Nikki Wallschlaeger's Violin is the featured poem in a lesson that uses music and multiple readings to delve deep into its analysis. After a writing warm-up, learners watch and listen to a video that showcases Regina Carter...

Celebrate Black History Month with the help of 10 ideas that delve deep into the history, major events, contributions, famous African Americans, and sheds light on how scholars today can take a proactive stance on current civil rights...

Pupils have the unique opportunity to learn about the institution of slavery by reading first-hand experiences as described by George Moses Horton, the first slave to publish anti-slavery poetry.

What were the driving forces behind American expansion in the nineteenth century, and what were its effects? Scholars watch a video, read biographies, engage in discussion, write journals and poetry, draw, and create a multimedia...

Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou are featured in a guided inquiry unit. High schoolers research the lives and works of these and other Black women writers and craft an argument, using evidence from their research, to...

Prepare class members for formative assessments of student thinking in reading (FAST-R) with a resource that compares Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Sympathy" and Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird." Readers respond to 10 multiple choice questions and...

A true friend sticks with you through thick and thin. Marlee and Liz, main characters in The Lions of Little Rock, have that type of friendship. Scholars learn vocabulary and answer comprehension questions as they read how the two girls...

Introduce your seventh graders to the Harlem Renaissance with a unit that explores this dynamic period's music, literature, and ideas. The 160-page guide includes a unit calendar, an introduction to the unit, 10 richly detailed lessons...

In this editing worksheet about Gwendolyn Brooks, young writers read and then correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph. The errors range from punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar.

"Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet" is a one page, biographical passage about Gwendolyn Brooks, an African-American poet from Chicago. It is followed by an open-ended question which requires students to provide evidence from the story; it includes...

Nikki Giovanni is one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement and has won numerous awards. Her work ranges from covering topics on race, gender, the African American experience and social issues to children's literature and...

CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each text is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see the...

Jacqueline Woodson describes her experiences growing up as an African American girl in South Carolina and New York in the 1960s. Selected (6) reading passages (grades 3-6) to pair with "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson. [Free...

A learning module that begins with the poem "Learning to Read" by Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online...

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is a poet who draws upon small, personal moments to explore large themes. Common subjects in her poetry include the experiences of women and people of color in America. This poem is from her 2016 collection Haint....

A learning module that begins with the poem "Fastest Woman in the World" by Pat Parker, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through...