Explore the Civil Rights Movement and Black History Month with these FREE Educational Resources–all aligned to NY State Academic Standards.

Elementary School

Underground Railroad Codes

In this unit, students will listen to and sing several African-American spirituals and learn about the Underground Railroad on a website by National Geographic. They will use the internet to complete a web worksheet about code words and phrases in spirituals.

Related NY State Academic Standards: ARTS.M.E.4.1.C, MST5.E.CT3.2, SS.E.1.2B, and more!

Middle School

The Civil Rights Movement

In this lesson plan, students will understand the following:

• Beyond the famous leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, ordinary men and women struggled for their beliefs.
• All the participants—famous and not so famous—deserve to have their stories told.
• Older people have a responsibility to pass on these stories to younger people.

Related NY State Academic Standards: SS.E.1, SS.E.1.1, SS.E.1.2, and more!

High School

“Now This is a Contender, Allow Me to Prove It”

In this lesson plan, students will:

• Learn the proper definition of the word contender as they define the word using a credible dictionary and read excerpts on contenders.
• Share their research as they write a one page proposal supporting the fact that the person that they selected is a contender and should have a United States Postal Stamp in their honor.
• Create a creative postal stamp, using the stamp template that they are given, to commemorate the person that they deem to be a contender!

Related NY State Academic Standards: RL.9-10.11.b, R.CCR.11, ELA.10.R.1.A, and more!

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