Black History Month is an important time to recognize all of the many contributions and accomplishments of African Americans to society. While officially celebrated in February, Black history should be honored and embedded into the curriculum year-round!
We want our students to not only learn about the struggles and triumphs of African Americans, but also to recognize that Black history is American history. It is important and relevant to all students.
Using Literature and Videos
One of the ways I like to incorporate Black history into the curriculum year-round is with literature. Check out this Celebrating Black History blog post to see a list of 10 great books that can be used to tell the stories of important African Americans, and provide context for issues such as civil rights, slavery, and more, at an age-appropriate level.
Take a look and choose some titles that you can share with your particular group of students throughout the year!
You might also want to consider using appropriate videos and clips to teach about important figures or moments in Black history. WeAreTeachers has a list of 40 Black history videos for students at every grade level that is extremely useful, and correlates with many of the topics covered by resources in the Think Tank store.
Black History Activities that also Teach Problem Solving and Collaboration
Once we have provided age-appropriate context through books, videos and other teaching methods, it’s time to get students to interact with their knowledge in ways that ensure meaningful retention.
One of the lessons I want to encourage throughout my teaching of Black history, or any Social Studies unit for that matter, is the importance of making positive contributions to society in order to help move our culture forward. We want kids to be prepared to make positive impacts in their communities and in the world. This is why I especially like using collaborative activities.
In the Think Tank shop, resources such as the Martin Luther King I Have a Dream or Rosa Parks collaborative posters or the Black History Puzzle Stations set are great activities to encourage students to work together as a team and problem-solve as they reflect on the shared knowledge they have learned about a particular topic.
Teachers often tell me that they use the collaborative posters, like this Martin Luther King Jr. I Have A Dream poster, to frontload or introduce King, his speech, or Civil Rights to their students.
I usually have each student color their own block or piece of the poster. Once they’re finished, they have to work together as a team to put the puzzle back together into a poster. The result
is a beautiful, fun, one of a kind pop-art poster to hang in the hall or display on the bulletin board!
Keeping the poser displayed in your classroom reinforces your classroom community and emphasizes the important message and example these Black leaders represent for us all.
The Black History Puzzle Stations can be used as a collaborative, problem-solving activity as well. Similar to an Escape Room, students will read “clues” that contain interesting facts about Martin Luther King Jr, Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, and more, and then use their knowledge to decode a series of different kinds of puzzles or codes. Once they have solved each puzzle, they’ll be able to solve the final four digit code.
And don’t worry, these Puzzle Stations are a print and go activity! No fancy shapes to cut out or envelopes to stuff!
Ok, here’s where the collaboration comes in! The puzzles include ciphers, Morse code, and a cryptogram, so students will have to work together and think outside the box in order to “crack the codes”! This always involves some strategizing, time-management, listening and leadership skills!
I like to make sure each group has a copy of the “decoders” which help students understand how to solve the different types of puzzles. This encourages kids to think critically about what they’ve read. They’ll need to pool together their shared knowledge of not only the text, but also any puzzle-solving knowledge or strategy a particular student might have that they can share with the group.
Additionally, students also need to answer questions about each clue, which encourages group discussion over the important figures in Black history. The students have to read and comprehend the text in order to answer these questions.
As any great teacher knows, when students are engaged and excited about an activity, they are better able to retain new information. When you combine engaging Black History Month activities with opportunities to collaborate and problem-solve with peers, we can ensure meaningful learning experiences over an essential topic!
