Civil Rights Collaborative Projects

 

Understanding the Civil Rights Movement is no easy task for third graders, but they are passionate, amazing young people and are clearly developing an understanding about the big ideas about fairness, equality, inequality, discrimination and segregation.  It seemed fitting with the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday, that we launched full force into our Civil Rights unit this week.


Students are working in collaborative teams of 2-3 students learning about important individuals in history who supported ideas associated with equality for all.  Each team will work on learning about a one person in depth and then teach the rest of us about his/her role in history.

Teams are studying:

• Abraham Lincoln
• Harriet Tubman
• Mohandas Gandhi
• Rosa Parks
• Nelson Mandela
• Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Please ask your child who he/she is studying and what they've learned so far.  Many times students are really still trying to sort out big ideas, so your help with this through conversations at home would be great!

To support non fiction reading development, student teams have four projects to complete.  We hope to have them all completed to share at the EMES Celebration of Learning scheduled for the evening of Thursday, February 23rd.

• A timeline of important events in the person's life.
• A list of key vocabulary associated with the individual and what the vocabulary means as well as its importance.
• A compilation of detailed facts about the person's life.
• An information book that depicts key aspects of the person's life.  

We live in a world that is constantly changing.  It is important for students to learn how events from our past can shape our future.  Please talk to your children about civil rights and what that means to you and your family.  The kids are really working hard to understand these big ideas, and your help would really make a difference.