Lesson Plans and Worksheets
Civil Rights Movement Teacher Resources
Find teacher approved Civil Rights Movement educational resource ideas and activities
Use the historical account of Claudette Colvin to study civil rights and connect past injustices to modern issues. As learners read, they examine chapter titles, record quotes, and participate in discussion. Use any of the great prompts provided, including post-reading questions. Although this process is designed to accompany a text, it is valuable on its own. Learners finally research active participants in the Civil Rights Movement and brainstorm currently oppressed groups.
A geographic perspective helps historians learn about significant eras such as the civil rights movement. Through research and source analysis, learners create a report depicting a significant location of this time. They synthesize their findings into a visual display. Working with the school librarian, they work through effective researching and use of search engines (other than Google). No worksheets are included.
Students explore the civil rights movement. In this language arts lesson, students play a game of Black History Jeopardy. Students create a Civil Rights Shutter Book.
Rosa Parks is a great book for studying the Civil Rights Movement. Use this packet of worksheets to track reading, elicit responses, and promote book-related activities. Character analysis, prediction and short essay skills will be addressed through use of this packet. Very good!
Groups collaborate to create historical documentaries. For this American Civil Rights lesson, groups research primary and secondary sources about the events and people pertinent to the movement in the 1950s and 1960s. They then use Windows Movie Maker to create classroom presentations to share with their classmates. Several online resources are suggested here to explore the Montgomery bus boycott, the lunch counter sit-ins, Freedom Rides, etc.
Students make connections with events of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's with songs made popular by Aretha Franklin.
Students investigate the context, issues, important people, and outcomes of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's. They attempt to answer the essential question, "Would the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 60's have happened if Martin Luther King, Jr. had never been born?" They research primary and secondary sources.
Students conduct research on the Civil Rights Movement and participants in order to create an encyclopedia with alphabetical articles about some of the leaders and the ordinary people who made a difference in the movement. The articles for the encyclopedia are written so first-graders are able to read and understand.
Explore the history of civil rights and segregation using. Learners read a story about Rosa Parks by Maryann N. Weidt. Then, they answer a series of questions about this story to practice comprehension skills and delve into the topic of segregation.
High schoolers interview people who witnessed the civil rights movement firsthand and summarize their discussion. They participate in a simulation to experience the thoughts and emotions of the era. Students create a persona of a person who is affected by the Civil Rights Movement, either for or against, use the informtion from research, class discussions, and their interviews to help build their charcter's personality.