Historical Perspectives - Captivating, full-life, pre-recorded, 45-minute online performances with captioning, including slides, sound effects, voiceover, and questions with the playwright.
Civil Rights Leader Black History, Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Diversity, Character Education, Civil Rights Movement
Dr. King,
● Experienced discrimination at age six when his best friend (white) could no longer play with him
● Enrolled in college at age 15 and struggled academically at first. Became committed to peaceful conflict resolution
● Led the Montgomery Bus Boycott at age 26, integrating the buses after 381 days
● Successfully fought for passage of civil rights and voting rights bills in the 1960s; awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
● Challenges students to resolve their conflicts through listening, discussion, and peaceful conflict resolution
Olympic Champion, Black History, Disability Awareness, Women’s History, Bullying, Character Education
Wilma,
● Was the 20th of 22 children, born in the South in the 1940s to strong, caring parents
● Contracted polio as a little girl, eventually overcoming its paralyzing effects on her left leg by age twelve(12)
● Overcame poverty and discrimination to become the first in her family to graduate from college
● Became the first woman in the US to win three gold medals in the Olympics in track (1960)
● Challenges students to keep trying, never give up and do their best in whatever they do
Introduce students to a real-life heroine who led 300 people from slavery to freedom, served the Union army during the Civil War, and was one of the most prominent voices in the push for women's voting rights.
Harriet Tubman was born a slave around 1820, but from the time she was a child, she knew she had to be free. After several attempts to steal herself away, she finally succeeded in escaping to the North - and that's just the real beginning of an inspirational true-life adventure story.
Harriet went on to go South and back dozens of times, eventually bringing over 300 people up to freedom. In addition, she worked as a nurse and a spy with the Union Army and, after the war, became a prominent voice for suffrage for American women.
This is a great introduction to this real-life heroine.
Up From Slavery
● Intro/Stand Up (dance)
● Nat Turner (video)
● Stand Up (poem)
● Harriet Tubman Skit (6-8 students)
● Wade in the Water (Song)
Harlem Renaissance
● Intro to Jazz (video)
● Cotton Club Scene (BJHS Band)
● Ella + Duke (It Don’t Mean a Thing)
● Dance (Lindy Hop, Charleston)
● Intro Langston Hughes (Host)
● Mother to Son (Poem Performance)
● Intro about Cab Calloway
● Minnie the Moocher (Audience Participation)
● Art Gallery Slide Show
Civil Rights
● Claudette Colvin Skit (4-6 students)
● Emmett Till Skit (5-6 students)
● Civil Rights intro/ Black Panther intro (video)
● Black Panther Step (6-10 students)
● Black Panther to Black Lives Matter (speech)
● Fight the Power outro (song)
We will be reading Sharon Draper's "Tears of a Tiger". This novel follows the lives of different African American students as they face the challenges of high school. Written by Black author Sharon M. Draper, it is a fantastic novel that highlights how individual students face hardships and overcome them in different ways.
Summary of Book
After the death of his longtime friend and fellow Hazelwood Tiger in a car accident, Andy, the driver, blames himself and cannot get past his guilt and pain. While his other friends have managed to work through their grief and move on, Andy allows death to become the focus of his life.
(For more information on Sharon M. Draper)
⤷ We will read and analyze Kobe Bryant's "Dear Basketball"
⤷ Remembering Kobe: "Dear Basketball" Oscar Award-Winning Short Story
Mr. Walsh’s 7th grade ELA classes will use Poetry (website) and McGraw-Hill’s StudySync to learn about different Black authors and historical figures each day of February, including Lucy Terry, Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Bennett, Countee Cullen, Ann Petry, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Nelson Mandela.
Students will choose a person they feel has contributed to Black History to learn about. They will record ten (10) important events in the person’s life and place them in chronological order.
Students will review finding mean, median, mode, and range of the years.
To finish the project, students will create a timeline where the ten (10) important events are listed and drawn to scale on a timeline.
Find ten (10) events of your choice from your person’s life and enter the details in a chart. Record all the years in sequence from the earliest event to the most recent event. Find the mean, median, mode, and range of the events.
Put your events in a timeline and label them.
DuBois vs. Washington ideologies, Bio of Bayard Rustin, Obama DNC Speech, and Poem "The Hill We Climb". Each of these assignments highlights great Black thinkers in differing generations [Post Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, the Early 2000s, and Today]
⤷ The Hill We Climb - Amanda Gorman Poetry
⤷ Ending The Atlantic Slave Trade
*Bayard Rustin, Activist (1912 - 1987)
The struggle for Black civil rights is often associated with figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. But Bayard Rustin organized some of the movement’s most iconic protests, including the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963).
7th grade will be highlighting the difference in philosophies between MLK and Malcolm X and will get students thinking about which strategy they deem more effective.
We will spend some time on the Black Panther Party and how they were portrayed, and then we will move into our Civil Rights Activist project.
The project will focus on voices we do not always hear in History classes.
⤷ Civil Rights Activist Project
Black history is essential knowledge in all subjects, and this is especially true in the scientific community.
In this journal, students will be researching different African American scientists throughout history to learn more about their important contributions to our scientific communities.
Students will complete one slide per day and turn it in at the end of the month.
⤷ African American Scientist Notebook
*Rebecca Lee Crumpler, M.D. (1831 - 1895)
In 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first Black woman in the United States to receive an MD degree. She earned that distinction at the New England Female Medical College in Boston, Massachusetts—where she was also the institution’s only Black graduate. Prior to earning her medical degree, Crumpler had worked as a nurse and “sought every opportunity to relieve the suffering of others.”
Black History Month Scientists Journal - Daily Prompt (Google Slides)
⤷ African American Scientist Notebook
*Daniel Hale Williams, M.D. (1856–1931)
After apprenticing with a surgeon, Daniel Hale Williams earned a medical degree and started working as a surgeon in Chicago in 1884. Because of discrimination, hospitals at that time barred Black doctors from working on staff. So Dr. Williams opened the nation’s first Black-owned interracial hospital (Provident Hospital).
The first African American cardiologist who performed the first successful open-heart surgery.
The students will research an African American athlete of their choice. Students will be given a list of questions to answer during their research (when were they born, what sport were they known for, how was this athlete influential?).
They will be given a list of African American athletes but can also use someone of their choice. Students will make a small poster outlining the answers to the questions of their selected athlete.
⤷ We will write a five (5) paragraph essay on any African American sports person and their contributions to the African American Culture.
⤷ Students will design a "Black History Jordan" shoe.
*James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (1913–1980)
He was an American track and field athlete who won four (4) gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history".
We will be learning about Kara Walker, Faith Ringgold, Kehinde Wiley, and Basquiat in February.
We will be making art pieces in a similar style to Kara Walker and then another piece in a similar style to Basquiat.
Students will reflect on the stories and successes of each artist and be allowed to research a chosen artwork by the artist of their choosing and write a paragraph about it and what they discovered about the work.
*Kara Elizabeth Walker
She is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes.
We will learn about Black composers, performers, and their music. We will also do virtual tours of historical locations that were part of African American music history.
*Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899–1974)
Duke Ellington was one of the most important creative forces in the music of the twentieth century. His influence on classical music, popular music, and, of course, jazz, simply cannot be overstated.
