WJSHS celebrates Black History Month

February 8, 2010

Black History Month is a remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African experience. It is celebrated annually in the United States in the month of February. Many teachers throughout WJSHS have built this remembrance into their curriculum this month:

Mr. Foust
This month we are focusing on Walter Dean Myers, the African-American author of novels such as Monster and Slam, and short stories like "The Treasure of Lemon Brown," which will we be reading in class. But besides just reading the short story and incorporating the associated skills, we are using Myers, a Harlem native, as the vehicle for exploring the art of story telling, and how conflict can bring the best, or worst, out of the characters they affect.

Miss Degraw
During Black History Month my students are reading the novel The Contender,by Robert Lipsyte. This novel is set in Harlem, New York in the 1960s and features a 17-year-old African American protagonist. Despite this character’s underprivileged background, he rises above the many negative choices happening around him and chooses to train as a boxer.The setting and major events of this novel give the classroom environment room for discussion concerning famous African Americans who made positive contributions to their worlds. This includes famous boxers as well as integral players in the Harlem Renaissance from earlier in the century. We discuss the opposing philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. and the NOI with Malcolm X, as well as the culture of prejudice seen throughout the novel.

Mr. Murphy
During Black History month, besides talking about things in our daily lessons such as abolition, slavery and civil rights, the class will be working on a Stamp Project for my students. I have a list of notable African Americans both living and dead from all walks of life. The students choose five people at random. They research the person and design a stamp honoring their chosen person using photoshop. Many of the students will be using photoshop for the first time for this project. They will then write a biography and explain why this person is deserving of a United States stamp.Here is a link to stamps from previous years.
http://classjump.com/mrmurphysclass/?section=galleries&gallery_id=7164&

Ms. Chiera
In 8th grade we are doing readings on Civil Rights and the movie "Glory." During these readings, students will also read letters from a slave girl and write journal entries as being part of the 54th Regiment during the Civil War. In 9th grade we are working on memorable court cases such as Brown vs. the Board of Education, maps that depict the slave trade, reading comprehension passages with questions and deciphering the meaning of music lyrics from various black artists.

Mr. Facin
The Technology classes will be reviewing 15 African American inventors from 1800's thru 2000. This includes studying their living conditions/economic status, the impact of their inventions on society, and their education. Then we’ll be looking for patterns - economic status & education from early inventors to current. We’ll also be reviewing how their inventions fit in the Industrial Era historical time line that we studied at the beginning of the year.

Mr. Gallagher
One of the things I do on a regular basis is have students read mini-biographies about successful people and discuss what they can learn from them as they prepare for their careers.In February we focus on successful African Americans who "fly under the radar" and some kids may not have heard about: Wilma Rudolph, Dr. Ben Carson and Carl Joseph (if you haven't heard of him check him out - he was a one-legged athlete in high school and college).

Mr. Snyder
The Shakespeare class is beginning Othello, with a focus on race relations in the play. Two students in the Journalism class researched, wrote, edited, and published an article about Dr. Martin Luther King. The Sports Literature class is reading sections of The Jackie Robinson Story and discussing the movie Remember The Titans, in a study of the relationship between sports and the Civil Rights movement.

Mrs. Kussler
Our class just got done reading the play Roll of Thunder Hear Me Cry (Adapted from Mildred Taylor's novel by the same name). Our students will also be creating posters representing influential African Americans. (We’ll be using the list of African Americans used by Mr. Facin in technology class so we can deepen the student’s knowledge of these inventors.) Lastly our class will be viewing a documentary about Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Burke
All classes are viewing and completing an assignment on President Obama's State of the Union Address, momentous as it is the first address given by an African American president. AP Government Politics and Economics : In addition to the State of the Union Address, students will be reading the following articles : Howard Zinn, Representative Government : The Black Experience ; Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail; Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet; Eldrige Cleaver, Soul on Ice; Bobby Seale and Huey Newton: Philosophy of the Ten Point Program.