Resources for Educators

Below are links to suggested lessons, films, books, readings, and general teaching guides for Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and beyond. Themes connecting to the 13 principles of the Movement for Black Lives or the demands for the week of action are listed in parentheses where appropriate.

We highly recommend the book Teaching for Black Lives published by Rethinking Schools.

All Grade Levels

Readings for Educators

• A Talk to Teachers by James Baldwin

• What ‘White Folks Who Teach in the Hood’ Get Wrong about Education interview with Dr. Chris Emdin

• Some Considerations When Working with LGBT Students of Color from GLSEN

• Making Black Lives Matter in Our Schools by the editors of Rethinking Schools

• Black Students' Lives Matter: Building the School to Justice Pipeline by the editors of Rethinking Schools

• The Black Joy Experience Resource Guide by Jonathan Lykes and Fresco Steez. Listen to songs. 

Booklists

Early Childhood & Elementary

How to talk to young children about the Black Lives Matter Guiding Principles by Laleña Garcia

Lessons for Early Childhood & Elementary

Monday: Restorative Justice, Empathy and Loving Engagements

• Lesson based on the book One by Kathryn Otoshi [PK-1st]
  A read aloud is to show children that sometimes bullying can occur because someone feels isolated, and we can in fact come together and find common ground as long as we stand up for each other, and stand together

Tuesday: Diversity and Globalism, Ethnic Studies

• What is Community? [K-2nd]
  Students will identify people and places that make their own neighborhoods special
  

• Why Frogs and Snakes Never Play Together [PK-5th]
  Students will read, act out, hear a reading, or watch a performance of a play that addresses the important topic of diversity and will spark a discussion about the topic of prejudice
  

• Lesson based on the book Crossing Bok Chitto by Tim Tingle [2nd-3rd]
  Students will learn about the oral traditions of two different cultures, and how two young children braved friendship and trust and learn about different forms of resistance by enslaved Africans including oral traditions through religion, alliances with other communities, and escaping enslavement to stay together

Wednesday: Queer Affirming, Trans Affirming, Collective Value

• Exploring Gender Stereotypes w/ Role Plays [K-2nd]
  Children will use creative, dramatic expression to consider not only the roots of gender stereotypes, but also their consequences and strategies for counteracting them
  

• Introduction of Transgender and Nonbinary Identities with I Am Jazz [PK-2nd]
  Students will be able to define the words “transgender” and “nonbinary” and give examples of ways to support people of all gender identities

Thursday: Inter-generational, Black families and Black villages

• My Family Rocks! [PK-2nd]
  Students explore the definition of family, learn about different kinds of family structures and explore what makes their own family unique
  

• Understanding My Family’s History [K-5]
  After exposure to relevant literature in class, students will research their family history by interviewing their parents and then tell their story to classmates
  

• Lesson based on the book Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton by Don Tate [4th-5th]
  Students will read the story of George Moses Horton, an enslaved African who taught himself to read, and eventually became a renowned poet and write their own poems about freedom. Students will also learn that there were many forms of resistance by enslaved Africans including efforts to learn and teach others to read and write

Friday: Centering Black Women and Femmes

• Lesson based on the book Milo’s Museum by Zetta Elliott [PK-2nd]
  Discussion questions and class project to accompany Milo’s Museum
  

• Lesson based on the book Child of the Civil Rights Movement [K-2nd]
  Designed to help students make a personal connection to the civil rights movement. The use of food in the story helps students to identify with the civil rights activists, unified by a common goal and engaging in the common practice of fellowship over a meal.
  

• Lesson based on the book Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence by Gretchen Woelfle [3rd-5th]

Featured Books for Early Childhood & Elementary

• All The Colors We Are: The story of how we get our skin color by Katie Kissinger (bilingual)

• Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence by Gretchen Woelfle

• Milo’s Museum by Zetta Elliott

• Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

• Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford

• Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer by Carole Boston Weatherford

• The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch by Chris Barton

• Child of the Civil Rights Movement by Paula Young Shelton

Featured Booklists for Early Childhood & Elementary

• See booklists for all ages above

• Elementary Book List – Organized by Guiding Principles of Black Lives Matter

• Black Books Matter: Children’s Books Celebrating Black Boys

• 26 Children’s Books that Celebrate Black Heroes

Videos for Early Childhood & Elementary

• Sesame Street: Color of Me

• Sesame Street: What I Am

• Sesame Street: I Love My Hair (bilingual)

• Jump Shamador – activist song

Readings for Early Childhood & Elementary

• Teaching Young Children About Race By Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards

• Black is Beautiful By Kara Hinderlie

• Heather’s Mom Got Married: Second Graders Talk about Gay Marriage by Mary Cowhey

• It’s OK to be Neither: Teaching that Supports Gender-Variant Children by Melissa Bollow Tempel

• Beyond Pink and Blue by Robin Cooley

• I Didn’t Know There Were Cities in Africa! By Brenda Randolph and Betsy DeMulder

General Teaching Guides for Early Childhood & Elementary

• #TeachResistance Educators ToolKit

• Resources on Family Diversity from Rethinking Schools

• Civil Discourse in the Classroom from Teaching Tolerance

• Teaching Tolerance Classroom Resources

• Reading Ads with a Social Justice Lens from Teaching Tolerance

• Ready, Set, Respect! from GLSEN

Middle School and High School

Lessons for Middle and High School

People’s History Lessons from the Zinn Education Project

Middle School BLM Mini-Lessons

High School BLM Mini-Lessons

BLM 13 Guiding Principles: Introductory Lesson

Follow Up Activity for Youth

Monday: Restorative Justice, Empathy and Loving engagement

• Promoting Social Imagination Through Interior Monologues [6th-12th]
  Empathy, or “social imagination,” allows students to connect to “the other” with whom, on the surface, they may appear to have little in common
  

• #LastWords [7th-12th]
  Students reflect on the last words of people killed by the police and read and respond to the poem 41 Bullets off Broadway by Willie Perdomo.

Tuesday: Diversity and Globalism, Ethnic Studies

• The Color Line [9th-12th]
  A lesson on the countless colonial laws enacted to create division and inequality based on race that helps students understand the origins of racism in the United States and who benefits
  

• Black Muslims in the United States: An Introductory Activity [6th-12th]
  This interactive lesson introduces participants to Black Muslims in U.S. history through a meet-and-greet activity, empowering participants to combat Islamophobia by sharing stories that challenge unidimensional caricatures of Muslims
  

• ‘If There Is No Struggle…’: Teaching a People’s History of the Abolition Movement [6th-12th]
  In this role play, students become members of the American Anti-Slavery Society, facing many of the real challenges to ending slavery
  

• What is Justice? This lesson provides students with the opportunity to develop their own definition of justice, compare and contrast ideas of justice held by Western and Traditional societies, and identify and explain key components of a just society.
  

• Resistance 101: A Lesson on Social Justice Activists and Strategies [6th-12th]
  This role play activity introduces students to people throughout history, including many young people, who fought for social justice and civic change using a range of strategies. The lesson helps young people recognize their power to challenge injustice.

Wednesday: Queer Affirming, Trans Affirming, Collective Value

• Please see "General Teaching Guides for Middle and High School" for materials

Thursday: Inter-generational, Black Families and Black villages

• Reconstructing the South: A Role Play [9th-12th]
  This role play engages students in thinking about what freedpeople needed in order to achieve—and sustain—real freedom following the Civil War. It’s followed by a chapter from the book Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution on what would happen to the land in the South after slavery ended
  

• Burned Out of Homes and History: Unearthing the Silenced Voices of the Tulsa Race Riot [9th-12th]
  Teaching about patterns of displacement and wealth inequality through the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot

Friday: Centering Black Women and Femmes 

• Maya Angelou’s A Brave and Startling Truth [7th-12th]
  Students are challenged to create a performance piece to help the rest of the class understand the message or theme of Angelou’s poem

Featured Books for Middle and High School

• Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

• See booklists for all ages above

Films for Middle and High School

• PBS Black in Latin America
  Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uncovers Latin America’s African roots in this four-part series.

• Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock
  Documentary on the life of Daisy Bates, best know for her role with the Little Rock Nine.

• Ruby Bridges
  The true story of Ruby Bridges, the six-year-old girl who helped to integrate the all-white schools in New Orleans.

• 13th
  Ava DuVernay’s in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality.

• Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
  Documentary about the life of peace, labor, and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.

• Intersectionality 101
  Learn about intersectionality with this student-friendly video from Teaching Tolerance.

• All God’s Children
  A political, social, and religious analysis of sexual orientation within the context of the traditional African American values of freedom, inclusion, and the Christian ethic.

• Hidden Figures
  Based on the story of three African-American women working at NASA who served as the brains behind the launch into orbit of astronaut John Glenn.

• Eyes on the Prize
  A comprehensive fourteen-part documentary history of the Civil Rights Movement.

• Sylvia Woods: “You Have to Fight for Freedom”
  Dramatic reading of an interview with Sylvia Woods, a pioneer in the struggle of African-American and women trade unionists, who describes why she decided not to sing the “Star Spangled Banner” at school in 1919 when she was 10 years old.

• What Happened, Miss Simone?
  Using never-before-heard recordings, rare archival footage and her best-known songs, this is the story of legendary singer and activist Nina Simone.

Readings for Middle and High School Educators

• Black Like Me by Renee Watson

• A Guideline for Teaching about Controversial Topics from Morningside Center

• Happening Yesterday, Happening Tomorrow: Teaching the ongoing murders of black men by Renee Watson

• Home Buying While Brown or Black from Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers (Gutstein and Peterson)

General Teaching Guides for Middle and High School

• Teaching for Black Lives published by Rethinking Schools

• Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers by Gutstein and Peterson

• Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution: An Inquiry Into the Civil War and Reconstruction by American Social History Project

• Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality published by Rethinking Schools

• Beyond Tolerance: A Resource Guide for Addressing LGBTQI Issues in Schools by NYCoRE

• Mikva Challenge Curriculum

• Civil Discourse in the Classroom – Teaching Tolerance

• GSA Network: LGBTQ Inclusive Lessons and Activities

• Lessons on the Civil Rights Movement

• Teaching about Freedom Schools

Bilingual/Multilingual

Black Lives Matter Thirteen Guiding Principles in Spanish

Books for Early Childhood and Elementary

• All the Colors We Are / Todos los colores de nuestra piel by Katie Kissinger
  (Bilingual English/Spanish)

  • Teaching idea

  • Mandarin translation

• Benny Doesn’t Like to Be Hugged by Zetta Elliott

  • Spanish translation

• Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle

  • Spanish translation

  • Mandarin translation

• Honey, I Love by Eloise Greenfield

  • Teaching idea

  • Spanish Translation

• Islandborn / Lola by Junot Diaz
  (Available in English and Spanish)

• One by Kathryn Otoshi

  • Teaching idea

  • Amharic translation

  • Mandarin translation

  • Spanish translation

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Additional Resources