Curated OER
Africa: Art and Culture
Posing an introductory question about the reflection of culture within art, this lecture on African art forms will garner intrigue and imagination. From oral tradition (the African griot), to images of African masks and Western...
Curated OER
Family Traditions, Customs and Beliefs
Young scholars discuss African childhood, explore family traditions, customs, and beliefs, examine African recipes, discuss differences or similarities in food preparation between the U.S. and Africa, and prepare a dish with adult...
Curated OER
Oral traditions: Facilitating education through verbal traditions
Bring oral traditions into the classroom to engage learning and facilitate best practices. From story telling to listening skills, this article provides reasons and rational behind oral traditions as a tool for education.
Curated OER
Cyberspace Safari
Middle schoolers go on an information gathering hunt on the Internet to study West African empires. They work in teams; meteorologists, bankers, writers, and archaeologists. They collect data on all sorts of topics related to West...
Peace Corps
Community
What is a community? Find out with a lesson plan that sheds light onto the different types of communities—school, local, and global. Scholars read informational text detailing the life of a young girl from Cape Verde and take part in a...
Curated OER
Language Arts, African Americans, Oral Tradition and the Blues
When slavery took Africans from their land, they were separated from the rich musical and oral traditions native to each country and region. While working as slaves, Africans found they had two places where they could use these musical...
Curated OER
Celebrate Kwanzaa in the United States
Students explore and study the celebration of Kwanzaa in which African-Americans remember their heritage and remind people of the importance of sharing with family and friends. They participate in a chant about the seven continents and...
Curated OER
Folk Traditions in the Blues
Click here to download a PDF of this lesson. (2.8 MB) Overview This lesson will enable teachers to use the blues to explore selected topics in African American folklore. Students will learn about some of the African American cultural...
Curated OER
Celebrate Kwanzaa in the United States
Explore the components of the African American celebration of Kwanzaa in the United States. Complete with learning objectives, a materials and preparation list, and eight days of lesson plans, the resource incorporates the principles of...
Curated OER
Teacher Lesson Plans: Africa
Students explore Africa. In this cultural studies lesson, students go on safari, create African masks, or have an African party after they have researched the people, geography, and culture of the continent.
Curated OER
Music in West Africa
Learners explore power and the symbols of power in West African music. They discuss the music of West Africa and compare it to African American music of today. In addition, they investigate musical instruments of Africa, identify the...
Curated OER
Legends of the Fifth
Students explore the the legends and myths of the Orient, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas in this six lessons unit. Different cultures and belief systems of the inhabitants of these areas are examined through storytelling techniques.
Curated OER
African Folktales Lesson
Students explore what a folktale consists of as it relates to oral tradition. For this folktale lesson, students are told the African folktale, Why the Sun is Lives in the Sky and make personal inferences about what the folktale is...
Curated OER
Examples of Justice Systems and Practices in Western Africa
Tenth graders explore African belief systems. For this West African lesson, 10th graders research these belief systems. Students create a wooden figure that represents these beliefs.
Curated OER
Keeping the Past Alive
Students read about the oral histories of West Africa and complete related activities. In this oral histories lesson plan, students read about the importance of oral customs in African cultures. Students interview a family member about...
Curated OER
Tears of Joy Theatre Presents Anansi the Spider
Accompany the African folktale, Anansi the Spider, with a collection of five lessons, each equipped with supplemental activities. Lessons offer multidisciplinary reinforcement in English language arts, social studies, science, and arts...
Curated OER
African Myths
Learners discover the role of storytelling in the African culture. In this multicultural lesson, students discuss the elements of the African myth and record them on the board. Learners visit an African folktale website and read examples...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: Oral and Literary Strategies
Readers are first introduced to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart by making a map of Africa. They will better understand the novel's historical and literary contexts, European and African literary traditions, and how historical events...
Curated OER
Pluralism
Young scholars analyze advantages and disadvantages of living in a plurlistic society. They work in groups, to identify the various groups (blacks, whites, Asians, and Coloureds) in the era of apartheid in South Africa by using primary...
Curated OER
To Tell the Tale
Students explore how themes common to the human condition can be found in literary and oral traditions across cultures. They compile traditional folk tales around these themes and write their own tales to reflect their own cultural context.
Curated OER
Black American Musicans: Precursors of Jazz
Students trace the course of Black music from the 1900's to the beginning of the jazz age. They realize that when education is defined as enlightened training for a place in society and for individual personal development, it was highly...
Curated OER
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: Teaching Through the Novel
Students are introduced to Chinua Achebe's first novel and to his views on the role of the writer in his or her society. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the related instructional activity Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
Curated OER
Using the Patterns and Symbols of Mali Mud Cloth to Convey Identity
Young scholars participate in relating the role of the arts in defining identity. They examine the community in West African society and how members of that community define their role. They view how artifacts, music and performance can...
Curated OER
Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits
Students compare and contrast historical and contemporary photographs of important figures in African American history. In this photography analysis lesson, students learn key photography vocabulary and use a Venn Diagram to explore...