Each year, I have my students do Black History Month projects. The reason is partly selfish, but also to give the children an idea of the world they live in today.
The school where I teach has a large staff. As I've said before, we have nearly 650 students in grades K-5. There are no less than five teachers at each grade level. (As a matter of fact, there are six first grades and six second grades. Also, there are three kindergarten teachers, but one is split between two schools so she leaves our school after the morning session and the other two teach two sessions each day--morning and afternoon.) There are also three classrooms set aside for our Life Skills/Intensive Learning Support students. There are two nurses--who split between schools, two psychologists, two speech pathologists, a guidance counselor, an IST teacher, several itinerant teachers (physical therapy, occupational therapy, braille teacher), around 10 special education aides (who float between rooms in each grade level), seven specialists (one art, two music--who split between schools, one computer tech, two phys. ed. teachers--who also split between schools, and one librarian and an aide), one orchestra teacher, one band teacher, two reading specialists, and one gifted education teacher. There are four custodians and quite a few cafeteria workers (not sure there; the staff keeps changing). There are five recess aides. There are two secretaries, a principal and an assistant principal. And of course, all of the classroom teachers. In all of those people,
I am the only minority. (This is not unusual in my district, especially in the elementaries--where children are most impressionable.)
So, my reasons for learning about all cultures is one of selfishness because I think students should be exposed to different cultures. I think especially where I am living and teaching, it is important for my students to see that minorities aren't only what television portrays. It's also a learning experience for their parents, who may not have ever encountered someone outside of their race on a personal basis. Seems odd, but you would be surprised at the number of parents/students I've met over the past few years who have told me, "Oh, I didn't know...(you fill in the blank)" when their children have shared some of the things we've talked about in class. Now, do I get all "deep" with my students? No. I just let them know that people are people, no matter their culture/language/skin color/country of origin. The children are often fascinated about how "other" people live.
(Okay, off my soapbox now.) I say all that to say that I have my children do Black History Month reports for social studies, since February is Black History Month. For most of them, this is the first they've even heard of the idea. I let the students pick a name out of a hat (from a predetermined list). I purposely pick people they would not have already talked about in school. (For example, no Martin Luther King, Jr. or Frederick Douglass) I choose people from the 1800s to the mid-1900s, and try to cover many areas: explorers, scientists, writers, abolitionists, composers, singers, athletes, politicians. I also try to balance between gender. As the names are chosen, I tell the children a little about each person (to get their interest). Then I show them the organizer they are going to use and go through each question. They have two weeks to research (outside of class. Remember, it's a learning experience for the parents, too.). After that time, we go through the organizer and learn how to write a biography. Then we find pictures of the people to go along with the finished product and display them in the hallway (after we do a presentation in class). They are SO proud of themselves once the project is finished.
In addition to the reports, I have a bin of Black History books for the students to read in their free time.
Scholastic has a link on the book clubs page where you can get extra resources. There is a book order catalog called "Voices" that has an African-American focus. I have ordered a lot of my books from them. I have also bought books from the children's section in
Borders.
Amazon also has great resources.
If you would like to get started, I will post the list of websites tomorrow, along with a list of names I use for my class. The projects can be modified to be done individually or as a small group. I will also try and load the organizer I use as a PDF. (Hopefully that will work this time!)
