Throughout the year, students across grade levels have been learning about civil rights and exploring what it means to be an activist. Students have been sharing what they're learning about, and have presented projects they’ve completed at Friday morning All School Meetings.
You can explore some of what has been presented below. We look forward to sharing more through the end of the year!
Kindergarteners have been learning about civil rights leaders - both in the past and in the present. One of the current leaders they’ve been learning about is Amanda Gorman. They read her book Change Sings, and shared ways they were inspired by her book.
First graders have been learning about civil rights leaders. They wrote acrostic poems about those who inspired them, and shared them at All School Meeting last week.
In music class, third graders explored the long history of the song, We Shall Overcome. It is believed the song may have originated as far back as the days of slavery in the 1800’s, became an anthem for the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s, and continues to inspire and unite those whole believe in the ongoing struggle fro freedome, justice and equality for all people in our nation - and across the world.
In fourth grade, students have been learning about what makes a person a positive leader. They discussed leadership traits and simple ways that students can be positive leaders in school. They read biographies, watched videos and discussed the lives and attributes of leaders such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Gandhi, Roberto Clemente, Wilma Mankiller, and Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden (the mathematicians from Hidden Figures).
In science class, seventh graders created graphic novels based on the story of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who lived in the 1940s and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. When she went to receive treatment at one of the only hospitals that treated black people, they extracted some of her cells without her consent.
This March, 8th grade students will travel to the Eastern Shore of Maryland for Service Week. In addition to brainstorming with the World Leadership School on how to protect the area’s important environmental resources, we will visit Cambridge, Maryland - home of the most important civil rights activist you have never heard of: Gloria Richardson.
