AFRICAN AMERICANS' ROLE IN SHAPING AMERICA TODAY

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AFRICAN AMERICANS' ROLE IN SHAPING AMERICA TODAY

• Second Grade ED 417 Christy Sexton Melinda
  Pace

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Table of Contents

• History
• People in Societies
• Geography
• Economics
• Government
• Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities
• Social Studies Skills and Methods

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History Standard

• Students use materials drawn from the diversity
  of human experience to analyze and interpret
  significant events, patterns, and themes in the
  history of Ohio, the United States and the world.
• Place events in correct order on a timeline.
• Compare daily life in the past and present
  demonstrating an understanding that while basic
  human needs remain the same, they are met in
  different ways in different times and places.
• Recognize that the actions of individuals make a
  difference, and relate the stories of people from
  diverse backgrounds who have contributed to the
  heritage of the United States.

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History Activities

• As a class, create a timeline outlining the major
  events associated with slavery. Children will
  work in groups to summarize a certain event, and
  then all the groups will compile their work into
  one timeline.
• Read the book Daily Life on a Southern
  Plantation 1863 by Paul Erickson. Create a Venn
  Diagram comparing the life of African Americans
  during the time of slavery and the life of the
  average African American today.
• Take a class field trip to Camp Joy in
  Clarksville, Ohio to experience life as a slave.
• Watch the movie Our Friend Martin, (1999). Have
  the children write what they think the world
  would be like if Martin Luther King Jr. had never
  lived.
• Read the book Booker T. Washington Great
  American Educator by Eric Braun. Then have the
  students write Booker T. Washington a letter.

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History Websites

• http//www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/1862.html
  
• http//library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00394/life.htm
  
• http//www.joec.org/OSP/OSP.html
• http//www.kiddyhouse.com/Holidays/MLK/MLK.html
• http//score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/bookertwashin
  gton/bookertwashington.html

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People in Societies Standard

• Students use knowledge of perspectives, practices
  and products of cultural, ethnic and social
  groups to analyze the impact of their commonality
  and diversity within local, national, regional,
  and global settings.
• Identify ways that different cultures within the
  United States and the world have shaped our
  national heritage.

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People In Societies Activities

• Assign students an African American pioneer of
  Science/Invention to research and present to the
  class what their scientist/inventor accomplished.
• Have students explore websites and books to
  become familiar with African American art and how
  it has influenced artists in America.
• Read the book Be a Friend The Story of African
  American Music in Song, Words, and Pictures by
  Leotha Stanely.
• Read the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick
  Douglass by Frekerick Douglass and discuss
  African American Literature.
• Visit The National Afro-American Museum and
  Cultural Center.

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People In Societies Websites

• http//www.blackrefer.com/inventors.html
• http//www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_AfAm/index.html
• http//www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotl
  ight/aaliterature/legacy
• http//www.edchange.org/multicultural/sites/aframd
  ocs.html
• http//www.edchange.org/multicultural/sites/aframd
  ocs.html

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Geography Standard

• Students use knowledge of geographic locations,
  patterns, and processes to show the
  interrelationship between the physical
  environment and human activity, and to explain
  the interactions that occur in an increasingly
  interdependent world.
• Identify the location of the state of Ohio, the
  United States, the continents and oceans on maps,
  globes and other geographic representations.

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Geography Activities

• Identify where the majority of African slaves
  came from by looking at a map of Africa and
  placing thumb tacks or stickers over the main
  areas.
• Look at a map of the Atlantic slave trade routes
  taken through the Atlantic ocean and discuss the
  hardships of the slaves on the ships and that
  many died on their long trip to the United
  States.
• Discuss the distribution of slaves in the United
  States. Point out the states that had a high
  population of slaves and look at a map of slave
  distribution.
• Look at a map of the underground railroad routes
  and discuss that the slaves were trying to reach
  Canada and why. Identify landforms that made
  some routes more difficult to follow than others.
• Show students a map of Ohio and point out the
  Ohio River. Discuss that many slaves felt a
  sense of safety once they reached this point and
  why.

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Geography Websites

• http//wysinger.homestead.com/mapofafricadiaspora.
  html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageSlavery_US_1820
  .png
• http//education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstu
  d/railroad/Map.htm
• http//www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00002058.
  shtml
• http//www.soundjunction.org/Whereslavescamefrom.a
  spa

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Economics Standard

• Students use economic reasoning skills and
  knowledge of major economic concepts, issues and
  systems in order to make informal choices as
  producers, consumers, savers, investors, workers
  and citizens in an interdependent world.
• Distinguish between goods and services and
  explain how people can be both buyers and sellers
  of goods and services.
• Explain ways that people may obtain goods and
  services.

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Economic Activities

• Introduce the concept of goods and explain that
  the slaves brought over from Africa were
  considered goods.
• Have a class discussion about slaves being
  producers and have the children research what
  crops were produced and which states produced the
  most of certain crops.
• Discuss that as the production of cotton expanded
  the demand for slaves increased.
• Read The Inventions of Eli Whitney The Cotton
  Gin by Holly Cefrey and discuss that after the
  invention of the cotton gin, the demand for
  slaves increased.
• Read the book, Abraham Lincoln and the End of
  Slavery by Russell Shorto and discuss President
  Lincolns role in the abolishment of slavery.

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Economics Websites

• http//www.fte.org/teachers/programs/history/lesso
  ns/lesson03.htm
• http//www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTo
  pic/Slavery-the-Economy-and-Society.topicArticleId
  -25073,articleId-25050.html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_gin
• http//www.eliwhitney.org/cotton.htm
• http//international.loc.gov/learn/collections/pap
  ers/history6.html

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Government Standard

• Students use knowledge of the purposes,
  structures and processes of political systems at
  the local, state, national and international
  levels in order to understand that people create
  systems of government as structures of power and
  authority to provide order, maintain stability
  and promote the general welfare.
• Explain the purposes of rules in different
  settings and the results of adherence to, or
  violation of, the rules.

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Government Activities

• Read From Slavery To Freedom With Harriet Tubman
  by Deborah Hedstrom-Page. Have a discussion about
  the struggles of slaves, and their attempts to
  gain freedom. Talk about the laws that kept them
  from gaining their freedom.
• Teach the children that slavery ended with the
  Thirteenth Amendment. Have the children create a
  poster of the Thirteenth Amendment.
• Read To Be a Slave by Julius Lester. Create a
  class chart of all of the hardships that slaves
  endured. Have a short discussion about how under
  the law slaves were viewed as property and were
  not protected from these hardships.
• Students will learn about the laws and the rights
  of African Americans before the Civil Rights
  movement. Students will make a Venn Diagram
  comparing and contrasting African Americans
  rights before the civil rights movement and their
  rights now.
• The students will get into groups of three or
  four. Each group will pretend that they are
  members of the government before the Civil Rights
  Movement. Each group will create a new law that
  helps make the world equal for African Americans.
  The groups will make a poster of their new law
  and present it orally in front of the class.

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Government Websites

• http//www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/tools_unwritten.ht
  ml
• http//www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec14
  27
• http//memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/sltrial/hi
  story3.html
• http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASpunishmen
  ts.htm
• http//library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/changing_th
  e_laws.htm

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities Standard

• Students use knowledge of the rights and
  responsibilities of citizenship in order to
  examine and evaluate civic ideals and to
  participate in community life and the American
  democratic system.
• Describe the results of cooperation in group
  settings and demonstrate the necessary skills.
• Demonstrate personal accountability, including
  making choices and taking responsibility for
  personal actions.

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities Activities

• Read the book The Bus Ride That Changed History
  The Story Of Rosa Parks by Pamela Duncan Edwards.
  Have a short discussion with the children about
  the segregation between whites and blacks before
  the Civil Rights Movement. Then, tell the
  students pretend to be Rosa Parks on the day that
  she did not give up her seat on the bus. The
  children will write and tell why they did not
  give up their seat, and how they feel about their
  decision.
• Read The School is not White by Doreen Rappaport.
  Discuss the role of segregation in the lives of
  African Americans before the Civil Rights
  Movement. Divide the students into small groups,
  and have each group create a segregated
  situation. Each group will role play their
  situation in the front of the classroom.
• Read The Civil Rights Movement for Kids A
  History With 21 Activities by Mary C. Turck. Have
  a discussion about how children, like them helped
  to make a difference during the Civil Rights
  Movement. Divide the children into groups, and
  have each group come up with ideas of how they
  would have made a difference during the Civil
  Rights Movement.
• Bring in books on several Civil Rights Movement
  Activists. Have the children work in groups, and
  have each group select one activist to study. The
  children will create a poster on their activist,
  and write about their activists contributions to
  the Civil Rights Movement.
• Read Martins Big Words The Life of Dr. Martin
  Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport. Discuss Dr.
  Martin Luther King Jr. and his impact during the
  Civil Rights Movement. Read Dr. Kings I Have a
  Dream Speech to the children. Have the children
  pick something that they would like to change in
  todays society. Have the children write a story
  about what they would like to change, and how
  they would go about doing it.

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities Websites

• http//www.surfnetkids.com/rosa_parks.htm
• http//www.madison.k12.wi.us/tnl/detectives/kids/K
  IDS-000314.html
• http//www.usm.edu/msoralhistory/teach/CRwebsites_
  page.htm
• http//www.peoplespot.com/features/civilrights.htm
  
• http//www.thekingcenter.org/mlk/bio.html

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Social Studies skills and Methods Standard

• Students collect, organize, evaluate, and
  synthesize information from multiple sources in
  order to draw logical conclusions. Students
  communicate this information using appropriate
  social studies terminology in oral, written or
  multimedia form and apply what they have learned
  to societal issues in simulated or real-world
  settings.
• Obtain information from oral, visual, print and
  electronic sources.
• Communicate information orally, visually, or in
  writing.
• Identify a problem and work in groups to solve it.

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Social Studies Skills and Methods Activities
 
 
 

• Read A Slave Family by Bobbie Kalman. After
  listening to the story, the children will write
  what it would have been like to live as a slave.
  They will use information from the story to help
  them come up with ideas.
• Show the documentary The Underground Railroad
  (History Channel) (1999). Have a discussion about
  what the Underground Railroad is. Let the
  children express their thoughts and feelings on
  the subject.
• Take a field trip to the Springboro Historical
  Society. After the field trip, the children will
  write a summary about what they learned on the
  field trip.
• Divide the students into groups of three or four.
  Tell the children to pretend to be slaves living
  on a Southern Plantation. They are slaves that
  live a hard life with a harsh master. Each group
  must decide whether they want to escape to
  freedom or stay to endure the hardships. Each
  group will orally present what they decided to
  do, and explain why they made that decision. They
  will also describe how they would go about
  escaping their plantation, or how they would try
  to make their life easier on the plantation.
• The children will visit the website
  http//resources.kaboose.com/kidslinks/social-stud
  ies/black-history/Black_History.html. The
  children will explore the website for about
  thirty minutes.

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Social Studies Skills and Methods Websites

• http//www.louswebsite.com/37.html
• http//cghs.dadeschools.net/slavery/antebellum_sla
  very/plantation_slave_life/diet_religion/religion.
  htm
• http//www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/
• http//resources.kaboose.com/kidslinks/social-stud
  ies/black-history/Black_History.html
• http//multicultural.mrdonn.org/AfricanAm.html