Greetings! This issue focuses on literature, history, social studies – and the contributions of women in all areas. There’s also a quick reminder that the Maya Angelou Essay Contest ends tomorrow. As always, we welcome your feedback and ideas for future newsletters, so let us hear from you. --Kit Lively, KERA Director of Education, [email protected]
Teaching Great Novels and Historical Fiction PBS LearningMedia offers teaching resources to supplement video clips from the popular PBS showMasterpiece. One site has background essays, teaching tips and other materials to enrich instruction about novels by such favorite authors as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Anne Frank and Thornton Wilder, to
name a few. There’s also a site on historical drama that provides content to supplement video clips from the popular 2017 series Victoria, in which the young queen takes positions on Britain’s anti-slavery movement and a jury verdict involving mental health.
Resources on novels Resources on Victoria
Women! March and Beyond March is Women’s History Month so there’s a wealth of content available on women’s contributions in politics, science, math, literature, education, civil rights and pretty much everything. So check out these links. There’s plenty to keep women in the foreground year-round.
From the New York Times Learning Network, a website of teaching resources often related to news events:
“Women on the March: A Lesson Plan on Imagining the Future of Feminism” includes several engaging multi-media resources.
From Listenwise, a company that supplements clips of NPR radio interviews with teaching materials that emphasize listening comprehension:
Interview with author of the book Hidden Figures "How Women Changed The High Court … And Didn’t" "Zora Neale Hurston Broke Barriers with Their Eyes Were Watching God" Origins and Relevance of Betty Friedan’s 1963 book The Feminine Mystique "The Lasting Legacy of Little Women"
From PBS LearningMedia, a site with thousands of instructional resources in all subject areas:
History Detectives, a PBS show that teaches methods for investigating people and events from American history, has several segments on women that link to downloadable teaching materials, including tools for historical research. (grades 6 – 12) Assorted materials on Women’s History Month (grades K-3)
From Ed Week: Teaching About Politics in a Polarized World The New Jersey teacher who wrote this op-ed piece offers tips from experience for encouraging respectful political conversations. He writes: “But what has always impressed me about great teachers is how they can guide the tone of class discussions in positive directions through modeling and empathy. The same is true when it comes to politics.”
Read the Ed Week op-ed piece
Also from Ed Week: Who Shapes the Buzz on Children's Lit? When the Wall Street Journal wrote recently that a few current and former school librarians have outsize influence over which children’s books get noticed, teachers and librarians quickly fired back that the article’s depiction was too narrow. An Ed Week blog post covers several views on the rumble.
Read the Ed Week blog post.
Don't Forget! Time To Hit the Send Key The Maya Angelou Essay Contest deadline is tomorrow, March 21. The contest, from KERA, invites high school students to interpret a poem by the great American writer and describe how it contributes to the understanding of race in the U.S. The top three essays will win $150, $100 and $50. The contest builds on Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, a documentary about Angelou’s vibrant life and work. KERA also has provided an educational toolkit of biographical information, video clips, lesson plans and other materials to help teachers supplement lessons about Maya Angelou.
Click for contest rules, essay submission portal and teaching materials.
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