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Black History Month Middle School Activities
by Contributing Writer
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Overview
Activities to help middle-school students learn about Black History Month can fit into almost any academic subject. From math and art to literature and even science, lessons can revolve around famous black Americans during the month of February. Remember that activities should be age-appropriate, so coloring books and word searches probably won't spark students' interest.
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English and History
Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most well-known black Americans, gave a very famous speech. While students may be familiar with his "I Have a Dream" address, they will get a better idea of its magnitude by writing their own versions. Have one student read King's speech out loud, then distribute a handout with blank spaces after each "I have a dream that ..." phrase. Ask for volunteers to read their "I Have a Dream Too" speeches.
Another activity appropriate for an English or history class involves trading cards. In a lesson developed by Georgia teacher John Marshall Carter, students are charged with creating trading cards, like baseball cards, for certain black Americans. Develop a list of famous black Americans with the class first, then add your own if more are necessary. Take students to the library to do research. For the project, you will need index cards, dictionaries, encyclopedias and biographies of black Americans. The students write their own short biographies on the back of each card and find a picture of the person to copy and paste to the front of the card. Have the students read one or two of the cards they create during each day of Black History Month.
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Art
To celebrate Black History Month in the art classroom, a simple lesson may go a long way. Have each student choose a famous black American and create a stamp in his honor. You can print out a page that resembles the edges of a stamp. Bring in images of other stamps depicting famous people and pictures of famous black Americans. Encourage students to add special touches, including images of objects that represent the person. This also gives you an opportunity to teach students the basics of drawing portraits.
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Math and Science
Math and science teachers often struggle to find ways to incorporate historic days into lesson plans. For math teachers, have students offer the names of famous black Americans. Do some research and find out when these people were born and when they died. Create a worksheet with those numbers. Have the students calculate life spans and then chart those life spans on a bar graph. For science teachers, there are several black Americans who were famous for their scientific contributions. Have each student choose a doctor, a scientist or an engineer, such as famed Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson, mechanical engineer Elijah McCoy or Halle Tanner Johnson, the first female physician to practice in Alabama. Have the students bring in a prop such as a stethoscope or a beaker to represent the famous black scientist, and write a paragraph or two about the person to share with the class.
