1. Black History Debbie Spratley

2. Black History Subthemes Slavery –Students will learn about the history and struggle of slaves. Civil Rights –As African Americans earned rights, their struggles continued. Students will learn about these struggles. Famous African Americans –Overcoming adversity, African Americans have contributed to the shape of America.

3. SLAVERY

4. Opening Activity Reading Component: Comprehension and making connections. Objective: Students will be able to state the lesson of the book, Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad through oral discussion with a partner. Florida Standard: LAFS.3.RL.1.2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. Activity: Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad is a picture book with no words. Through pictures, it tells the story of a white girl who discovers the presence of a runaway slave hiding in her family’s barn. The girl leaves food wrapped in cloth for the runaway, even though they never speak to each other. Slave hunters come and show the family a “wanted” poster for the slave, yet the girl never speaks of who is hiding in her barn. At the end of the story, the slave disappears, but the girl finds a doll made from the cloth that was used to wrap up the food. This will be a whole-group activity. Students will gather on the carpet as the teacher tells them that we are going to “read” a story without words. The teacher will tell the students that this book is a fictional book, but the Underground Railroad was factual. The teacher will give a brief explanation of the Underground Railroad. As we are looking at the book we will pause on each page to discuss what is happening. Teacher will guide the discussion to what the pictures are showing (a white girl helping a runaway slave) as well as what the lesson(s) in the story might be (should the girl help a slave). After the discussion of the book and its contents, students will work with a partner to discuss what the lesson in the story was and be able to share their information with the whole group.

5. Integrating Music Engages students Brings history to life Allows for creative interpretation.

6. Civil Rights Movement

7. Civil Rights Higher-order Questioning Activity Reading Component: Questioning Objective: After reading Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges as a whole group activity, students will write a letter to the author asking at least five questions about what her life was like and how the events that happened to her had an effect on her life in later years. Florida Standard: LAFS.3.RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. LAFS.3.W.2.4 With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. Activity: The teacher will read Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges, which is a firsthand account of Ruby’s experience of going to an all-white school when she was in first grade and the controversy that surrounded this event. Students will then complete a writing task which consists of writing a letter to Ruby Bridges including five thoughtful questions about what her life was like and how the events that happened during the time of her childhood had an effect on her life in later years. Students will share these letters with the class.

8. Famous African Americans

9. Cross-curricular activity Science Activity Reading Component: Vocabulary Objective: After reading information about George Washington Carver, students will be able to make a collage of peanut related products and create a list of vocabulary words for these products. Florida Standard: LAFS.3.RI.1.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect. Activity: The Story of George Washington Carver and A Weed is a Flower will be used to begin a study of his life and his contributions to the science community. After reading the book, students will do a webquest to discover inventions and his contributions to the science world. Students will be given the task of finding a list of five vocabulary words related to his inventions and to obtain correct definitions and place on a collage. Students will use old magazines for letters to form a list of five vocabulary words on the collage and they will be provided markers to write the definitions. Students will also place peanut-related products to the collage, connecting the life of George Washington Carver to his contributions to Science. After this project is completed, groups will share their collages and discuss their list of vocabulary words and their definitions.

10. When attempting to create student engagement in a classroom, it is essential that teachers pay attention to different genres of literature. Hancock (2008) states “The literature must be grouped into meaningful clusters of books that allow children to see the connections among factual, fictional, and poetic perspectives on a topic” (p. 381). Using informational sources as well as fictional sources and even poetry on a topic allows students to realize the broad wealth of information available in today’s world on any given topic. Tompkins (2010) concludes that using multiple genres “helps students move beyond the level of remembering facts to a higher, more analytical level of understanding” (p. 404). Our goal as teachers should be for our students to become excited about topics that we are teaching and to be able to comprehend the subject and not just recount facts for a test. Harvey and Goudvis (2007) suggest “we must be teaching readers to merge their thinking with text information, to stop, think, and react to the information throughout the read. When readers interact with text in this way, they are likely to remember the information way beyond Friday’s quiz” (p. 98). Ultimately, our goal as educators, is to prepare our students for the world and world issues. By using theme topics and using a variety of genres that allow students to explore, think, and synthesize information, we are preparing these students for their future.

11. References Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement (2 nd ed.). Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. Hancock, M.R. (2008). A celebration of literature and response: Children, books, and teachers in k-8 classrooms (3 rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21 st century: A balanced approach (5 th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.