Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Art: Faith Ringgold Story Quilts

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders examine the impact of African American culture on the United States by inspecting Faith Ringgold's story quilts. Working in groups, they create a collective story quilt about current cultural issues. They research their...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Baseball: The Tenth Inning - Bases Divided

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Baseball is a relatively high-interest topic through which social studies classes can explore racial prejudice in the US. Video clips provide much of the background information that groups record on their handout and then share with the...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

A “New English” in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”: A Common Core Exemplar

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
To examine the “New English” Chinua Achebe uses in Things Fall Apart, readers complete a series of worksheets that ask them to examine similes, proverbs, and African folktales contained in the novel. Individuals explain the meaning...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Matthew Henson

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Discuss the work of Matthew Henson, an African American who traveled to the North Pole with Robert Peary. After reading the story "Matthew Henson" by Maryann N. Weidt, learners answer questions by drawing inferences and conclusions,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Keep Your Eye On the Prize

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers learn about citizens who were actively involved in the civil rights movement, and the strategies they used to overcome the Jim Crow laws that were so prevalent in the 1960s. They investigate the voting amendments of the US...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Black History Stamps

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students explore the lives and contributions of the many black Americans who are honored on U.S. commemorative postage stamps, make a presentation that synthesizes information about a historical figure and time, and write a persuasive...
Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Observing Human Rights Day

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
How much intervention is appropriate for America to take in cases of human rights violations? Class members ponder a question that has lingered since the birth of America with a series of primary sources that reflect the degree to which...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding Martin Luther King Jr. Day

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders explore civil rights by researching the late Dr. King. In this African American leader lesson plan, 3rd graders read the book Martin's Big Words which explore the foundation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s principals and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Black Power

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Use this New York Times lesson to research contemporary leaders in the African-American community. After reading the article "Blacks Weigh the Impact of the Post-Jackson Years," middle and high schoolers discuss the varying viewpoints of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jews and Blues

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students examine how American Jews affect music and entertainment. They identify problems between immigrants and their children. They relate the Jewish American issue to those of African Americans.
Lesson Plan
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Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Got Lactase? The Co-Evolution of Genes and Culture

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Does the human body evolve as quickly as human culture? With a stellar 15-minute video, explore the trait of lactose intolerance. Only about 1/3 of human adults seem to still have the enzyme lactase and therefore, the ability to digest...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bases Divided: Segregation And Discrimination in Baseball

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students view video and conduct research on how baseball has reflected the social context of American history. They work in groups to investigate outstanding minority baseball players, including racial minorities and women, and develop...
Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Musical Harlem: How Is Jazz Music Reflective of the Harlem Renaissance?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Bring jazz music and the Harlem Renaissance to light with a lesson that challenges scholars to research and create. Pupils delve deep into information materials to identify jazz terminology, compare types of jazz and jazz musicians,...
Lesson Plan
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Fred Seibel, the Times-Dispatch, and Massive Resistance

For Teachers 4th Standards
A lesson challenges scholars to analyze editorial cartoons created by Fred Seibel, illustrator for the Times-Dispatch, during the Massive Resistance. A class discussion looking at today's editorial pages and Jim Crow Laws leads the...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Civil Rights for All: Civil Rights Movement

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The Civil Rights Movement was only the beginning. Using images and a series of queries, learners consider current fights for equality. After viewing video clips profiling the women's rights movement, the American Indian Movement, and...
Lesson Plan
American Battlefield Trust

The Battle of Saltville

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
It may be hard to see through the fog of war, but primary sources describing what happened at the Battle of Saltville during the Civil War shed some light on what happened there. Using primary sources, including descriptions from...
Lesson Plan
Benjamin Banneker Association

Celebrate Benjamin Banneker

For Teachers K - 12th Standards
Inventor, astronomer, surveyor, mathematician, clock maker. Learners celebrate the life of Benjamin Banneker by building creative analog clocks, making scale models, and solving problems related to surveying. The activities model the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

This Land Is My Land

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young scholars explore their impressions of African history, focusing on black/white relations. They examine the impact of the recent election on Zimbabwean politics by reading and discussing the article "Vote in Zimbabwe Shows...
Lesson Plan
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Learning for Justice

Maya Angelou

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Maya Angelou's poem, "Still I Rise", offers young scholars an opportunity to consider how poets use literary devices to create powerful messages. After a close reading and discussion of the poem, class members reflect on how they can...
Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Rosa Parks: Sources of Information

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young scholars show what they know about Rosa Parks and the incident on one of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Groups discuss and identify where they receive most of their information. They examine the importance of having a complete...
Lesson Plan
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US House of Representatives

Black Americans in Congress Speak Their Mind

For Teachers 7th - 12th
To conclude their study of Black Americans in Congress, groups select a statement made by one of the Members, examine the Member's profile on the provided link, and create a display that includes state represented, years of service, an...
Lesson Plan
National Woman's History Museum

Shirley Chisholm, Unbossed and Unbought

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
An engaging resource introduces young historians to Shirley Chisholm, the woman, the Black congresswoman, the activist, and the candidate for President in 1972. Class members study primary sources, watch a video of her announcing her run...
Lesson Plan
National Constitution Center

Voting Rights since the Fifteenth Amendment

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
What does it mean to have the right to vote? To what extent have interpretations of the Fifteenth Amendment changed over time? Young historians examine and analyze primary source documents, an interactive website, and historical analysis...
Lesson Plan
2
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Smithsonian Institution

Native Resistance: Native Resistance Then and Now

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
Native Americans lost so much—and gained so little in return. Scholars explore Native Americans' resistance to the United States government. The lesson uses primary sources to explore the different forms of protest and gives a voice to...

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