Civil Rights in the Classroom

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Do you remember ever performing in a play? How many times were you able to go back and see yourself in that performance? My students need scripts on historical events, especially scripts on Civil Rights. They also need an IPod to record their performances.

My first graders are unique in their personalities.

However, one bit commonality in this group, is their love for the Performing Arts. Students love to perform, and just because my students come from a low socioeconomic background, they are no difference. My students enjoy putting on performances. They come to school wanting to learn and have fun. My students get very little, if any, opportunities to go to a theater and watch a play on stage. Most of my students are visual learners. In fact, we all know that a book filled with illustrations is more captivating than one with few, or no, illustrations. But more and more, we are realizing that the Hands-On approach is often more effective when teaching subjects like History. If we are to be successful in leading our students through the task of learning, we must provide a variety of learning approaches so that these differences can be recognized, and provided for, in every classroom.

My Project

"Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand." Most of us are familiar with this Chinese Proverb. In first grade, children learn about important historical events and people, as they read stories about Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and other Civil Rights leaders. However, when children put on a play, the learning that takes place magnifies and becomes more meaningful than just reading about it. With easy to read scripts about Rosa Parks and other civil rights leaders, the students will read and act-out different character's lines. They will in turn appreciate and understand the character's lives and their contribution to today's society. They become active participants in their learning. Each script has a different character's lines highlighted, so it's easy for students to follow along and read their parts. With access to an IPod, my students will be recorded and then enjoy watching themselves as actors.

A school's performing arts program exposes students to theater and other forms of art.

My school is currently without the existence of such a program. With entertaining scripts that highlight the lives of important historical people, I can make the probability of them discovering an appreciation of the fine arts more likely. Since an IPod has both the capability of recording and Internet access, I can record my students and search for more scripts for them to perform.