Exploring Black History Month

Elementary Education- 4th Grade

Name: Kathryn Moore

Title: Exploring Black History Month with Main Idea Tree (Cunningham and Cunningham,
2015, pp. 52-61)

Grade: 4th Grade

Concept/Topic: The creation and meaning of Black History Month. Students will consider
why we have Black History Month and what it was intended to accomplish.

Time Needed: 45 minutes

Learning Outcomes: I will be able to read a text, find the main idea, and list key details. I
will be able think critically about the meaning of Black History Month and make relevant
connections to my own life.

Standards:

Reading

RI.1.2 Identify the main idea and retell key details of a text

R.3.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details, and explain how they
support the main idea

Writing

CCRA.W.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and
information clearly and accurately through the effective selection organization and analysis of
content

Speaking and Listening

CCRA.SL.1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and

collaborations with diverse partners, building on others ideas and expressing their own
clearly and persuasively

Assessment Plan:

Through student observation and individual interviews, I will be able to assess students
understanding of Main Idea and Key Details and the significance of Black History Month.

Students who are meeting the learning outcomes will be able to articulate why the United
States has Black History Month and what it was designed for. Students will question how
contributions from African Americans throughout American history have had an effect on their
own lives. Observation of student discourse will be my primary source of assessment data.

Meeting the students where they are:

All students will be expected to fulfill high expectations and contribute to group and class
discussion. For students who are intimidated by sharing out to the whole class, there will be
opportunities to share thoughts in the more manageable setting of a group of three or four
students. When working on the You All do portion of the Main Idea Tree, students will be
reading texts together and creating a graphic organizer collaboratively. Rich discussion about
African American heroes is modeled during We do portion, then monitored and encouraged
during the You All do. Groups are strategically organized so that there is a mix of strong
readers and readers who are working to meet grade level standards within each group.
English Language Learners are included in groups who also have strong English Language
readers to ensure heterogeneous grouping and growth for all students.

Prior Knowledge/Connections:

Assess prior knowledge by asking what students already know about Black History Month. Also
discuss African American leaders and other significant figures that students may already
recognize- likely examples include Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, and Rosa Parks.
Students will be able to make connections between this lesson and an assembly they attended
in early February that previewed the purpose of Black History Month and some lesser known
African American heroes and their contributions to society.

Questions to Include (start with turn and talk then ask students to share out):

Why do we have Black History Month?

Why do we only celebrate black history one month out of the year?

Who are some black leaders you already know about?

Lesson Introduction/Hook:

We will watch a video that explains the origins of Black History Month and introduce what we
will be focusing on throughout the lesson. Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=9IThSKYxIjU&feature=youtu.be Our topic is black leaders and influential people in America.
We will highlight the fact that many people deserve to be honored for their contributions to
African-American history, and that many of them are not discussed. Today we will be learning
about some more African-American figures who helped shape American history and the world
as it is today. We will be using Portraits of African-American Heroes by Tonya Bolden which
features 20 short biographies. We will do one together as a class (I do and We do)-
Frederick Douglass- and then give students a choice of 6 different biographies (You All do)-
W.E.B. Du Bois, Bessie Coleman, Thurgood Marshall, Joe Louis, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ruth
Simmons.

Heart of the Lesson/Learning Plans

Differentiation/Same-ation:

Once students are assigned to their groups, they are allowed to sit or lay where they feel
most comfortable in the classroom- as long as it does not disturb other students. Students
can gather around a kidney table, use yoga ball flexible seating, or lay on bean bags as they
work. Teacher monitoring will be necessary to ensure students stay on task, but this allows
students who are more active or do not work well in a desk chair all day to move their bodies
and have some choice in where they work. Heterogenous grouping will be utilized to allow
diverse groups of students to work together. All students will be able to engage in discussion
and make connections. The communication between students will create an authentic
environment for developing a critical consciousness around Black History Month and its
meaning. Teacher guidance can help keep students on track or steer conversation toward a
new point of view or an important concept to consider.

Lesson Development:

After prior knowledge and the video, students will turn and talk about what they envision a
long-term successful Black History Month will look like. This requires students to consider
evidence from the video on what Carter G. Woodson eventually wanted to see Black History
Month become, and their own opinions of how Black History should be incorporated into
American History.

A class discussion will then be held on the relevance of learning about African American
heroes and their impact on history. Some questions to keep in mind include:

Why should we pursue learning about leaders we dont know about or who arent as famous
as Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks?

How are these historic figure and events relevant to our lives right now? Where would we be
without them? How might our world be different?

Write questions and contributions from students on the board or an anchor chart. The
overarching theme here is that its important to consider contributions from people of all
background and cultures (even though we focus specifically on African Americans in this
lesson). These contributions are relevant to the current day and we can identify and analyze
relationships between what historical figures did and the way our society functions now.

Reading Content of Lesson Plan:

I Do: We will read an article (from Portraits of African American Heroes) together as a class
about historic figure Frederick Douglass. As we read the article together, we will model how
to identify main ideas and key details.

Before beginning to read the article as a class, introduce the concept of a main idea tree.
The trunk will be the topic of the text (ex. Frederick Douglass) The branches off the
trunk will be the main ideas (ex. Frederick used to be a slave) The twigs, or smaller
branches off the big branches, will be the key details (ex. Frederick learned to read in
secret while he was a slave)

Label the trunk of the tree Frederick Douglass because thats what the text is about

Since each article is 3 pages long, pause after finishing each page and think aloud about
important topics in the material that was just read. Explain that when the students do the
activity, they can underline or highlight important information, but we will use sticky notes to
mark since were reading straight out of the book.

For the first page, model how to think about the text and what information is relevant enough
to use as a main idea. When we finish reading the first page aloud, pause and say I read
that Douglass learned to read in secret and he worked long days and didnt have enough food.
These things happened because he was a slave. Since there were multiple details about his
time as a slave, that seems like an overarching idea. I can label slavery as a main idea
branch of my tree.

Model how to add key details to the slavery branch. I can think about key details as
pieces of information that, when we look at them all together, let me know about main ideas.
When Im thinking about the main idea of slavery in the text, I can include details about
Fredericks early life when he was hungry and beaten. Im going to mark the details with
sticky notes, but you all can underline or highlight when you have your own copy.

We will discuss how to discern between main idea and key detail. How does each build off
the other? What relationships can we notice between main ideas and key details?

We Do: Students will assist teacher to find the main idea and details in the book. As a class
we will create a main idea tree (trunk, the topic you are learning about and branches, larges
branches= main ideas and smaller branches hold any details that relate to them).

For the second page, read the page and pause at the end. Ask, Based on how we conducted
our main idea and key details search on the first page, who could tell me where to start to try
and another find the main idea on this page? I see that Frederick escaped slavery by
pretending to be a freeman and then he traveled to Massachusetts and created a new name
for himself. What could we say the main idea of that part of the text is? What do all these
pieces relate to? **Steer conversation toward Escape main idea

What pieces or ideas from the text lead us to the main idea of escape? What key details
should we include on our main idea tree to help us understand the significance of escape in
our text? I see that Frederick had to pretend to be someone else in order to escape
slavery. He took many modes of transportation to eventually arrive in Massachusetts where
he found work in a shipyard. These are examples of key details I can include under my
escape main idea branch.

**Remember- a text can have more than one main idea!

Continue through the Frederick Douglass text and find the remaining main ideas. As the
teacher and class together identifies a main idea, find supporting details you can add to the
twigs of the main idea tree. Be sure to answer any questions students may have about the
process.

Draw attention to relationships and patterns occurring between the text, main ideas, and key
details- The key details support each main idea, and the main ideas helps us understand what
the text is mainly about.

Frederick Douglass main idea tree will be organized as follows:

Topic: Frederick Douglass

Main Ideas: Slavery, Escape, Abolitionist, End of Slavery, Fighting Against Oppression

Key Details:

Slavery- hunger, ragged clothing, lots of work, learned to read, learned of abolition

Escape- slipped away with free seamans ID papers, traveled to NYC the Massachusetts, made
a new name

Abolitionist- public speaker, raising money, Underground Railroad, autobiography

End of Slavery- Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, Thirteenth Amendment

Fighting Oppression- Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment, fought for other groups,
National Council of Women speaker, death
Middle: Student work (independent or in pairs/groups)

You All Do: For Mrs. Jones fourth grade class, we will allow students to pick who they
would like to read about. We will call out the topics of each article and create group of 3-4
depending on interest. Each student has a role (reader, scribe- main ideas and key details,
manager). Students will stop at the end of each page and discuss as a group- each student
underlines or highlights on the article to indicate main ideas and key details. Each group gets
a large sheet of paper to draw their main idea tree on.

As students finish their main idea tree, discuss how learning about an African American hero
enriched their point of view or historic knowledge. This in depth study of an individual will
help students appreciate the obstacles each person had to overcome and the ripple effect on
history stemming from each individual.

End: Reflection on learning and interaction:

You Do: This will be a check back activity conducted next week in the field. Rachel and
Kathryn will pick 2-3 students to conduct in-depth interviews with. Next Tuesday, while
students either complete an unrelated reading assignment or work on reading in centers,
Rachel and Kathryn will pick a student each to question their comprehension relating to main
idea and detail. If there is time we will work together on a third interview. Starter questions
about main idea and details are as follows:

What is the main idea of this section (indicate part of text you are referring to)?

How can you tell? What facts written in the text let you know about the main idea?

What are supporting details for the main idea you named?

How did you identify these?

What is the purpose of identifying key details?

Is there only one main idea?

An interview structure allows us to build off students ideas. There will be lots of follow up
why did you think that? and how do you know that?

The interviews need to be conducted on an individual basis so we can assess what students
know on their own without help from peers or the teacher.

Specific Questioning:

Why do we have Black History Month?

Why do we only celebrate black history one month out of the year?

Who are some black leaders you already know about?

Why should we pursue learning about leaders we dont know about or who arent as famous
as Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks?

How are these historic figure and events relevant to our lives right now? Where would we be
without them? How might our world be different?

Concluding the Lesson/Closure/Debriefing:

Discuss with students how we learned about the importance of contributions from African
American leaders through a main idea and key details lesson. Reflect on how we, as a
community, can evolve black history into normal American History.

Exit Ticket: Students will reflect on the importance of Black History Month and contemplate
the question Why should we celebrate different cultures every month of the year instead of
devoting just one month?

Materials/Resources:

Portraits of African-American Heroes by Tonya Bolden

A large sheet of paper of each group (to write main idea tree on)
Access to Youtube (for introduction video)

Teaching Behavior Focus:

Facilitate a successful group discussion. This is at the small group level (3-4 students) as well
as the whole class level. I want students to be comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions
and the success of this lesson is dependent on that. Part of this is planning how much
information and questioning the teacher should provide and part is demonstrating appropriate
wait time and allowing students to think deeply about a question or a problem before
answering yourself or moving on.