ANDREA RUNNELS
Well, imagine if there was an episode of a really great Blab show called African American History Month Resources right here for you to watch! And also imagine that The Social Whisperer had the sense to back stuff up. This happens to be one of the Blab Show episodes that I never uploaded to YouTube. And then Blab went and broke our hearts with no warning. So consider this the African American History Month Blab Show Follow-Up Minus the Replay!
I wanted to share the resources Michelle Voye and I discussed during the show. Michelle is a 5th grade teacher in California who has some amazing ideas! She believes in incorporating literacy into Social Studies like I do. I told her she should start a blog!! Well she won’t but she shares some cool stuff on Twitter @MvoyNVES. Tell her I sent you;). First came the acrostic poems. I LOVE ACROSTICS!! So much so I created a whole collection for my TPT store! I create them for everything. Like a little too much. Here is my Civil Rights Acrostic.
Michelle shared the idea of doing acrostics about a famous African American. She shared a mentor text I wasn’t familiar with but loved! It’s called Silver Seeds http://bit.ly/AmazonSilverSeeds She also shared using The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown as a mentor text for main idea. Students could follow up with writing about a famous African American! I told you she had tons of great ideas! The Important Book on Amazon
Here are other links I referred to during the African American History Month Blab Show and some new ones I learned about!
1) Langston Hughes poems make great inspirational pieces. I love Dreams because it is a great springboard for having students think about their plans for the future. Michelle mentioned her “I Am Poem” idea and I think that it is a great template for your students to use anytime or students could write one from the point of view of a famous African American! I found this I AM Freebie from Happy Edugator.
2) I highly recommend doing research about Representative John Lewis and if you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do it! I got to meet him at a Social Studies conference last year and it was a humbling experience. He recently chronicled his Selma experiences in a trilogy called March. My students love these graphic novels. I had to order another copy of Book 1! You can see Book 2 looks a little well-loved, too! March on Amazon. My students and I decorated our classroom door one year in honor of Representative Lewis. The year before we did W.E.B. Dubois. I think it’s important to teach kids about lesser known civil rights icons. And check out the full post about the African American History Month door decorating contest here: https://www.thesocialstudieswhisperer.com/2016/02/our-student-led-tribute-to-mae-c-jemison.html
3) Speaking of John Lewis, you can see him portrayed in Selma. If you can’t show the whole movie, you can definitely show the movie trailer from IMDB. It is seriously inspirational. As always, preview it first to make sure it is appropriate for your age level. Selma Trailer
4) Teaching Tolerance is a phenomenal resource for cultural diversity. If you aren’t familiar, check out my post for why you should be! Teaching Tolerance Post
5) http://www.thekingcenter.org/
6) https://www.civilandhumanrights.org/
7) Flocabulary has some great clips of course that are free during February!! If you don’t have a subscription, they offer a great free trial!
https://www.flocabulary.com/ruby-bridges/ (New and great for primary!)
https://www.flocabulary.com/civil-rights/
https://www.flocabulary.com/voting-rights-act-selma-march/
8) Here is a link to a truly powerful Readers’ Theatre about Thurgood Marshall and Brown v BOE. I had my students perform it several years ago. http://nowletmefly.com/
9) One of the members in my Facebook Group Social Studies Salute told me that there is a clip on Discovery Education of Martin’s Big Words. Love that book! Great for all ages! Of course you can always find great Social Studies content on Brain Pop if your school has a subscription.
10) http://www.edutopia.org/blog/black-history-month-teaching-resources-matthew-davis
12) I also have a Civil Rights Picture Dictionary of course!! I have Picture Dictionaries for 23+ Social Studies Vocabulary Topics!
