What kind of learning opportunities do you think are important?
2. What is your idea of a good education?
3. What are the most important things for a school to have?
4. How important is access to a good education?
5. Where else can you go to learn?
6. How does education make a difference in life?
7. Why is it important to protect people’s right to education?

Additional Resources for Teaching About Inspiring Educators

• Mother Mathilda Beasley: Educator of Slave Children
• “I was not sent to school ⎯ never”  The Pursuit of Learning by African Americans before the Civil War *Selections from 19th- and 20th-century narratives
• Teacher’s Guide for Midnight Teacher from Lee & Low Books
• The Making of African America Identity, Volume I, 1500-1865: Education from the National Humanities Center
• Documenting the American South from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Janet Halfmann on Lilly Granderson’s legacy
• Reading Is Fundamental support  materials