8 Ideas To Mark Black History Month in Your Classroom

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Teaching students to celebrate events and Black leaders involves discussing both achievements and the hardships they’ve faced. For Black History Month (also known as African American History Month), we’ve rounded up ideas to give students of all ages a deeper understanding of some of America’s greatest leaders.

Note: In 2021, the theme for Black History month is The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity. As you review some of our classroom activities, keep that very important theme in mind.

 

Have students write an “I Have a Dream” speech
Invite students to write and deliver a speech about an issue of concern to them and what they’d do to make a difference. Students who are too young to write a speech can make posters showing what freedom looks like to them. Hang these in your school lobby and hallways.

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Read (and provide books) about civil rights
There are plenty of good children’s books about Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X., Rosa Parks, and other figures involved in the struggle for racial equality in the United States. This list from Teaching for Change categorizes books from early elementary through high school and includes titles for teachers’ reading.

As well, many schools across the country are broadening their schools’ book collections with intentional selections of books about people of color, and by nonwhite authors. Scholastic offers a list of 28 Books That Amplify Black Voices includes picture books, middle grade, and young adult.

 

 

Start a class community service project

Observed each year on the third Monday in January as “a day on, not a day off,” MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities.

Carry the service sentiment forward during Black History Month by choosing a cause for your classroom. Depending on COVID-19 guidelines in your area, you could have students collect canned goods for a food pantry, adopt a park to spruce up, or raise money for a nonprofit that stands up for people’s civil rights.

 

Decorate your door

Over the past few years, door decorating has been used for teacher appreciation and to add cheer—add awareness and empowerment to that list of reasons. These teachers’ door decorations both empower students and start powerful conversations.

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Create a virtual museum on slavery and its legacy

Thirteen.org offers a downloadable PowerPoint template and a lesson plan, as well as write-ups from classrooms that created virtual museums. “It showed me how white plantation owners really treated their slaves,” said one student.

 

Plan a virtual museum visit

As part of its Open Access initiative, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture is allowing images from its collection to be viewed, downloaded, and shared. You can browse the vast collection by topic, date, or place.

You can also check African American History Month’s list of exhibits and collections, with categories ranging from slavery and civil rights leaders to notable Black baseball figures.

 

Celebrate visionaries

Education.com offers a free downloadable A-Z African American Visionaries poster, around which you can plan complementary classroom activities. Have students:

• Research one of the visionaries online or by finding books at the library
• Create a piece of writing, poster, or art to teach others about what they learned
• Challenge themselves by researching all of the African American visionaries from A-Z

via education.com

 

Start a meaningful discussion

National events over the past year have brought to light, and spurred discussion on, the concepts of implicit bias and systemic racism in a more widespread way. Teaching Tolerance offers classroom and professional development resources that can help educators discuss race, racism, and many surrounding topics—during Black History Month and beyond.

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