Curated OER
Rites of Passage
Students, through video and Internet activities, are exposed to rites of passage in two modern day West African cultures, the Fulani and the Dogon, and how slavery served as a rite of passage for many West African people in the past.
Curated OER
Slavery: How did the Abolition Acts Affect the Slave Trade?
Students investigate the abolition of slavery by examining historical documents. In this U.S. history activity, students view photographs of East African residents who were forced into slavery. Students write about the information they...
Curated OER
The Struggle Against Segregation
Learners use vocabulary related to the history of segregation in the United States. They study about the history of segregation in America and recognize the challenges and prejudice that many African Americans faced in the 1950s....
Curated OER
Marcus Garvey and the Rise of Black Nationalism
Fourth graders explore the differing beliefs of African American activists. In this American history lesson, 4th graders examine the views of racism resistance that Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Marcus Garvey held.
Curated OER
Black Separatism or the Beloved Community? Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
High schoolers interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources. For this African American history lesson, students compare and contrast the tactics employed by Malcolm X and Martin...
Curated OER
Torn from Each Other's Arms
Students consider how the institution of family suffered under slavery. For this slavery lesson, students watch segments of "Slavery and the Making of America". Students examine the structure of the Driggus family and discuss how slavery...
Curated OER
Migration and Immigration in the United States: Three Case Studies
Students examine the early migration of Native Americans, African Americans, and the British Colonists. They conduct Internet research, complete a timeline, label maps, compare/contrast the three groups' experiences, and write an essay.
Curated OER
Immigration: A History
Studnets trace how immigration patterns have changed in America's history. They analyze the relationship between economic growth and immigration.
Curated OER
Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For
Students examine the basic characteristics of jazz, and its relationship to African-American culture and history. They listen to examples of jazz, conduct research, and create a 20th century timeline of music and historical events.
Curated OER
Colonial Life in Virginia
Fourth graders compare and contrast life in England with plantation life in America. They study the dependencies or mini-industries that could be found on plantations.
Curated OER
"Jazz is About Collaboration": Jim Crow Laws And Segregation
Students explore development of jazz music in the 1930s by forming imaginary jazz bands which tour several cities in Depression-era America. Jazz band members create imaginary identities for themselves, develop publicity for their tour,...
Curated OER
Looking at Human Struggle Through The Language Arts Curriculum: The Faces of Slavery
Sixth graders examine the use of slavery in the United States. Using a map, they draw the route of the Tecora and Amistad voyages. Individually, they write an essay describing their opinions on whether the Africans on the ships should be...
Curated OER
The Glory Field
Students examine the power of inner strength and fimily ties as they read through Walter Dean Myers' story, "The Glory Field." Milestones in African-American history become the focus of this lesson.
Curated OER
An Analysis of Jim Crow Laws and their Effects on Race Relations
First graders analyze the role of the Jim Crow laws on race relations. As a class, they are segregated based on the color shirt they have or some other simple criteria and wear either a square or circle sticker representing the majority...
Curated OER
Breaking the Chains: Rising Out of Circumstances
Study history through photographs. In this visual arts and history lesson, students learn to analyze photographs to discover details about life during the Civil War era. Students write journal entries as if they are the African-American...
Curated OER
It Ain't Necessarily So
Students examine characterization of African Americans in literature, popular culture, and opera. In this stereotypes lessons, students conduct research that requires them to analyze the origins and content of stereotypes perpetuated...
Curated OER
Karen Hesse's Witness; Tolerance and Non-Discrimination
Students complete a graphic organizer depicting character views regarding African Americans during the early 20th century in America. In this graphic organizer of views lesson, students read the book Witness and become familiarized with...
Curated OER
Colonial Migration
Students, in groups, create a student book for an assigned group of immigrants to the Colonial United States (Huguenots, Scots, Irish, Africans.) They create drawings for the book and rhyming text that depicts three struggles that...
Curated OER
Poetry In the World Around Us
Students engage in a lesson plan which is designed as a literacy connection to science lessons on the effects of water on plants. This lesson plan uses an excellent Reading Rainbow episode on the effect of drought, and then rainfall,...
Curated OER
"Jazz is About Freedom": Billie Holiday's Anti-lynching Song Strange Fruit
Working in small teams, learners analyze a variety of primary source materials related to lynching (news articles, letters written to or written by prominent Americans, pamphlets, broadsides, etc.) in order to assess the effectiveness of...
Curated OER
Harriet Tubman
Students investigate Harriet Tubman. In this African-American lesson, students read the book A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman and discuss how she was a conductor of the Underground Railroad. Students identify the leadership qualities she...
Curated OER
Hershey and the World: The 5 Themes of Geography and Google Earth
Learners invsestigate cocoa producing regions in the world. In this geography skills lesson, students examine how the 5 themes of geography affect the Hershey Chocolate Company as they compare and contrast cocoa production in America,...
Curated OER
Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday
Students will recognize the problem of prejudice and racism in the history of America especially during the time of Martin Luther King Jr. They will also recognize that feelings can be expressed through the written medium of poetry.
Smithsonian Institution
Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade
Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....