Setting up the Activity in your Classroom:

Depending on the grade level and maturity level of each class, activities can be facilitated as independent work, collaborative group work, or whole class instruction. If a computer is available for each student, guide students to the activities either through printed URLs on handouts or on the board.

If you are working in a lab, set up the computers to be on the desired Web site as students walk into class. If there are fewer computers than students, group the students by reading level. Assign each student a role: a "driver" who navigates the web, a timer who keeps the group on task, and a note taker. If there are more than three students per computer, you can add roles like a team leader, a team reporter, etc. If your classroom is set up in collaborative groups, try learning stations. Have rotating groups working on the computer (s), reading printed background information, holding smaller group discussions, writing first drafts to a given writing prompt, etc.

You may also want to create a special display for your classroom library in honor of Black History Month. Check out our Recommended Booklist for suggested print materials.

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Stimulate Background Knowledge with these related links:

African American Voices
http://www.dade.k12.fl.us/socsci/mandates/voices/
This website includes a PreK through 12th grade curriculum focusing on Africa, African Americans, their culture and experiences through curriculum guides and sample lessons.

The African-American Mosaic
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html
The Library of Congress presents this resource guide for the study of African American history and culture including colonization, the abolition of slavery, and migration patterns. These primary resources include maps, images, advertisements, and more.

The Encyclopedia Britannica Guide to Black History
http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/
The Encyclopedia Britannica presents this website for general black history including an interactive timeline from 1517-today, articles on a variety of famous men and women, and audio and video clips.

Discovery School: Celebrate Black History
http://school.discovery.com/schoolfeatures/featurestories/blackhistory/
Discovery Channel School presents lesson plans, activities, and Internet links to supplement a black history curriculum throughout the month of February.

Rosa Parks Resource Center
http://www.africana.com/specials/packages/rosa_parks.asp
Africana Gateway to the Black World website introduce varied articles about the life of Rosa Parks, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Melba (nee Pattillo) Beals
http://www.melbabeals.com/
This is Melba (nee Pattillo) Beals's official website with a biography and introduction to her book and speaking topics.

Enchanted Learning: African-American Inventors
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/black.shtml
A sampling of African-American inventors from Dr. Charles Richard Drew inventing a blood bank to Philip B. Downing who invented the mailbox in 1891.

African-American Women Inventors of the Early Twentieth Century
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/AAweek3.html
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology presents a short article about African-American women inventors.

Black Inventor Online Museum
http://www.blackinventor.com/
Find biographies of African-American inventors by name, by time period, and even by invention.

Jazz for Young People Curriculum Online
http://www.jazzatlincolncenter.org/educ/curriculum/launcher.html
Produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center this website is a resource for learning about jazz music and history and is geared toward students of all ages and their teachers.

Through the Lens of Time: Images of African Americans from the Cook Collection of Photographs
http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/cook/
Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries presents nearly 300 images of African Americans from the 1800s through early 1900s. Subjects range from agriculture to urban life.

Harlem 1900–1940
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/text/exhibition.html
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's online exhibit has information on activism, arts, business, community, sports, writers and intellectuals.

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Graphic Organizer:

Organizer Patterns: Cause — Effect: Grades 3–8
This Organizer Patterns: Cause — Effect (PDF) helps students organize cause and effect relationships allowing them to look carefully at the consequences of Rosa Parks, Melba Pattillo and others on their quests for equal rights.

Source: Graphic Organizers Visual Strategies for Active Learning by Karen Bromley, Linda Irwin-De Vitis, and Marcia Modlo

Honor Roll Nomination Worksheet: Grades 3–5
This Honor Roll Nomination Worksheet helps students organize their thoughts on who to nominate for the Trailblazer Honor Roll. Through collection of data, students can organize their nomination before entering their writing for online publication.

Organizer Patterns: Organizational Outline: Grades 6–8
This Organization Outline (PDF) helps students organize information as they research the Civil Rights Movement. The organizer allows students to gather and organize facts in order to write a clearer, more accurate research paper. See Assessment and Evaluation.

Source: Graphic Organizers by Karen Bromley, Linda Irwin-De Vitis, and Marcia Modlo

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