When we teach the subject of civil rights, most students hone in on such names as Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. While these leaders were giants in the fight for freedom, there are many lesser known individuals throughout history who made a mark on changing laws and ideas.
I serve students in four different schools in a mostly rural area of the state.
The schools that I serve are Title One schools and many of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch. As the literacy coach I am in classrooms every day working with teachers and students to improve English/Language Arts instruction. My focus is reading and writing and modeling the new common core standards in their classrooms. I work in classrooms from first to sixth grades.
My Project
The books that I have chosen will be added to the other books that I already use when teaching about Civil Rights. With the addition of these titles, students will become more familiar with the names and background of others who stood up for their rights and slowly brought about change. Each step along the way is important, from Molly Pitcher dressing as a man to join the army, to Amelia Earhart to Cesar Chavez to Susan B. Anthony. I want my unit of study to be more inclusive. These books will join other titles, such as Ruby Bridges, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Henry Box Brown, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln and others. Students will partner and research one person, starting with books and then moving to the Internet to look further. A time line will be created to show each person's place in the long process of procuring civil rights for all. The partners will create a PowerPoint to be presented to the other class members.
I believe that our focus on civil rights information tends to be too narrow, because much of it focuses on the history of slavery and the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s.
I want my students to have a broader view of the fight for civil rights. They need to know that there are other lesser known individuals that need to be mentioned. For example, students can compare how Mother Jones' fight for children workers fits into the bigger picture of civil rights.
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