This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
My middle school classroom, located in Philadelphia, is full of energy and excitement. The 7th and 8th graders I teach bring a range of abilities and interests to the class. Since I started teaching them in February, I've seen my students make great strides in sourcing texts, writing, and mapping.. One student had an amazing ah-hah moment when she was identifying brightly lit cities from a photo of Earth at night. After misidentifying Tokyo as Philadelphia, she corrected herself and it dawned on her that there are other countries beyond the United States.
My students learn best through games and hands-on, project-based lessons.
My 7th graders just finished a unit on maps, in which they planned a first date using a public transit map in Philly, learned how hard it is to make a flat map of the round Earth using beach-ball globes, and created their own thematic maps of their neighborhoods. They are working on "my culture icebergs" to kick off a new unit on culture. My 8th graders have been figuring out what sources they can trust to find out what really happened, like whether Pocahontas really saved John Smith's life.
My Project
My students are embarking on a historical biography project in our 8th grade US History classes. The class set of the graphic novel, "Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History," will spark their curiosity and interest in biography, an essential medium in the study of history. My students will choose one individual from the graphic novel to do their biography poster presentation on. They will do further research after using the graphic novel as a springboard into their project.
With these graphic novels, my students will have the bridge to reading they need, a selection of relevant and unheard stories from Black history to choose from, and the inspiration for their own historical biography project.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Palazzolo and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
