How to Teach Black History to Elementary Students
Black History Month, now known as African-American History Month, has been celebrated since 1925, first for a week, which became a month in 1976. Elementary school teachers often use the month to help students understand diversity and inclusion for all races and religions. Since Black History Month is a part of most elementary studies, creating meaningful, interesting activities and projects that integrate parts of the curriculum helps keep young students engaged.
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Things You'll Need
- Internet access
- Projector
- Earphones
- Picture books about African-Americans
- "Now Let Me Fly" Reader's Theater scripts
Instructions
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Interactive Lessons on the Internet
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Discuss the Underground Railroad with the class. Determine the level of background knowledge of the students, and introduce relevant vocabulary words.
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Introduce project "Escape! The Underground Railroad" to either the whole class or small groups of students. Read and discuss each slide to ensure comprehension.
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Show "Compare Two Worlds" to the class to illustrate the size and scope of slavery during the period of the Confederacy.
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Place students in small groups of no more than three students, equipped with earphones to view and listen to the Underground Railroad interactive website.
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Discuss the website with the class. Assign a writing activity to write a summary of the Underground Railroad.
Create a Story Book
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Gather picture books about famous African-Americans. Assign a group of two or three students to read and discuss one of the books
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Allow students to create a project to demonstrate knowledge about the well-known person and teach the rest of the class what they've learned. Give students a choice of milieus, such as acting out a play, writing their own picture book, or creating a PowerPoint presentation.
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Create a quiz to assess knowledge by having each group create one or two questions about their African-American.
Reader's Theater
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Discuss Brown vs. Board of Education. Make sure students understand the case thoroughly.
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Download the "Now Let Me Fly" Reader's Theater script for elementary students. Make enough copies for each student to have one.
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Use the play as a Reader's Theater experience by having students take roles and read the play aloud. Rotate students if there are not enough characters for everyone to get a role.
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Perform the play in front of an audience.
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Tips & Warnings
Keep groups small to ensure the best results.
Allowing students to choose their own product will help students with diverse learning styles.
Have head phones handy for those who have a reading level that would make reading the website difficult.
The Underground Railroad project is too difficult for the lower elementary grades.
Provide plenty of practice time for the "Reader's Theater." Students need to feel comfortable with the material when performing before an audience.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit eglise baptiste de martin luther king image by JLG from Fotolia.com
