Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Braiding Rhythms: The Role of Bell Patterns in West African and Afro-Caribbean Music

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Africans transported to the Caribbean as part of the transatlantic slave trade brought with them a rich tradition of music and dance. Four lessons teach young musicians the rumba clave rhythm, cascara rhythm, and the 6/8 bell patterns...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Defying Convention: A World of Black and White

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students watch a series known as "Unforgiveable Blackness". They examine the history of interracial marriage. They analyze how Jack Johnson was affected by this development.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

History, African Americans, The Blues

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th
This lesson enables teachers to use blues music to explore the history of African Americans in the 20th century. By studying the content of blues songs, students can learn about the experiences and struggles of the working-class...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Folklore in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners define folklore, folk groups, tradition, and oral narrative. They identify traditional elements in Their Eyes Were Watching God Analyze and understand the role of traditional folkways and folk speech in the overall literary...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Black American Soldiers in the Civil War

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders explore the actions needed to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.  In this US History lesson, 8th graders analyze documents pertinent to the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Students examine the process of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Insights of American Blacks During the 19th and 20th Centuries in New Haven, Connecticut

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students examine the contributions of African Americans in New Haven, Connecticut in the 19th and 20th centuries. After being introduced to new vocabulary, they review the elements of autobiographies and read excerpts of African...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Black and Blue: Jazz in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze the impact of jazz on the novel, "Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison. They read and discuss excerpts of the novel, write an essay on the influence of jazz on Ralph Ellison as a writer, and view video excerpts on jazz...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water in Alabama History

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students examine the role of water in Alabama's history. They discover the geographical regions of the state and how dams change Alabama's rivers.
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Women's History Week

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students investigate the contributions of women who influenced human rights in US history. They examine the influence Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton by participating in a jigsaw activity....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

History of Immigration through the 1850's

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research the history of Immigration.  In this World History instructional activity, students explore European immigration then specifically focus on ways African Immigration was different.  Students then divide into...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Depicting Motherhood in Family Stories

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students examine the roles of mothers and grandmothers by looking at black-and-white photographs of one American family and comparing that family's multi-generational story with their own. In this mothers and grandmothers lesson plan,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Satchel Page

For Teachers 5th
Bring a lesson about Negro League Baseball to your Black history unit, or any other research unit throughout the year. While the lesson plan itself is simplistic, there are several good ideas that you could use, such as creating trading...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Has African American Culture Shaped the History of Kentucky?

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders explore the African American culture and history of Kentucky. They observe how an author's personal bias can define the argument of his/her publication. Students analyze primary source documents.
Lesson Plan
Judicial Branch of California

Separate But Equal - Is It Black or White?

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
The story of Ruby Bridges and the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education are fantastic tools for discussing the concept of separate but equal. Kids tackle some big questions about what is fair, what is civil, and what rights or laws...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Fictional History of Place Value

For Teachers 2nd - 4th Standards
Your class can explore standard and expanded notation, as well as computation with regrouping. They listen to a make-believe story about cavemen and the origin of numerals and place value. Then apply what they learned about renaming and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music in America - Louis Armstrong

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students listen to selections of New Orleans street band music. They explore the culture of New Orleans in the 1920's, and perform a closer examination of Armstrong's music.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

History: Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts

For Teachers All
Students read a letter by Shaw to his wife after the Union raid at Darien, Georgia; then will draw conclusions about it. Students debate about the Emancipation Proclamation as well as the possibility of allowing blacks to serve in the...
Lesson Plan
Described and Captioned Media Program

Malcolm X: Make It Plain, Part I

For Students 11th - 12th Standards
Malcolm X was a complicated man that few in white America understood. After sharing what they know or think they know about this civil rights leader, about nationalism and Black Nationalism, class members view a two-part documentary...
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

The Sounds of an Island: Jamaican Music for the Classroom

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Introduce young explorers to the music and history of Jamaican culture through game songs and dances. As a bonus, class members get to play simple songs transcribed for the recorder.
Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

Dr. Gates and the Nature of the Universe

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What do Russian nesting dolls have to do with physics? They make a great demonstration tool for explaining Dr. Sylvester James Gates, Jr.'s string theory to young scientists. A two-part lesson first introduces learners to Dr. Gates'...
Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

When Computers Wore Skirts: Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and the “West Computers”

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Did you know that people, known as computers, performed the complex calculations that are now done by electronic computers? Three of these human computers, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Melba Roy Mouton are featured in a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Called Themselves the K.K.K.; The Birth of an American Terrorist Group

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
How did Ku Klux Klan develop and flourish in the US? How did the government respond to acts of terrorism conducted by the KKK following the Civil War? How does the government respond to acts of terrorism today? This resource...
Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

African Americans and the Manhattan Project

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A lesson about the Manhattan Project will explode young physicists' understanding of the racial attitudes in the United States during and after World war II. Groups select an African American scientist or technician that worked on the...
Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

African Americans in Astronomy and Astrophysics

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
A two-part instructional activity focuses on the contributions to the fields of astronomy and astrophysics of two African Americans: Benjamin Banneker and Dr. George Carruthers. In part one, scholars learn about Benjamin Banneker by...

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