January 13, 2023 · current events
When Barbara Walters died at the end of December, I saw a tweet noting that she and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were born the same year (1929) and that is how much (potential) life was stolen from him. It was a stark reminder for me. This year marks 55 years since Dr. King was assassinated. How to best address Martin Luther King Day in the classroom is a constant question for us. We’ve written about it before and always wonder what the best approach is. Doing or saying nothing doesn’t feel right, but neither does a quick one day activity. You can read about our approach last year here: MLK Day 2022: Reminders & Ideas and our approach with 5th graders here: Observing MLK Day in the Classroom . Teaching the History of Voting Rights in the USA is also always a timely reminder and important lesson. There are so many book lists out there already, so we will just share a few books for read
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January 18, 2022 · curriculum
Photo credit: https://www.childrensbookworld.com/book/9781629799391 Another 3rd grade teacher I know had a colleague forward her a link to an Art of Teaching post I wrote 4 years ago (a slightly modified version of this post on our blog ) about teaching MLK day! It was a nice surprise and funny coincidence, as well as a welcome reminder to use primary sources with my 3rd graders. This year, however, we went with a different approach as my co-teacher (who is new to me this school year!) had the brilliant idea of widening our focus to Dr. King’s legacy and movement and thinking about the people who came before and after him. I also always remind educators to tie Dr. King’s work back to today and future work. This is not a one lesson or one day reminder, it is something you should think about all year. Two obvious examples of this work continuing are Black Lives Matter at School Week and
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January 18, 2018 · holidays
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC. Photo credit here . Every year, when we have a long weekend for Martin Luther King, Jr. day, we wonder how to address the holiday. Issues of inequality cannot simply be explained and dismissed in one day, and simplistic or one-dimensional descriptions of Dr. King don’t do him justice. We also try to incorporate social justice education into our classroom everyday, as oppression, prejudice, and discrimination are always relevant to teaching and learning about the world. We often find that our students think that racism and segregation were a problem, and Dr. King “fixed” that problem and everyone is equal now. They make statements about how everyone is equal now and Dr. King caused that through nonviolence and an inspiring speech. So we start by asking students what they know about Dr. King. Younger students in particular focus
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