Books that will be read throughout the month of February that support a developmentally appropriate level of understanding of these values and that will engage students in discussion are:

• Words Are Not for Hurting by Elizabeth Verdick
• A Big Guy Took My Ball by Mo Willems
• Yo! Yes? By Chris Raschka
• Llama Llama and the Bully Goat by Anna Dewdney

Students learned two songs (Sing About Martin, Martin Luther King). Students were read two books about Dr. King and viewed a Brainpop, Jr. video. Discussion followed stories and video. Students illustrated and labeled pictures, detailing how we could treat people equally (how we could show respect). Other books: Freedom Summer, A Sweet Smell of Roses, The Peace Book.

Read the following books and held a discussion after:

• Martin’s Big Words
• Happy Birthday Martin Luther King
• Rosa Parks -video
• Hank Aaron - story
• Wilt Chamberlain - video
• George Washington Carver - video
• Harriet Tubman - video and book
• Miles Davis - video
• Louis Armstrong - book

Other books include: The Skin You Live In, Skin Again, Wings, Amazing Grace, Something Beautiful, Johari, Rosa.

Summit Library - Head of Youth Services - will come and do activities and read alouds related to Black History Month.

Amazing Americans Writing Stations: Students can choose to write a story or a letter to their parents about the Amazing Americans they learned about.

• Students reviewed posters of different words of wisdom quotes from African American leaders. After watching brief videos of those leaders, students wrote their ideas about their quotes.
  • Read-Alouds and class discussions:
  • Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King
  • A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day
  • I Am Rosa Parks
  • Big Words
• Scholastic News Magazine- read and discussed during Social Studies; students make posters of MLK, Jr. and the message he wanted us to learn.
• Students are taught the concepts of rules, such as laws need to be fair to all. Rules are in place to keep people safe and orderly and help everyone be a part of a bigger community.
• Students watch a PebbleGo video on MLK and use BrainPop to open dialogue into how rules and laws can change over time. Students complete writing prompts sharing how they can make a difference in the world.
• African American inventors, poets, athletes, and others are highlighted through read alouds, our nonfiction reading workshop unit, and through class discussions. Some read alouds include:
  • A Picture Book of MLK by David A. Adler
  • My Daddy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. By MLK III
  • I Have A Dream by MLK Jr.
• Read biographies of famous Black Americans and show video clips when appropriate.
• Teach about the significance and contributions of Motown and other famous Black American musicians and artists.

• Students create posters of famous African Americans and display them.
• Implement read alouds related to Barack Obama and Rosa Parks.
• Students view several short animated Youtube videos throughout Black History Month
  • Miles Davis
  • Rosa Parks
  • Fredrick Douglas
  • George Washington Carver
• Address Dr. King, Jr. using the January Scholastic News Issue, A Hero in the Family. The videos, text, game, and activities all supported evaluating the traits of a hero and linking how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s character traits demonstrated these heroic/leadership skills. Students studied all traits and wrote how through one of these hero traits, Dr. King helped to make important changes in our country.
• For Black History Month students will use another Scholastic News issue, When School Was Cruel. This issue focuses on the Supreme Court case, Brown Versus the Board of Education of Topeka, Students will analyze the effects of segregation and desegregation. This issue will link to the lessons learned in A Hero in the Family, focusing on civil rights how these movements changed America.
• Students will research and complete an oral presentations of a famous New Jersey-born American. Children will choose from among the following choices:
  • Whitney Houston
  • Dana Elaine Owens (Queen Latifah)
  • Paul Robeson
  • William Still
• Read and discuss Martin´s Big Words and I am Martin Luther King Jr.
• Use BrainPop Jr. videos to learn about and discuss famous African Americans
  • Ruby Bridges
  • Rosa Parks
  • Jackie Robinson
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Used Flip Grid to record new learning about famous African Americans
• Students have the option to complete an extra credit project where the students identify an African American person and teach the class about their person. The audience takes notes while the presenter is talking, so by the end of the month the students have learned about several famous African Americans who have contributed to our country. The second grade teachers also read the book, The Patchwork Path. It is a beautiful book that tells the story of a runaway slave and her dad making it to freedom. It shows examples of the codes that slaves would sew into their quilts to signal other slaves as well as use as maps to get out safely.
• Listen to and discuss the Storylineonline video “Catching the Moon”
• During nonfiction writing, students have the option to write biographies about famous African Americans

• Students create iMovies about famous African Americans.
• The video, “Our Friend Martin” is shown and discussed.
• Students are making posters of famous African American people to display.
• Teachers incorporate stories of the Ruby Bridges, Lunch Sit-ins, Rosa Parks into their narrative nonfiction reading unit.
• To honor Martin Luther King Jr. students will watch a Brain Pop video that explains what a great man he was and why we honor him. As a follow-up, students discuss dreams that they have for this world. They then create a class picture that displays each of their dreams; which is hung up in the hallway.
• As part of the ELA curriculum, students will read about African Americans and their contributions. They will create a hallway display that explains all the amazing contributions made.
• After reading biographies of notable African Americans, students will creating timelines, teaching skills of summarizing major contributions, identifying real struggles of individuals and their importance to history.

• Students will be viewing Brain Pop videos and reading Newsela articles to research the lives of several famous African Americans. Detailed notes will be taken during this process to assist the students in writing a summary comparing the similarities of all selected African Americans.
• The students used BrainPop to learn about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.
• Fourth grade studies the American Revolution unit, and they spend time looking at the perspective of African Americans in the war. They also tuck in lessons during our read alouds by reading books with main characters who are black and talking about why we don't see more characters who are black as main characters. We also have had the kids research and write about the "change makers" of the world, particularly people of color, who have been marginalized and make change.

• Students create a slide show presentation on important events of the Civil Rights. A timeline is created of activities leading up to Martin Luther King.
• Students also examine influential African-Americans within the context of the history of the United States, and the many prejudices they faced in getting their voices heard and respected.
• Students read the story, "The Other Side" which will facilitate conversations regarding race and segregation. This will be followed in the month of February with discussions about various notable African American individuals in different categories including sciences, the arts, and athletics along with read alouds of these individuals. Students will spend time researching African American scientists and inventors. Once they conduct their research, they will choose one individual to create a flyer or poster about which will then be presented to their classmates.
• Have whole group discussions based on social justice issues after past and future read alouds such as ○ Queen of the Track and Henry’s Freedom Box.
• Use Newsela Text Sets that relate to Black History Month
• During Black History Month students do a few lessons about the holocaust and how history repeats itself with famous Black Americans. Students research on person, determine what they did in history and then compare it to a character from Number the Stars and how both created change.
• 12 historical African American figures who contributed to the evolution of the United States are introduced to the students. Students compile a small booklet for all 12 figures and then create a presentation.
  • Sojournor Truth
  • Harriet Tubman
  • Frederick Douglass
  • Booker T. Washington
  • W.E.B. Du Bois
  • Duke Ellington
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Satchel Paige
  • Thurgood Marshall
  • Jesse Owens
  • Rosa Parks
  • Ella Fitzgerald
  • Jackie Robinson
  • Malcolm X
  • Maya Angelou
  • Ray Charles
  • Muhammad Ali
• Students read and study his "I Have A Dream" speech by working on and performing a readers theatre. We extend that to a dream the students have for our world being a better place.
• Students do a mini research project on a Black American who has had an impact and present it to the class with an "interview" if that person.
• Reading Stella by Starlight about a girl in N. Carolina in the 30s dealing with segregation in her town.

• ESL students created a hallway bulletin board featuring predominate African Americans. They also watched videos and worked together to create a mosaic picture of MLK describing his background and accomplishments.
• To honor MLK, ESL 3-5, created a collaborative poster in which my students wrote their dreams for a better world. The kids noticed how their colors looked different from others but together they created a beautiful and meaningful poster. The plan for Black History Month is to read When Marian Sang and Trombone to raise awareness of the contributions of Marian Anderson and Troy Anderson to American culture. They will also read poetry by famous African Americans.

Students study the continent of Africa but focusing in on specifically the serengeti and African tribes. 1st grade - study the symbolism of the lion. They lion is considered royalty, strength, pride, wisdom. They will learn how the lion represents the sub-Saharan Africa and is part of their everyday culture. Students will paint an African lion. 2nd grade - study the Maasai tribe and learn about their culture and the art in making their Shuka (their clothing). They will create a silhouette drawing the represent the Maasai tribe. 3rd grade - students study the Serengeti and learn about the migration in Africa. Students will study the geographical location of the Serengeti, as well as the two regions (woodland and grassland) and the Acacia trees. Students will create a silhouette drawings of some of the animals that migrate through the Serengeti, while representing the regions. 4th grade - will study African masks and learn about the history and the art in designing the masks. Students will choose either a tribe mask, animal mask, or family mask and create a painting of it. 5th grade - will wrap of their study of the African unit in focusing on realistic drawings of the African animals. The animals are very important in the African culture. Their symbolism is throughout pieces art and historical documents. Each animal has a specific meaning that signifies a characteristic, in which the students will showcase in their drawings.

Throughout the month of February, library displays will feature a multitude of biographies, non-fiction historical texts, and historical fiction texts related to African-Americans’ contributions to our nation as well as fiction stories featuring African American main characters. Periodic book talks of these texts will be delivered to individual classes throughout the month to further encourage student interest in borrowing these materials to enjoy independently. In addition, on March 28 all LH students will enjoy an author visit with Roda Ahmed whose picture book Mae Among the Stars tells the true story of a young African-American girl growing up in the 1960s with a dream of becoming an astronaut. With the support and encouragement of her parents, Mae follows her dream and grows up to become the first African-American female in space, Mae Jemison. For information about the author, click this link https://www.rodaworld.com/

• Poetry Unit
  • View working by writers Langston Hughes & Maya Angelou
• Slavery in America Middle Passage, Triangular Trade, Destinations of Atlantic Slave Trade, Cruelties of Slavery (Roots by: Alex Haley)
• African Americans in American Revolutionary War: James Armistead, Prince Estabrook, etc.
• CHAINS Historical Document Analysis for Related Slavery content
• Past and Present Notable African Americans as covered in the Black History Month Lesson
• US Constitution: ⅗ Compromise, Slave Trade Compromise
• Growth of Slavery in the South through the invention of the Cotton Gin
• Life of Slave Girl -- Harriet Jacobs
• Abolitionists -- William Lloyd Garrison, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Grimke’ Sisters, Harriet Tubman
• Slavery as a political/moral issue surrounding the Compromise of 1850 and the growth of the Free-Soil Party and the Republican Party
• Civil War (Q4) Contributions of African Americans. 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Slave revolt of Nat Turner
• Emancipation Proclamation
• The focus in language arts during 8th grade is social injustice. During the 3rd marking period, students learn to write an argumentative research paper. Some of the topic choices include, but are not limited to Racial Profiling, Civil Rights, Slavery, Police Brutality, Women's Rights, etc.
• Some specific topics include the following:
  • High-profile court cases: Dred Scott Decision, Brown v. Bd. of Education,
  • Civil Rights Era: Rosa Parks, Martin L. King, Freedom Riders, Malcolm X., Jackie Robinson, Negro Leagues, racism in the South and Jim Crow Laws, Black Panther Party
  • Harriet Tubman and the Underground RR; abolition (Frederick Douglas)
  • Modern court cases: O.J. Simpson, Rodney King
  • Slavery, Amistad Incident, The 54th Massachusetts Regiment
• Brown v Board of Education case
• Voting rights - history of
• Voter ID laws - targeting of minorities
• Human rights unit
• Constitutional Convention - Three-Fifths Compromise, Slave Trade Compromise
• History of the 13th amendment
• Current day application - frequently address how our country’s historical background of slavery has transitioned (what challenges do African Americans still face today?)
• Night for the Soul

• Global Exploration, The Atlantic Slave Trade: examine the importation of slavery to the Western Hemisphere. Analyze and compare slavery and other forms of coerced labor in West Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas.
• Examine the patterns of colonization and economic exploitation which European nations followed during the early modern era;
• Examine the Haitian Revolution in the French colony of Saint Domingue the institution of slavery was destroyed and a republic was created.

• Explain the reasons behind the introduction of African slavery into British North America and assess the economic and social impacts of slavery during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
• Discuss the social, political, and economic impact of the Revolutionary War on African Americans, Native Americans, Loyalists, and women.
• Amistad Case
• Analyze the ways in which prevailing attitudes, socioeconomic factors, and government actions in the North and the South led to the Civil War.
• Analyze how ideas found in key documents contributed to demanding equality for all.
• Judge the effectiveness of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments in obtaining citizenship and equality for African Americans.
• Compare and contrast the roles of African Americans who lived in Union and Confederate states during the Civil War.
• Analyze the effectiveness of governmental policies and of actions by groups and individuals to address discrimination against new immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans.
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(1845)
• Slavery Module- Gilder Lehrman- Slavery and Anti-Slavery
• Racial and ethnic hatred have at times prevented the full flowering of democracy in the United States.
• Examine Radical Reconstruction
• Create a children’s book that depicts the life of one of the following: a Confederate soldier returning home in 1865; a plantation mistress in Georgia in 1864; a newly freed slave in 1865. Create a visual representation of how ideas found in key documents (i.e., the Declaration of Independence, the Seneca Falls Declaration, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Gettysburg Address) contributed to demanding equality for all.
• Describe the various means used to deprive African Americans of their right to vote during the late 1800s.
• Create a video news program that examines the events of the 1850s that led to the outbreak of the Civil War.
• Create a blog from the perspective of a Northerner/Southerner that conveys their feelings about the events of the 1850s (e.g., the Fugitive Slave Act, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown’s raid).
• Excerpts from The Fugitive Slave Act
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• Thaddeus Stevens and General Thomas Ewing Debate Governing the Conquered South
• 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
• Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington Discuss the Legacy of Reconstruction (CCS#9 Literacy: Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic)

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
• Reconstruction module (Gilder Lehrman)

• Examine differing approaches of W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington, one favoring full citizenship rights, the other prioritizing economic security first.
• Examine the social, economic and political changes in the positions of and attitudes towards women and African Americans in the 1920s(Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Flapper etc.)
• Analyze the ideas of different Harlem Renaissance thinkers to compare how they reflect the sentiment of the decade. How do historians connect them to subsequent Civil Rights Movement?
• Examine the impact of the Great Depression and the New Deal on marginalized groups in American society such as African Americans their response.
• Choose an identity from the World War II home front (e.g. Rosie the Riveter, African-American dock worker, someone who took part in the Manhattan Project) and write five diary entries over one week that explain how they contributed to the war effort and how there life changed as a result of the war.
• Desegregation of Housing:
  • Changes in housing also became one of the major challenges of promoting racial equality. The government did respond to the pressure to begin desegregating the military in 1948; schools with Brown v. Board in 1954; and jobs, public accommodation, in suffrage in the Civil and Voting Rights Act in 64’ and 65. However, de facto housing pattern discrimination continued to keep many urban populations segregated, especially as the draw of suburban seclusion became more accessible. Many events associated with the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, and Watergate also continued to fuel two competing notions about the role of gov.
• Sample Assessments:
  • Civil Rights Scrapbook – place yourself in the shoes of someone who lived through this era – create a scrapbook that chronicles the major events, people, ideas of the movement and elaborates on its effect. After students present their work to the class, each student must write an objective essay that determines the extent to which the movement was successful.
• Identify and describe the key developments in the battle for racial equality, including, but not limited to, Brown v. Board, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Little Rock School Crisis, Civil Rights Act (1957,1964), and Voting Rights, (1965), and the works of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
• Evaluate the role of both the individual and the government in the movement for racial equality by analyzing works of fiction, nonfiction, and visual arts.
• A revolution is defined as a “drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving. Historians often call the Civil Rights Movement a “2nd American Revolution.” Why is the Civil Rights Movement referred to in this way? What aspects of the CRM made it a revolution (consider the definition of revolution)? Begin writing a research paper that determines the extent to which that revolution was successful. Research and analysis for this paper requires you that you use you use six different six sources, both print and digital: four written by different historians and two different current events connected to present-day civil rights issues. Before a source is added to your works cited your must explain exactly how it fits into the research/writing process. Analyze information from those sources to draw your conclusions and develop/argue your thesis statement.
  • Literature: “Letters from a Birmingham Jail” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Excerpts from the Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Photo/Literature: Students compare photographs and/or poetry from the Civil Rights Movement to protests related to Gay Rights, Immigration, or War on Terror. At what point can a protest threaten democracy and the freedom of others?
• Film: Make a documentary that captures your community’s perspective on the Obama presidency and how they have been affected
• Describe the issues election of Barack Obama as the first African American president.