Here is a complex lesson plan that interweaves the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration with the study of poetry, art, and blues music from the Harlem Renaissance. The plan helps young historians develop a deep...

Examine the contributions of African-Americans in the worlds of art and literature. Over the course of a few days, young scholars will read and analyze a poem, a short story, and a piece of art. They complete a range of...

Students compare art and literature by examining a contemporary painting by Glenn Ligon and the essay by James Baldwin that inspired it. They write an essay about a personal experience that relates to the theme of being an "outsider."

Young scholars explore, analyze and discuss family origins, special legacies, and racial/cultural groups in literature and art that exposes them to positive examples in African-American history and culture. They encounter examples from...

High schoolers are introduced to the culture of African American art. Using the internet, they research the events surrounding the Harlem Renaissance and discover how it produced a wide variety of art and literature. To end the...

Students explore African-American students literature as an integral building block in empowering all students to a better awareness when reading and writing. They use as a productive Social Studies tool for overall understanding of the...

Students investigate the Underground Railroad. In this African-American history lesson, students listen to the book Clara and the Freedom Quilt and use map skills to identify the various locations in the book. Students create a freedom...

Students identify and connect themes of selected nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and art to Harlem Renaissance jazz. They compare and contrast historical and fictionalized versions of the jazz scenes of the Harlem Renaissance. They...

Students examine the men and women who were a part of the Harlem Renaissance. Individually, they recreate their favorite pieces of art from the time period and create their own original works after reading poem from the movement. In...

Students explore American culture by reading classic literature in class. In this African-American history lesson, students read the story Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree while identifying the work and contributions of the real life...

Students examine letters of Japanese-American children during internment in World War II. They discover what it was like in the camps and how they were treated once they were released. They also view photographs of the camps.

Students study late twentieth-century African American satirical literature as well as its cultural antecedents. they analyze and discuss, within the contexts of race and gender, the social criticism of the middle classes presented by...

Hook your learners with a great project. They research the underground railroad and civil rights movement through literature, view the video The Underground Railroad: Escape from Slavery, and read the book House of Dies Drear in...

A set of 14 primary sources provides background for a study of Lorraine Hansberry's drama, A Raisin in the Sun. Featured are images from stage productions of the play, white supremacy protests, a clip from a television interview, and...

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

A reading of Walter Dean Myers' "Harlem" sets the stage for studying the literature, art, and music of the Harlem Renaissance. The instructional activity begins with a review of the social, political, and economic conditions of the 1920s...

To conclude a study of A Raisin in the Sun and to prepare for a visit to the Lewis Museum, class members analyze Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem." Learners then draw connections to characters in the play and to their own experiences...

To better understand the cultural achievements of the Harlem Renaissance and become familiar with its major figures, class members examine a painting by Aaron Douglas and a poem by Langston Hughes and compare how the artists develop...

Students research Toni Morrison's life, work as a writer, and major contributions to the field of literature; students choose one of her novels to read, & perform a scene from it; each group member writes an autobiographical essay...

Students work as partners to study Dr. Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech. For this African American history lesson, students work with their cross-grade partner to study, understand, and memorize the speech. Students meet with...

Individuals expressed the Harlem Renaissance in diverse forms of art, ranging from poetry to photography to painting. Learners explore pieces using a carefully curated collection from the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Included lessons ask...

Students visit websites about the books, authors, and illustrators who received the King awards. They view illustrations from Kadir Nelson's award winning book Ellington Was Not a Street. They read excerpts from books and author interviews.

Students study Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. In this Martin Luther King, Jr. day instructional activity, students learn about the holiday for Dr. King through literature and music. Students learn the lyrics to Stevie Wonder's 'Happy...

After brainstorming the various aspects of cultural identity, class members interview each other, examine video clips, and read stories to discover how these aspects reveal one's cultural identity. Individuals then craft a quilt square...