Learning to Give
What Are Your Thoughts?
The varying responses of the characters in Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to the discrimination they experience or perpetrate provides readers with an opportunity to not only examine the feelings of the characters but...
Curated OER
Uniform Design
Students investigate the military by examining their uniforms. In this design lesson, students analyze the military uniforms from different locations and time periods. Students create new ideas for current military uniforms.
Curated OER
Go Nuts with Peanuts
Students learn about peanuts through online research. In this peanut lesson, students use provided links to research information on the origins of the peanut. Students collect information about peanuts also called goobers.
Curated OER
Multigenre Research Project
Students research influences on African American literature. They research someone who has influenced the development of African American literature and create a multi-genre research project. They create a photograph poem, character...
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Quilting: The Story of the Underground Railroad
Students explore quilting. They read and discuss the book, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. They research African American quilting traditions on the Internet and name three common qualities in quilts. They create a quilt block...
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music in America - Lesson 4
Students choose a theme for a song. They compose a poem, and write music to go along with their poem. The instructor plays the musical accompaniment, and the class votes on the most appropriate rhythmic pattern.
Curated OER
Investigating the Harlem Renaissance
The work of Langston Hughes opens the door to research into the origin and legacy of the Harlem Renaissance and how the literature of the period can be viewed as a commentary on race relations in America. In addition, groups are assigned...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Scottsboro Boys and "To Kill a Mockingbird": Two Trials for the Common Core
Here's a must-have resource for anyone reading To Kill A Mockingbird or using Harper Lee's award-winning novel in a classroom. The packet contains Miss Hollace Ransdall's first-hand, factual account of the trials of the Scottsboro Boys,...
Curated OER
African Rattles
Young scholars locate Africa on the map or globe and tell one important fact about the continent. They follow directions and demonstrate the proper process of making an African Rattle.
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America - Lesson 5
Learners identify many genres of Black music. They listen to examples of black artists playing songs of social concious, then identify issues that are addressed by today's Black artists.
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music in America - Episode 3: Can I Get A Witness: Lesson 2
Students watch a video on spiritual music, then engage in a discussion about the artists and styles mentioned in the video. They discuss vocal improvisation, and engage in a call and response to "This Little Light Of Mine.'
Curated OER
Visualizing Jazz Scenes From the Harlem Renaissance
Students identify themes of selected nonfiction, fiction, poetry and art to Harlem Renaissance jazz and describe the impact of jazz on African-American literature of the Harlem Renaissance
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Investigating Stereotypes
Students study 'stereotype' in literature and life and give examples. they provide examples from life or literature on the origins and impact of stereotypes. they
3. Cite 3 - 5 individual African Americans from literature or life who...
Curated OER
The Gullah People of the Sea Islands
Eighth graders examine the lives of the Gullah-Geechee people. In this unique cultures lesson plan, 8th graders explore music, language, and slavery of the Gullah-Geechee people from the southern low-country in the United States....
PBS
Baker's Gold
Students examine art of the California Gold Rush. In this visual arts lesson, students analyze the photography and art of Isaac Wallace Baker. Students also conduct further research about the miners of the era in order to create...
Curated OER
The 1808 Slave Trade Abolition Deadline
Students study the trans-Atlantic Slave trade. In this slave trade lesson, students study the Constitutional Convention Notes and the impact on United States slavery. Students research the slave trade database and other primary sources...
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Sole People
Young scholars create "sole people" using tempera paint, drawing paper, and shoe prints in this multi-level art lesson plan. The lesson plan can be combined with a brief history of the African-American inventor Jan Ernst Matzeliger, who...
Curated OER
They Put on Masks
Young scholars discover Native American culture by creating masks. In this customs instructional activity, students create their own masks in class from plaster and paint. Young scholars perform a skit in front of their...
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India: Where Remarkable Differences Are Ordinary
Students research India and Indian culture. In this Indian research lesson plan, students research and report on the lives of Indian children. The report will be in the form of a mock interview between a journalist and an Indian child....
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George Washington Carver and Sharing
Learners research George Washington Carver. In this science lesson, students discuss George Washington Carver's contribution to science. Learners explain how peanut butter is produced.
Curated OER
Use of Symbolism to Convey the Author's Message - The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Students identify the literary devices, symbolism, and first-person narration in the poem A Negro Speaks of Rivers. In this poem analysis lesson, students discuss African Americans and the Harlem Renaissance. Students watch a video about...
Speak Truth to Power
John Lewis: Non-Violent Activism
After comparing and contrasting non-violent and violent social movements, your young historians will take a closer look at the work and influence of John Lewis on the civil rights movement. They will then choose a current social...
Curated OER
African Masks (Pre-Visit)
Second graders observe and describe several masks from different parts of Africa housed in the Smithsonian Institute (National Museum of African Art) Washington, D.C. They use the internet to view the Smithsonian's virtual exhibits.
Curated OER
Urban Concentration and Racial Violence
Students research one of the many urban race riots in U.S. history, from the New York City riots during the Civil War to the "Red Summer of 1919" or the hate-strikes of 1943. They present their findings in the form of a newspaper's front...