HEROES OF HISTORY A RESILIENCE LESSON OVERVIEW PURPOSE Students will learn about the The purpose for teaching resilience is clear; resilience is the resilience of historical figures. ability to bounce back after perceived failure. Some students face increasingly challenging lives, both personally and academically. We must teach them the skills they need to OBJECTIVES bounce back from the inevitable setbacks they will • Students will learn that everyone experience, from having difficulty tying their shoes and faces challenges in life. working out a math problem, to navigating angry encounters • Students will identify resilience with their peers. A child’s ability or inability to come back strategies used by historical figures. from perceived failure will have a significant and lasting impact on his sense of self-esteem, confidence and VOCABULARY hopefulness as he grows to adulthood. Resilience: The capacity to recover quickly from a failure or setback NOTE The “In Your Own Words” sections offer language to help YOU WILL NEED you explain this lesson to your students. Read these to “get • 2 pieces of chart paper the gist” of the concept, and then use your own language • Markers and way of being to explain the concept to students in your own words. PREPARE • Choose two historical figures that the class has learned about or from the list below. • Choose an example of a challenge that each historical figure faced. • Write each person’s name on a piece of chart paper. SUGGESTED HISTORICAL FIGURES (book recommendations follow this lesson): Nelson Mandela Maya Angelou Ada Lovelace Cesar Chavez Frida Kahlo Ruth Bader Ginsburg Louis Armstrong Frederick Douglass Marie Curie © 2021 Momentous Institute 1 PRESENT Introduce the word resilience. IN YOUR OWN WORDS Today we are going to learn about resilience. Resilience is when you bounce back after a challenge. We all face challenges! When we have resilience, it means we don’t quit when things get hard, but we keep going in the direction of our goals. Read about, or review, the historical figures you have chosen. Pay special attention to the challenges they faced. As you read or review, highlight the challenges that the person faced. For example, you may say, “Wow! Cesar Chavez sure faced a lot of challenges as a child because he had to work such long hours at hard work with his family.” Or, “It must have been challenging for Nelson Mandela to spend so much of his life in prison.” PRACTICE After reviewing each historical figure, ask students how each of the historical figures overcame their respective challenges. Ask students about the historical figures one at a time and write student responses on the chart paper. See examples below. Cesar Chavez Nelson Mandela Decided he wanted to Never gave up on what he help other people like his believed even when he was family. in prison. Fought for better Even after he got out of working conditions for prison, he continued to fight others. for equal rights for all. Believed it could be done Went on to become the and said “si se puede”. president of South Africa! © 2021 Momentous Institute 2 After the discussion, wrap up the activity by explaining why it is important to be resilient. IN YOUR OWN WORDS We all face challenges or setbacks, but just like ______ and ______, we can find ways to be resilient and work through those challenges and bounce back from challenges. KEEP THE LESSON ALIVE Throughout the year, any time you read about a character - historical, present day, even fictional - highlight the challenges the character faced. Then take a moment to reflect on how this character showed resilience. Make resilience a common word in your classroom by highlighting it when you see it in students, books, videos, the news, and anywhere else! When students see examples of resilience in the world, they are more likely to understand that challenges are a part of life, and that we all have the ability to bounce back when we face them. www.momentousinstitute.org/shop © 2021 Momentous Institute 3 Nelson Mandela • Nelson, K. (2013). Nelson Mandela. New York. HarperCollins Publishers. • Pollack, P. (2014). Who was Nelson Mandela? New York. Grosset & Dunlap. • Cooper, F. (2000). Mandela: From the life of the South African statesman. Puffin Books. • Mandela, N. (2009). The long walk to freedom: Illustrated children’s edition. London. Macmillan Children’s Books. Ada Lovelace • Wallmark, L. (2015). Ada Byron Lovelace and the thinking machine. Creston Books. • Sanchez Vegara, M. (2018). Ada Lovelace. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books. • Robinson, F. (2016). Ada’s ideas: The story of Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer. New York. Abrams Books. • Stone, T.L. (2018). Who says women can’t be computer programmers: The story of Ada Lovelace. New York. Henry Holt and Company. Frida Kahlo • Thomas, I. (2018). Frida Kahlo. London. Lawrence King Publishing. • Katz, S. (2020). The story of Frida Kahlo. Emeryville, CA. Rockridge Press. • Novesky, A. (2015). Me, Frida. New York. Abrams Books. • Browne, A. (2019). Little Frida: A story of Frida Kahlo. UK. Walker Books. Louis Armstrong • Cline-Ransome, L. (2016). Just a lucky so and so. New York. Holiday House. • Orgill, R. (2002). If only I had a horn: Young Louis Armstrong. HMH Books. • Collins, T. (2013). Louis Armstrong. North Mankato, MN. Capstone Press. • Schroeder, A. (1999). Satchmo’s Blues. New York. Random House. Marie Curie • Sanchez Vegara, M. (2017). Marie Curie. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books. • Valenti, K. (2020). Marie Curie and the power of persistence. Sourcebooks eXplore. • Thomas, I. (2018). Marie Curie. London. Lawrence King Publishing. • Demi. (2018). Marie Curie. New York. Henry Holt and Company. Maya Angelou • Kaiser, L. (2016). Maya Angelou. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books. • Labrecque, E. (2016). Who was Maya Angelou?. New York. Grosset & Dunlap. • Jawando, D. (2019). Maya Angelou. London. Lawrence King Publishing. • Hegedus, B. (2019). Rise! From caged bird to poet of the people, Maya Angelou. New York. Lee & Low. Cesar Chavez • Krull, K. (2003). Harvesting hope: The story of Cesar Chavez. HMH Books. • Wadsworth, G. (2005). Cesar Chavez. Minneapolis, MN. Millbrook Press. • Adler, D. (2018). A picture book of Cesar Chavez. New York. Holiday House. • Brown, M. (2010). Side by side: The story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez. New York. HarperCollins Publishing. Ruth Bader Ginsburg • Levy, D. (2016). I dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg makes her mark. New York. Simon & Schuster. • Katz, S. (2020). The story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Emeryville, CA. Rockridge Press. • Winter, J. (2015). Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The case of R.B.G vs. Inequality. New York. Abrams Books. • Krull, K. (2018). No truth without Ruth. New York. HarperCollins Publishing. Frederick Douglass • Rappaport, D. (2015). Frederick’s journey: The life of Frederick Douglass. Los Angeles. Little Brown Books. • Cline-Ransome, L. (2011). Words set me free: the story of young Frederick Douglass. New York. Simon & Schuster. • Murphy, F (2019). Frederick Douglass: Voice for justice, voice for freedom. New York. Random House. • Miller, W. (2005). Frederick Douglass: The last day of slavery. New York. Lee & Low. © 2021 Momentous Institute 4.