TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jan 29, 2017

Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive

 

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Civil Rights Movement Interactive Map - NewseumEd

Grades
8 to 12
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This interactive map includes links to newspaper coverage of civil rights stories from around the nation beginning with 1954 through 1965. Choose any year to view several front pages...more
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This interactive map includes links to newspaper coverage of civil rights stories from around the nation beginning with 1954 through 1965. Choose any year to view several front pages with coverage of major events. Read each front page by clicking "view larger image." For additional information on similar topics, scroll to the bottom of the page to find links to more artifacts.

tag(s): black history (121), civil rights (193), newspapers (91)

In the Classroom

Share a link to this site on your class website and allow students to explore on their own. Discuss their findings and interpretations of media coverage of civil rights events in class. Replace pen and paper and use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast media coverage in two different cities. Enhance learning by asking students to investigate newspapers from additional locations, then create a presentation sharing their findings using Presentious, reviewed here.

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Black History Month Resources - PBS

Grades
K to 12
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Commemorate Black History Month with 20 lesson plans and resources covering a variety of topics including racial discrimination, civil rights, and discussions about race in current...more
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Commemorate Black History Month with 20 lesson plans and resources covering a variety of topics including racial discrimination, civil rights, and discussions about race in current events. Scroll through the page to view topics and grade level suggestions. Content ranges from a history of discrimination through current events such as debating race through the Trayvon Martin shooting. Some lessons also contain Common Core correlations.

tag(s): black history (121), civil rights (193), cultures (132), martin luther king (43), racism (76), video (256)

In the Classroom

Explore this site for many different lessons and resources to use during Black History Month and with lessons on racism and bias throughout the year. Use lessons found here to differentiate for students of different levels. Be sure to check out the Discrimination - fair or unfair? lesson plan that is designed specifically for students who have difficulty with verbal and written expression.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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Created Equal - National Endowment for the Humanities

Grades
9 to 12
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Four documentary films related to the Civil Rights Movement, available to stream either in part or in their entirety, form the centerpiece of this effort from the National Endowment...more
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Four documentary films related to the Civil Rights Movement, available to stream either in part or in their entirety, form the centerpiece of this effort from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The films cover time periods beginning with the Abolitionist Movement and continuing through the Freedom Marches and the turbulent 1960s. Explore the meaning of freedom and equality in the United States with relevance still today. There are teacher resources for using Created Equal in the classroom.

tag(s): bill of rights (28), black history (121), civil rights (193), civil war (133), cultures (132), emancipation proclamation (11), segregation (17)

In the Classroom

The documentaries, or the excerpts presented, are all available to stream from the site. While they may be too lengthy to show in their entirety during one class period, they have also been divided into clips according to themes. For example, Equality is part of the full video about Law and the Strategy of Nonviolence. This makes them more adaptable for classroom use. Share the videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector, or flip your class using EdPuzzle, reviewed here, and have students watch clips at home and come back to class ready to discuss. EdPuzzle is a great way to take sections of videos and add your own voice or add questions within the video. Alternatively, you could use VideoAnt, reviewed here, to enhance student learning with students asking questions about the parts where they need clarification. The issues raised by these Created Equal documentaries may be easily incorporated into lessons related to the Civil Rights Movement, modern U.S. history, Black History Month, or civics and government. Use these videos as conversation starters in the classroom.

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Jackie Robinson-Breaking Barriers in Sports and in Life - Scholastic & Major League Baseball

Grades
4 to 8
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Whether you are a lover of major league baseball or have a "soft spot" for overcoming the odds stacked against you and achieving a dream - the American dream, you ...more
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Whether you are a lover of major league baseball or have a "soft spot" for overcoming the odds stacked against you and achieving a dream - the American dream, you will find videos and activities on this Web site that will surely capture your heart and the hearts and attention of the boys as well as the girls in your class.

Every year, people across the country pause on April 15 to celebrate the historic event that marks the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball in 1947. Use this educational unit (in PDf format) to bring the significance of Jackie Robinson's legacy to your classrooms. Although Breaking Barriers centers around an essay contest, you may choose to simply use the ideas to offer and assist your students in learning opportunities to teach them values that will enable them to face their own barriers and express themselves in written form. There are lessons, printables, book lists, videos, and more that align with language arts, math, and social studies national standards. The link to the videos is at the top of the second page.

tag(s): baseball (32), civil rights (193), sports (78)

In the Classroom

Share the video of Jackie Robinson's daughter, Sharon Robinson, on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Listen to her personal story of her famous baseball player Dad's courage, determination, integrity, and persistence to break the color barrier on and off the playing field. Use an online tool like bubble.us, reviewed here, to replace paper and pencil and engage students in whole class brainstorming of some of the real life barriers that students face today, and then lead into a blog writing activity for students to think about how to use Jackie Robinson's values to face and overcome barriers in their own lives. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, again, exchange paper and pen and have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Site123, reviewed here. If you are teaching younger students and looking for an easy way to integrate technology and check for understanding, again, change out paper and pencil and challenge your students to create a blog using Edublog, reviewed here. Whether you are celebrating the anniversary of Jackie Robinson Day, Black History month, a unit on courage and heroes, or introducing these concepts anytime during the year, the downloadable and whiteboard ready materials will increase the richness of your class discussions and broaden students' understanding of how to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others.

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A Class Divided - Frontline/PBS-WGBH Educational Foundation

Grades
6 to 12
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This is one of the most requested programs for effectively conveying the reality of discrimination, what it feels like, and how it can change a person. Frontline, the PBS news-magazine...more
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This is one of the most requested programs for effectively conveying the reality of discrimination, what it feels like, and how it can change a person. Frontline, the PBS news-magazine show, produced this gripping piece that tackles the controversy, complexity, and consequences of discrimination that have shaped our society. This film and collection of activities are based on the 1970 documentary of the daring lesson that teacher Jane Elliott taught her third-grade class to give them a firsthand experience in the meaning of discrimination, immediately following the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. The film shows what she taught the children and the impact that lesson had on their lives. It includes three major segments: the footage of the original documentary of Jane Elliott's third-graders, (approximately 20 minutes), the reunion of those third-graders 14 years later who talk about the effect her lesson has had on their lives, (approximately 7 minutes), and also Elliott teaching her lesson to adult employees of Iowa's prison system and how their reactions to her exercise were similar to those of the children, (approximately 20 minutes). A Teachers' Guide, found here as well as an abundance of supplementary materials that allow students to wrestle with realistic ideas, are available on this site.

tag(s): black history (121), bullying (49), character education (75), civil rights (193), difficult conversations (58), diversity (38), racism (76), segregation (17), tolerance (9)

In the Classroom

Help your students understand why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and raise their awareness of discrimination and the struggle for civil rights by involving them in active viewing of A Class Divided projected on your classroom interactive whiteboard or projector. You can view the film in its entirety, or in separate chapters followed by the Discussion Questions. You may want to give students a specific task to do during the film. For example, you might ask them to listen for a particular issue or the answers to a set of questions, or take notes in preparation for one of the post-viewing activities. As a way to accomplish this and enhance learning in your classroom use playposit, reviewed here. Replay the video or pause for discussion whenever you choose with playposit for focused, in depth exploration. Depending on your students' background knowledge and grade level, you may want to review or introduce some of the basic tenets of the United States Constitution that provide the legal grounding for equality and protection of individual rights. Explain that there are examples in American history when individuals' rights were denied and that many civil rights activists were arrested for either challenging, demonstrating, or breaking rules that they thought were unfair. Pose some of the questions for written assignments and discussion. This is a perfect lesson for Black History Month! Divide the class into groups to brainstorm situations that exist today within our own communities, and how they would feel and deal with it if they were the subjects. Students can easily create mind maps, replacing paper and pen, by using free tools from Teachersfirst, such as TUZZit, reviewed here. Have students choose words from songs to explore themes of freedom and equality, using Stories Behind the Songs, reviewed here. High school students could extend this to a reading and study of the final chapter of "One America in the 21st Century," the 1998 report of President Bill Clinton's Initiative on Race, which lists 10 things that every American should do to promote racial reconciliation. Ask students to add anything they think is missing and make a commitment to continue the crusade to end discrimination.

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Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) - Southern Poverty Law Center

Grades
K to 12
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Learning for Justice is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center and seeks to provide educators with tools to reduce prejudice of all kinds. You might already be familiar ...more
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Learning for Justice is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center and seeks to provide educators with tools to reduce prejudice of all kinds. You might already be familiar with this group's "Mix it Up" initiative which seeks to get middle school and high school students to sit with someone new for one day during lunch at the cafeteria. This site contains lesson plans, links for teachers, teens, and kids, current topics related to prejudice, an on-line version of the Learning for Justice magazine, an order form for free curriculum materials, and links to other resources.

The Classroom Resources link offers Lessons, Learning Plans, Student Texts, Students Tasks, Film Kits, and other helpful pages. There is also a link to receive FREE kits and handbooks! There are online activities, recommended books, "talking points," and more.

tag(s): bullying (49), diversity (38), tolerance (9)

In the Classroom

Of course, the obvious uses for this site include preparing for Black History Month or Women's History Month, consult this site for more than that! Don't just visit the Classroom Resources, but check out the Topics and Podcasts that you can share on your projector or interactive whiteboard. If you are unsure of how to approach a touchy subject with your students--either a subject from the news like the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rules, or something that is happening in your school or community, this site can provide resources for you and your students. Subscribe to Learning for Justice's emailed newsletter, or order one of the curriculum kits; the newest one is Viva la Causa about Cesar Chavez and the struggle for justice for farmworkers in the 1960s. This is a great addition to your school's anti-bully program! Take advantage of the free lesson plans, class activities, interactive, and book recommendations. This is definitely one to list on your class website!
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

Comments

This houses a WEALTH of resources! Thank you, Teaching TOLERANCE. Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12

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