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After the 1960 Olympics, Wilma Rudolph was dubbed “the fastest woman in the world.” Who are other female runners who have achieved greatness in track? Share this ESPN website with students to find out!
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ARTWORK BY GREG RUHL FROM THE SUPERKIDS READING PROGRAM WILMA RUDOLPH © ZANER-BLOSER, INC. USED WITH PERMISSION FROM ZANER-BLOSER, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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The amazing true story of Wilma Rudolph
By Spencer Kayden
From the March/April 2021 Issue
Learning Objective: As students read this drama about Wilma Rudolph, who overcame great obstacles to become a sports champion, they will identify character traits that helped Rudolph succeed.
Guided Reading Level: O
DRA Level: 34
Featured Skill:
Character,
Common Core Standards
TEKS Standards
Characters
Narrators 1, 2, and 3 (N1, N2, N3)
Dr. Coleman
Wilma Rudolph, a young girl
Mama, Wilma’s mother
Papa, Wilma’s father
Edward, a classmate
Robert, a classmate
Wesley, Wilma’s brother
Coach Gray, Wilma’s high school coach
Coach Temple, a college track coach
Announcers 1 and 2
Crowd, to be read by a group
Scene 1
Clarksville, Tennessee
1944
N1: Four-year-old Wilma lies in bed.
Dr. Coleman: How are you feeling, Wilma?
Wilma (weakly): Not good.
Mama: Wilma is often sick, Dr. Coleman. But this is different.
Papa: Her fever won’t go away.
Mama: And one leg has become crooked. See how her foot is twisted?
Dr. Coleman: Wilma has a virus called polio. It’s a disease that can affect children’s legs and how they walk.
Mama: Is her leg going to stay like that?
Dr. Coleman: Time will tell. She should see a doctor in Nashville.
Papa: That’s 50 miles away!
Dr. Coleman: That’s the nearest hospital that will treat Black patients.
N2: Many hospitals in this time refuse to treat anyone who isn’t white.
N3: Unfair rules make life difficult for Black people.
Mama: If it will help Wilma, then we’ll do it.
Dr. Coleman: Don’t get your hopes up. Wilma may never walk again.
N1: Dr. Coleman leaves. Wilma looks up at Mama, her eyes wide.
Wilma: Is it true, Mama? I can’t walk anymore? Mama: I don’t believe it. And Wilma, don’t you believe it either.
A Feared Disease
In the mid-1900s, polio was a feared disease in America. In 1955, a polio vaccine became available. Children today no longer need to face the struggles that Wilma did.
Scene 2
Cobb Elementary School
Clarksville, Tennessee
1949
N2: Nine-year-old Wilma is at recess.
N3: She wears a heavy metal leg brace from her knee down to her shoe.
N1: Two kids are picking teams for dodgeball.
N2: Soon, Wilma is the only one left.
Edward (muttering): I guess we’re stuck with Wilma.
Wilma: I’m the same as you. My leg is just a little different.
Robert: But in dodgeball you need to be fast!
N3: Wilma's brother Wesley comes over.
Wesley: Don’t mind them, Wilma.
N1: Wilma unbuckles her brace and tosses it to the ground.
N2: Then she starts to hobble over to her team.
Wesley: Hey, you’re getting pretty good at walking. I can tell you've been working hard at it.
Wilma: I have. Whenever kids tease me, I think to myself, “Someday, I’ll show you all.”
Scene 3
Clarksville, Tennessee
1952
N3: A group of boys stand in a dusty field.
Edward: We’re racing to that tree and back.
N1: Wilma, now 12, arrives.
Wilma: I’m in.
Robert: You?
Wilma: That’s right.
Edward: Where’s your leg brace?
Wilma: I don’t need it anymore. My hard work paid off.
Robert: OK, we’ll race you. But prepare to eat my dust.
Edward: Ready, set, GO!
N2: Wilma bursts forward, but the boys are faster.
Robert (shouting): Told you!
N3: Wilma works her legs harder, passing one boy, then another.
Edward: Wow. She’s really flying.
Robert: No way you’re going to win!
Wilma: Watch me!
N1: Wilma darts forward. Robert catches up.
Wilma (to herself): I can do this!
N2: Wilma runs past Robert and wins.
N3: She falls to the ground, laughing.
Wilma: It feels great to run really fast . . . and win!
Racing in Rome
Wilma Rudolph was the star of the 1960 Olympics. She set one world record and tied another. The crowds loved her. They went wild whenever she ran.
Scene 4
Tuskegee, Alabama
1956
N1: Wilma finds she has a natural talent for running.
N2: She joins her high school track team.
N3: She wins every race that she competes in.
N1: In 1956, her team travels to Alabama for a big race.
Coach Gray: OK, team. The best high school runners in the South are here.
N2: Wilma smiles.
N3: But the meet is a disaster for Wilma. She is beaten in every event.
N1: Afterward, Wilma sits in the empty stands, crying.
N2: Coach Gray comes over.
Wilma: I feel like a fool.
Coach Gray: Losing is not the end of the world, Wilma. What matters is how you deal with it.
N3: Wilma stares at her feet.
Wilma: What do I do?
Coach Gray: You pick yourself up and try to win the next one.
N1: Wilma wipes away her tears.
Coach Gray: You could be a champion someday.
Wilma: Really?
Coach Gray: Coach Ed Temple has invited you to train with his college track team.
Wilma: Why? I lost every race today.
Coach Gray: He can see what I see. You’re a fighter.
Scene 5
Olympic Tryouts
Seattle, Washington
1956
N2: Coach Temple helps Wilma continue to improve.
N3: Later that year, he brings her to the Olympic tryouts.
Coach Temple: The fastest runners here will make the U.S. Olympic Team.
N1: Wilma paces back and forth, holding her stomach.
Coach Temple: What’s the matter?
Wilma: I’m nervous. I don’t want to let you down.
Coach Temple: Block out all those negative thoughts.
Wilma: But I’m only 16. You really think I can make the team?
Coach Temple: I know you can.
N2: After the tryouts, Wilma calls home.
Wilma (excitedly): I did it! I made the team!
Mama: We’re so proud of you!
Wilma: Imagine me—Wilma Rudolph from Clarksville, Tennessee—going to the Olympic Games in Australia.
Mama: I never doubted you. Not once.
Wilma: Not so long ago, I could barely walk. Thank you, Mama.
Mama: For what?
Wilma: For believing I could get better. And for teaching me to never give up.
Scene 6
Rome, Italy,
1960
N3: Wilma’s team wins a bronze medal at the 1956 Olympics.
N1: Four years later, she is at the Olympics again.
N2: This time, Wilma is aiming for three gold medals.
Announcer 1: Welcome back to the 1960 Olympic Games.
Announcer 2: Next up is the women’s 100 meter final.
Announcer 1: This race will determine the fastest woman in the world.
Announcer 2: In lane two is American Wilma Rudolph.
Announcer 1: She’s got gold on her mind.
Crowd: Wil-ma! Wil-ma!
N3: The athletes crouch down. The starting gun fires.
Announcer 2: The women burst from the starting line.
Announcer 1: Here comes Rudolph with fire in her eyes.
Announcer 2: She’s sprinting into the lead.
Announcer 1: She crosses the finish line.
Announcer 2: And it’s GOLD for Wilma Rudolph!
Crowd: Hooray! Wil-ma! Wil-ma!
An Inspiration
Wilma Rudolph (above right) later became a teacher and coach. She worked to support and train young athletes across the country. She died in 1994. Rudolph is still an inspiration to many, especially Black and female athletes.
Epilogue
Papa: Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals at the Rome Olympics.
Wesley: She became a hero around the world.
Mama: And a role model for young female athletes everywhere.
Coach Gray: To this day, Wilma is considered one of the greatest sprinters of all time.
Coach Temple: We can all learn from her story.
Wilma: We all have the potential to be great.
THINK AND WRITE
Imagine your friend wants to become a great athlete. Write a letter of encouragement to your friend describing the experiences and character traits that helped Wilma become a champion.
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<p>Our interactive vocabulary slideshows help unlock challenging vocabulary words with great visual and audio support.</p>
Vocabulary Slideshow: Go!
Our interactive vocabulary slideshows help unlock challenging vocabulary words with great visual and audio support.
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March/April 2021
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Can't Miss Teaching Extras
Visit a Website
Watch This
Your students will love this real footage of Wilma’s 1960 Olympic race!
From the Storyworks 3 Archives
For another historical-fiction play that features boundary-breaking female athletes, share “When Girls Ruled Baseball” with your students.
More About the Article
Content-Area Connections
Social Studies: notable Americans, civil rights
Social-Emotional Learning: self-awareness (growth mindset, sense of purpose); self-management (self-discipline and self-motivation, setting goals); responsible decision-making (promoting well-being)
Key Skills
character traits, text features, vocabulary, fluency, main idea, problem and solution, key idea, summarizing, interpreting text, figurative language, narrative writing
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
A Special Note About Capitalizing B in Black
In recent months, there has been much discussion in the publishing industry about capitalizing the word Black. We’ve decided to join other newspapers and publishers in doing so to signify when we are referring to people who share an experience of underrepresentation and marginalization in history, literature, and society. We will not capitalize black when using the term generally to describe color (e.g., objects, animals).
We will continue to use a lowercase “w” when discussing white people or culture. Why the different approach? White people do not share the legacy of being discriminated against because of their skin color. In addition, capitalizing the “w” in white risks validating an approach championed in white supremacist literature and propaganda.
For more details, please read our official statement.
In addition, we want to make you aware of some resources designed to support educators in teaching these important topics. You will want to choose the materials that work best for you and your students. We hope these tools are helpful as you work with your students on developing a meaningful understanding of these critical concepts.
Scholastic’s Teaching Our World site:
https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/teaching-our-world.html
“It’s Not So Black and White: Discussing Race and Racism in the Classroom” from Scholastic’s Teacher magazine:
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/its-not-so-black-and
-white/
Teaching Tolerance’s resources for teaching about race and ethnicity:
1. PREPARING TO READ
Set a Purpose for Reading/Explore Text Features (10 minutes)
Look at pages 22-23 with the class. Point out the labels “Play” and “Read-aloud historical fiction.” Explain that historical fiction is a story set in the past. Because we can’t know every single thing that people in the past said or did, authors need to make up some details. These details are based on careful research that writers do to best understand the time, place, and people they’re writing about. This play is based on a real person, Wilma Rudolph, and events that really happened in her life.
Read the title and subtitle with students. Ask them to describe the illustration.
Have students look at the illustrations and photos and read the captions throughout the play. Then show students this archival video of Wilma’s incredible victory at the 1960 Olympics. Ask: What story do the photos and captions tell? How do they relate to what you saw in the video?
Call on volunteers to read aloud the Think and Read box and the Think and Write box. Remind students to keep in mind the Think and Read prompt as they read the play.
Introduce Vocabulary (15 minutes)
While the play does not include definitions of vocabulary words with the text, a Vocabulary Skill Builder (available in your Resources tab) online previews seven challenging words. You may also play our Vocabulary Slideshow, in which audio and images help students with pronunciation and comprehension.
- Vocabulary words: brace, hobble, darts, fighter, paces, crouch, and sprinting
2. FOCUS ON FLUENCY
Bridging Decoding and Comprehension
Storyworks 3 plays provide a perfect opportunity for students to build fluency.
- Remind students that the stage directions tell a reader or actor how to say a line or perform an action in the play. Direct students to page 24. Point to the word muttering in column 2. Read the dialogue aloud with appropriate expression or actions. Ask students to repeat after you.
3. CLOSE READING
Before reading: Point out the Characters box. Remind students that this is a list of all the characters in the play. How many narrators are there? Which “character” should be read by a group of people?
First read: Assign parts and read the play as a class. (If you’re meeting in a virtual classroom, have students write the name of the character they’re portraying on a piece of paper to tape or pin to their shirts—or help them change their display name to their character name. This will make it easier for everyone to follow along.)
Second read: Project, distribute, or assign the Close-Reading Questions (available in your Resources tab). Discuss them as a class, rereading lines or scenes as necessary.
Pair each student with a partner to discuss the Critical-Thinking Questions. Then ask pairs to share their answers with the class.
- Alternatively, assign all or part of the Learning Journey Slide Deck, which contains the questions as well as other activities from this lesson plan and a link to the play. It's available in your Resources tab.
Before reading: Point out the Characters box. Remind students that this is a list of all the characters in the play. How many narrators are there? Which “character” should be read by a group of people?
First read: Assign parts and read the play as a class. (If you’re meeting in a virtual classroom, have students write the name of the character they’re portraying on a piece of paper to tape or pin to their shirts—or help them change their display name to their character name. This will make it easier for everyone to follow along.)
Second read: Project, distribute, or assign the Close-Reading Questions (available in your Resources tab). Discuss them as a class, rereading lines or scenes as necessary.
Pair each student with a partner to discuss the Critical-Thinking Questions. Then ask pairs to share their answers with the class.
Close-Reading Questions (30 minutes)
- Read Scene 1. What problem is Wilma facing? (main idea/identifying a problem) Wilma has polio. The doctor says she may never walk again.
- Why can’t Wilma’s mother take her to a hospital near their home for treatment? (key idea) At that time, many hospitals wouldn’t treat Black patients. The nearest hospital that would treat Wilma was in Nashville, which is 50 miles away.
- In Scene 2, Wilma says, “Whenever kids tease me, I think to myself, ‘Someday, I’ll show you all.’ ” What do Wilma’s words tell you about her character (what kind of person she is)? (character) Her words show that Wilma is determined and somewhat competitive. She is someone who is willing to work hard to meet her goals, even if those goals take time to achieve.
- Briefly describe what happens in Scene 3. (summarizing) Wilma decides to join a race with two boys. One boy, Robert, is sure that he will easily beat her. At first, the boys are faster, but Wilma works hard and passes them. Robert catches up to Wilma, but Wilma runs past Robert and wins the race.
- Read Scene 4. What does Coach Gray want Wilma to learn after she loses a big race? (main idea) Coach Gray wants Wilma to learn that losing is not a terrible thing. What really counts is how she deals with losing. Instead of giving up, it’s important to keep trying so she has a chance to win the next race.
- Read Scene 5. After Wilma makes the Olympic team, why does she thank her mother? (main idea/character) Wilma thanks her mother for always believing in her, especially for believing that she would get better after having polio. Wilma also thanks her mother for teaching her to never give up.
- Announcer 1 describes Wilma’s performance this way: “Here comes Rudolph with fire in her eyes.” In your own words, explain what this means. (interpreting text/figurative language) This means that Wilma looks determined to win an Olympic gold medal. She seems to be feeling very competitive and is ready to put a lot of energy into winning the race.
- Read the Epilogue. Why does Coach Temple say “We can all learn from her story”? (main idea) Wilma Rudolph learned to walk again after having polio. She went on to become one of the greatest sprinters of all time. Her determination to succeed makes her an inspiration to people around the world.
Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)
- Think about Wilma’s words at the end of the Epilogue: “We all have the potential to be great.” What does she mean? (main idea/interpreting text) Wilma Rudolph believes that we all have the ability within ourselves to be great and succeed at something that is important to us.
- The scenes in this play take place at different times in Wilma’s life. How does Wilma change from the beginning to the end of the play? (how a character changes) At the beginning of the play, Wilma is afraid that she’ll never walk again. In the middle of the play, you see that she’s working hard to walk and run better and is determined to someday show everyone what she’s capable of. By the end of the play, Wilma is self-confident and runs fast enough to win a gold medal in the Olympics. She believes in herself and her ability to be a champion.
4. SEL FOCUS
Overcoming Obstacles
Wilma Rudolph faced many obstacles in her life, both big and small. She overcame many of them with the help of others and by working hard and focusing on her goals. Ask students to think of a time they faced a challenge in their life, and how they overcame this challenge. It can be as small as not having enough materials for an art project or something big like having to move to a new town.
5. SKILL BUILDING AND WRITING
Featured Skill: Character Traits
Distribute the Character Traits Skill Builder (available in your Resources tab) and have students complete it in class or for homework.
- Ask students to write a response to the prompt in the Think and Write box at the end of the play.
GREAT IDEAS FOR REMOTE LEARNING
- Our new Learning Journey Slide Deck (available in your Resources tab) is designed to make your life easier. Have students move through at their own pace or assign smaller chunks for different days. You can also customize the slideshow to your liking.
Gather a small group in your remote classroom for a virtual play reading. Share the play on your screen and assign parts. (Students can read more than one part, depending on the size of the group.) Then read the play aloud together. Encourage students to be expressive as they read! Repeat with other groups until all students have had a chance to participate.
Gather a small group in your remote classroom for a virtual play reading. Share the play on your screen and assign parts. (Students can read more than one part, depending on the size of the group.) Then read the play aloud together. Encourage students to be expressive as they read! Repeat with other groups until all students have had a chance to participate.
Differentiate and Customize
For Struggling Readers
Each scene of this play takes place during a different time in Wilma Rudolph’s life, which may make the timeline of this play challenging for some readers to follow. Before performing the play as a class, read through it together and create a timeline of events.
For ELL Students
Help your ELLs with some of the idiomatic language in this story. Find the following phrases and discuss what they mean: “my hard work paid off” (p. 25); “eat my dust” (p. 25); “really flying” (p. 25); “not the end of the world” (p. 25); “pick yourself up” (p. 25); “gold on her mind” (p. 27); “fire in her eyes” (p. 27).
For Advanced Readers
The story of Wilma’s winning race in Scene 6 is told by the Announcers and Narrators. Have students rewatch the archival video and rewrite the scene so it’s all told from Wilma’s point of view.
For School or at Home
Ask students to research another female runner who has achieved greatness in track. Share this ESPN website with students. Invite them to pick one of the athletes and find out more about her. Students can do a brief oral or written report to share with the class.
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