Memo Intradistrict To: Board members, Rick Chandler From: Gene Moore, superintendent Through: Black History Month activities Subject: Date: February 18, 2014 This month is devoted district-wide to the study of local, national and international black achievers. Schools have a variety of activities planned to celebrate the lives of those individuals. Here are some events planned at some of our schools. A.R. Rucker Middle • Rucker AM, our morning news/announcements TV show, is spotlighting where eighth grade lan- guage arts students combined poems by Langston Hughes with artwork by Jacob Lawrence each morning during February. • On February 27 from 8:20-9 a.m., the school will participate in a RUMBLE that will focus on Ron McNair. This will help prepare the students for the speaker for the Black History Program. • School-wide Black History program will be held in the gym on February 27 featuring special guest speaker, Eric McNair. Program will feature poems and musical selections. The program will be from 9-10 a.m. • In Brooke Faris’ classes, students will be completing journal entries during Black History Month. For example, the first journal entry is for students to explain why they feel we celebrate it and why it is important. We also read short stories about different influential African Americans that made history. These short stories are aligned with CCSS and students have to answer ques- tions about the passage as well. • Nancy Fish will be featuring a different famous African American each day in Smartboard lessons • Katy Hamilton’s classes will do a reading comprehension story and then analyze what they have read. • In Adrian Deese’s classes, Every Friday, we will highlight key African Americans who made a change in the world, past or present. Students will have the opportunity to share any key figures that they feel should be highlighted as well. • In Tisha Simmon’s classes, students will focus on Africa and the struggles that are endured there. We will read A Long Walk to Water. My students will also read about successful African Ameri- cans like Ben Carson and their contributions to world. Ms. Simmons will show her students inven- tions that we use every day that African Americans invented and discuss how our society is strong 2014 Black History Month Activities – Page 2 due to the contributions of all Americans. I also plan to use Langston Hughes poems to review poetry. • Brandi Rogers is covering this a couple different ways. She is introducing students to important figures in history that have made an influential impact on science. (http://african-americaninven- tors.org/ ) She has a few articles that will be read together as a class each Friday with accompa- nying writing prompts that are to be completed in class. She is also researching (daily) events in science history and listing them as fun facts each day in her Smartboards. The following day, if students can rename the person and some of the facts presented, they get to put their name on a slip and it goes into a drawing hat that will be picked from at the end of the month (5 winners). She is also working to incorporate a really cool research activity on the NEA website. http://alex. state.al.us/lesson_view.php?id=6969 Andrew Jackson High • Dress for Success Day – February 21 – Students should dress as the career they wish to pursue. • Black History Month Rally – February 28 • Students will create Black History-themed art to be judged. Top three pieces will be recognized at the rally. Andrew Jackson Middle • Students will create poems based on articles that they read on famous black Americans. They will then (on a voluntary basis), use an IPAD app to turn the poems into songs. This activity will take place the last week of February, if not before. (8th Grade Pre-AP ELA) • School-wide assembly – Friday, February 28 • I plan to do a unit on Jackie Robinson by reading an autobiography and biography to incorporate ELA standards. (6th grade Pre-AP ELA) • Each faculty member is bringing a covered dish on Friday, February 28 for a traditional “Soul Food” meal. Black History Month Activities In Keyboarding • Sixth Graders – Students will do an Internet search activity to learn about the history of Black History Month. They will also do a Famous First Vocabulary sheet. The Internet search and sheet will be 10 questions. Then the students, with a partner, will be given a famous African-American Inventor which they will have to look up to see what their person invented. After finding their information they will create a photo document in Microsoft Word displaying the inventor name, picture, and invention. They will present their work to the class and display their work in the hall- way under the label Famous African-American Inventors. • Seventh Graders – Students will do an Internet Search activity to learn about the history of Black History Month. They will also do a Famous First Vocabulary sheet. The Internet search and sheet will be 10 questions. Then the students will look up a famous African American which they will fine several key facts about them and share it to the class. They will type their work on Microsoft Word. They will also make a photo document of their famous African American to display on the school hallway wall which will be label Famous African Americans. • Eighth Graders – Students will do an Internet Search activity to learn about the history of Black History Month. They will also do a Famous First Vocabulary sheet. The Internet search and sheet 2014 Black History Month Activities – Page 3 will be 10 questions. Then the students will get into groups of two or three. Each group will research a Historic Black College or University to search. Each group will create a power point about their HBCU. They will receive a series of questions that they must answer in their power point. They will share their PowerPoint to the class for a test grade. The students will also search for famous African Americans that attend HBCU’s and display the results by creating a photo document with the person name, picture, and name of the school they attended. We will display their work in the hallway under the label Guess Who went to a HBCU. School-wide activities • February 25 or 26 – The school will have a Black History Month College Day. This day we will have college representatives come and talk to the students about going to college and what it takes to get accepted to college. • February 27 Black History Month Career Fair – The students will get a chance to listen to successful African Americans talk about their keys to success. The speakers will also stress the importance of having a good attitude, character and an education. • February 28 Black History Program – The students will get a chance to show their thanks to the achievements and hardship of African Americans over the years by song, dance and poetry. Brooklyn Springs • The Kindergarten team will be watching the video Martin’s Big Words and other black history videos. They will discuss other famous African Americans such as Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. They will incorporate read-alouds that feature famous African Ameri- cans in them such as Martin’s Big Words, Ruby Bridges, and If a Bus Could Talk: the Story of Rosa Parks. Some activities that will be the friendship bus, fairness excercises, drawing a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Dream, an equality poem, and making a diversity wreath. The children will respond to the read-alouds by writing in their journals. • Mrs. Raffaldt’s 2nd grade class is using books found in our Library to teach with during Black History Month as well as biographies in Brain Pop, Jr. • Mrs. Knight’s 5th graders will view and discuss a Discovery Education video entitled “Black History Month.” They will be studying an “African American History Month” PowerPoint from Discovery Education. They will use an African American crossword puzzle for fact-finding. Mrs. Knight will also be reading to the students from The Other Side, Momma, Where are You From? • Ms. Cason’s 2nd grade class is reading the book Stitchin’ and Pullin’ and making a story quilt. They are doing a lesson to introduce African-American leaders. • In Ms. Stamper’s Art class, students are doing an activity called “Joining Hands” to symbol- ize that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. joined hands with people of all colors when he marched for freedom. They will discuss life and work of African American folk artist Minnie Evans. They will make Kente cloth strips where each color represents elements of life. They will also make a col- lage of Martin Luther King’s life. Buford High • The Social Studies Department is sponsoring a Black History Month poster contest. The win- ning posters will be displayed in the media center during the last week of February. The posters 2014 Black History Month Activities – Page 4 will also be on display during Parent-Teacher Conferences for our parents to see our students’ work. All during the month of February, our lessons will focus on prominent African Americans and non-Americans of African descent. • We will also have a “This Week in History” slide for the school-wide PowerPoint shown on moni- tors/TVs throughout the building. We will be focusing on the contributions by those of African descent. Buford Middle Exploratory Classes • Reading Wilma Unlimited as a class with students responding to the text afterward. • Studying African American inventors and their inventions.