On this 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, we are pleased to announce that the Kellogg Foundation has funded to a two-year initiative on teaching about the Civil Rights Movement and labor history in Mississippi. The grant to Teaching for Change supports a teacher fellowship, lessons and other resource development, and student opportunities.
A monthly newsletter will alert educators to these resources and share stories from teachers and students across the state. (Sign up to receive the newsletter.)
A group of partners are providing guidance for the work, including historians, professors, archivists, and veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.
Here is summary of the initiative goals and objectives.
Broad Goal
Teachers will draw on Mississippi’s civil rights movement and labor history to positively impact their students:
- academic performance, particularly reading, writing, and critical thinking;
- civic engagement;
- personal racial identity and race relations.
Specific Goals
- Establish a sustainable network of classroom language arts, social studies, and history teachers in grades 6–12 for teaching hands-on, inquiry based U.S. history through the lens of race and class in Mississippi history.
- Increase student understanding of Mississippi’s labor and civil rights history through sponsorship and coordination of the local Mississippi history award for the National History Day competition in Mississippi.
- Facilitate teaching Mississippi’s labor and Civil Rights Movement history through posting and sharing lessons and other resources for free access.
Objectives
At least sixty teachers will be able to effectively:
- use the Question Formulation Technique, Socratic Seminar, and other effective methods of inquiry-based education
- connect Mississippi history to the curriculum in age appropriate and engaging ways
- use role plays and/or dramatization in their classrooms
- create meaningful field experiences
- evaluate student growth in the areas of critical thinking, civic engagement indicators, and knowledge of Mississippi CRM history
- teach U.S. history through the lens of Mississippi history with a focus on race, class, and gender
At least sixty teachers will have access to a professional learning community that will lead to:
- peer observations and exchanges
- support and affirmation for teaching outside the textbook
- an opportunity to learn from/with and to teach peers
- greater likelihood of staying in the profession in Mississippi
Every teacher in the state (and beyond) will have access to lessons and vetted resources for teaching about Mississippi history from the bottom up with an emphasis on the long history of the Civil Rights Movement. These lessons will be shared online for free access and by teachers in the learning community at school district events and conferences.
Students of the 60+ teacher fellows will have a greater chance of truly learning from history – thereby improving their outcomes on the state tests and learning lessons from history for life today.
Students throughout the state will be encouraged to focus on local history through the Local History Awards at the Mississippi History Day competition. As in 2013 and 2014, six awards will be offered to students.
For more information, contact project director Julian Hipkins III.