February is Black History Month, a perfect time to highlight the contributions and achievements of African Americans throughout our nation’s history. Bobbi Bear, an IXL Training Specialist, has put together materials and suggested resources for four 45-minute lesson plans for second and third grades, available for download here!
These lesson plans weave language arts skills with social studies content, enabling your students to practice their reading comprehension and writing skills while learning about important historical figures.
Through the course of these four lessons, students will write a narrative from the point-of-view of an important African-American in U.S. history after exploring text sources and IXL’s social studies content.
Day 1
On the first day, you’ll introduce students to the topic of segregation, and then students will read a text selection, either as a class or individually, about one of the following historical figures: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, or Martin Luther King, Jr. Following a group discussion, students will complete an exit ticket, listing what they learned about the selected historical figure.
Day 2
For the second day, students will further explore their assigned historical figure through the provided websites and will complete the investigation organizer with new information and interesting facts not covered in the text selection. Next, students will practice on the corresponding IXL skill, aiming for a SmartScore of 90.
Day 3
Then, students will begin planning a short narrative written from the point-of-view of their historical figure. As students put themselves in their person’s shoes, they’ll connect with their struggles and triumphs and gain a greater understanding of history. After completing the diary entry organizer, they’ll flex their creative writing muscles and begin a rough draft on composition paper.
Day 4
For the last day, students will continue drafting their diary entries. After completing the draft, they will revise and edit, and then, neatly handwrite their final drafts in the provided template, as well as include an image of their historical figure. To close, students can share their entries with the class to show off what they’ve learned!
The full lesson plans and related materials are available for download below:
Black History Month Lesson Plan
Let us know if these resources were helpful and if there are any other topics you’d like to see covered in the future!
