TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jan 26, 2020
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
Virtual Learning Journey: Civil Rights Movement - Georgia Public Broadcasting & Georgia Department of Education
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): 1960s (27), black history (124), civil rights (194), cultures (132), martin luther king (43)
In the Classroom
Be sure to include this virtual learning experience as part of civil rights lessons and Black History Month activities. Include a link to the experience on classroom computers for students to explore on their own. As students travel along the learning path, replace pen and paper and engage them by asking students to use an online note taking tool like Webnote, reviewed here, to write down their thoughts and questions they may have. As students learn about Civil Rights events, have them enhance their learning by asking them to step back in time and create podcasts from this time. Use Podcast Generator, reviewed here, a free tool for creating and sharing podcasts. Extend learning by challenging students find an image from the Civil Rights movement and create an annotated image using Google Drawings, reviewed here. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Civil Rights History Project - National Museum of African American History and Culture
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): 1960s (27), african american (110), black history (124), civil rights (194), cultures (132), interviews (14), racism (76), video (257), women (137)
In the Classroom
Share these videos on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector as part of any Civil Rights or racism unit. Include a link to the interviews on your class web page. After watching a video, have students research more about the events discussed. Engage students by replacing pen and paper and having them write blog entries of what they are learning using a blogging tool such as Penzu, reviewed here. With Penzu you can add images or your own artwork as illustrations. Take this a step further by modifying and enhancing learning and challenging students to create an interactive timeline using Preceden, reviewed here, about the events in the life of one of the activists. Alternatively, challenge students to create maps using Zeemaps, reviewed here, to share stories and events from the Civil Rights Movement. Zeemaps allows students to create audio recordings AND choose various locations on a map where the events take place.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection Stories - National Museum of African American History and Culture
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): african american (110), black history (124), cross cultural understanding (157), cultures (132)
In the Classroom
Share stories from this collection to provide a personal look at events from African-American history in the United States. Use stories as an example, and ask students to find additional artifacts from the National Museum and research to discover the story behind the item. Have younger students use Kiddle, reviewed here, a kid-friendly search engine to find documents about their particular object. Younger students could bring an item from their home to tell the story of its history. For either of these ideas, enhance student learning by encouraging them to create online books for sharing the stories using a tool such as Ourboox, reviewed here. Ask students to find local residents with knowledge of historical events to come talk to your class about the "behind the scenes" story, or set up a Zoom meeting with an African-American leader. Use these stories for informational reading in your Language Arts classroom, and as a wonderful resource to use for covering the informational reading standards required with the CCSS.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Making a Change: The First Amendment and the Civil Rights Movement - NewseumED
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): black history (124), civil rights (194), constitution (87), cultures (132), journalism (72), media literacy (102), newspapers (91)
In the Classroom
Use any or all of the units and interactives with any Civil Rights lessons; this site isn't just for Black History Month! Share with journalism students as they explore the role of the press in shaping and telling the story of a nation. Have small groups or pairs of students enhance their learning by making a multimedia presentation exploring the First Amendment and the role of the press using a tool such as Sway, reviewed here. With the web-based Sway, you can include text, images, and video. To illustrate different press coverage around the nation, have students modify their learning by creating maps using Zeemaps, reviewed here. This tool allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location on a map where the news report takes place.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Black History Month Resources - PBS
Grades
K to 12tag(s): black history (124), civil rights (194), cultures (132), martin luther king (43), racism (76), video (257)
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.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Created Equal - National Endowment for the Humanities
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): bill of rights (28), black history (124), civil rights (194), civil war (134), cultures (132), emancipation proclamation (11), segregation (18)
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.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Brown Bookshelf - Paula Chase-Hyman
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): african american (110), black history (124), book lists (161), civil rights (194), cultures (132), literature (217), preK (255)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use throughout the year, not just during Black History Month. Create a link on classroom computers for students to explore and find books for reading. Share this link on your class website or blog for students to use at home. Showcase books found on this site for classroom read alouds. Librarians will find this site helpful for creating displays in their library or for presentations in classrooms. Enhance student learning by having students create commercials for books found on this site using a tool like Powtoon, reviewed here, or Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here, and share them using a tool such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Class Divided - Frontline/PBS-WGBH Educational Foundation
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): black history (124), bullying (49), character education (76), civil rights (194), difficult conversations (58), diversity (38), racism (76), segregation (18), 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.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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African-American History Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): black history (124)
In the Classroom
Browse this collection as you approach Black History month or simply to add multi-cultural dimension to many history lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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They Had a Dream Too - TeachersFirst
Grades
1 to 4tag(s): africa (137), african american (110), black history (124), martin luther king (43)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans and activities offered on this site - a great resource for a Social Studies class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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