Banned Books

I first heard about banning of books when I was in high school. I learned about the copy of "Little Red Riding Hood" that got banned because of an unmarked bottle that could be wine and it promoted underage drinking. Ask a child what that bottle could be and they might smile and tell you it's soda.

Last year in my social studies class I had to teach a lesson based on the concept of contraversial issues. I quickly thought about what I could teach a 5th grade classroom without imprinting my own beliefs on them. My thought was to read a banned book...that doesn't happen in the "district" I was pretending to teach from. My thought was that the class would be able to tell me what the "issue" might be after reading the book. Why would someone have a problem reading it or having it be read to a child.

As a teacher if it is a possibility to bring this up in a classroom I think I definiatly would. I wouldn't just have this as this is a banned book and we should read them all week. That isn't very educational or benifical. My plan would be to have the students look at a banned book...read it then research on line where the book is banned. Also why it is banned. Then there could be a classroom discussion on what we discovered online. My question is how do I approach this as part of the cirriculum considering that this is the start of the school year?