Showing posts with label slavery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label slavery. Show all posts

Monday, February 05, 2018

Teaching Slavery

Recently a Bronx teacher was removed from the classroom, after choosing three Black students to demonstrate the conditions on slave ships. Allegedly, when one of the students giggled, the teacher stepped on her back. Not an effective lesson.
Newsweek (http://www.newsweek.com/teacher-stepped-black-students-back-slavery-lesson-798405)

A similar incident occurred in 2008, and was blogged about on this site.
http://educationservicesnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/teaching-african-american-history-and.html

The Southern Poverty Law Center's -Teaching Tolerance Project has released a report on " Teaching the Hard History of American Slavery"
https://www.splcenter.org/teaching-hard-history-american-slavery

Because:
  • schools are not adequately teaching the history of American slavery.
  •  Educators are not sufficiently prepared to teach it. 
  • Textbooks do not have enough material about it.

Take the Quiz- How much do you know about slavery?

The SPLC found that:
Slavery is not simply an event in our history; it’s central to our history.

American enslavement of Africans shaped our country's sociopolitical institutions and formed the cornerstone of our industrial revolution. Today the persistent disparities African Americans face — and the backlash that seems to follow every African-American advancement — trace their roots to slavery and its aftermath.
To understand the world today we must understand slavery. But SPLC research shows our schools are failing to teach the hard history of African enslavement. 
They surveyed U.S. high school seniors and social studies teachers, analyzed a selection of state content standards, and reviewed 10 popular U.S. history textbooks. They found:
  • High school seniors struggle on even the most basic questions about American enslavement of Africans.
  • Teachers who are serious about teaching slavery struggle to provide deep coverage of the subject in the classroom.
  • Popular textbooks fail to comprehensively cover slavery and enslaved peoples.
  • State content standards are timid and fail to set appropriately high expectations. 

Use these resources:
A comprehensive guide for teaching and learning this critical topic—
A Framework for Teaching American Slavery.

Here are a few key elements of the framework and the accompanying resources:
  • Key Concepts and Summary Objectives — Important big ideas and critical content students must know to understand the historical significance of slavery.
  • Primary Source Texts — The Teaching Hard History Text Library features over 100 sources, all with text-dependent questions.
  • Teaching Tools — Browse six sample Inquiry Design Models, based on The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.
  • Podcast — Hosted by Professor Hasan Jeffries, this series brings us the lessons we should have learned in school through the voices of leading scholars and educators.
  • Student Quiz — Use this 12-question quiz as a formative assessment.
  • Webinar — Join us live on February 13 or learn on demand.
Some other resources
Books
Maroon teachers : teaching the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans/ Sandra Gift (HT1072 .G55 2008)
Trading souls : Europe's transatlantic trade in Africans/ Hilary Beckles (HT1322 .B434 2007)
Saving souls : the struggle to end the transatlantic trade in Africans / Hilary Beckles (HT1322 .B27 2007)
Inhuman traffick : the international struggle against the transatlantic slave trade : a graphic history/Rafe Blaufarb (Juv. 306.3 .B645i)

Websites
African Passages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
In Motion: the African American Experience
http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm?site=html


Monday, December 08, 2008

Teaching African American History and TTEA

On Friday, December 5, 2008, the New York Daily News reported the following:

New York teacher binds black students during history lesson on slavery
By DORIAN BLOCK
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, December 5th 2008, 4:57 PM

A suburban middle school teacher who bound the hands and feet of two black girls, then made them crawl under desks representing slave ships, has sparked outrage by one of the girl's mother and the local NAACP chapter....Northern Rockland School District Superintendent Brian Monahan said he was having "conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons."
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/12/05/2008-12-05_new_york_teacher_binds_black_students_du.html

Research in teaching the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans (TTEA) has resulted in the development of several educational websites, with global and multicultural perspectives. One site is from the acclaimed Schomburg Center in New York,it is called In Motion: The African American Migration Experience and is located at http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm
It includes text, photographs and lesson plans (http://www.inmotionaame.org/education/)

UNESCO also has an interesting educational website called African Passages http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/trans_atlantic_slave_trade, which shows the connection between African, Caribbean and North American cultures.Lesson plans are available at http://www.cofc.edu/unescoafricanpassages/teaching.htm

Thursday, February 14, 2008

African American Lives 2 is on TONIGHT!

Building on the widespread acclaim of African American Lives (2006)[This video is in the library V2615] and Oprah's Roots (2007), AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES 2 again journeys deep into ancestry of an all-new group of remarkable individuals, offering an in-depth look at the African-American experience and race relations throughout U.S. history. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. returns as series host, guiding genealogical investigations down through the 20th century, Reconstruction, slavery and early U.S. history, and presenting cutting-edge genetic analysis that locates participants' ancestors in Africa, Europe and America. Joining Professor Gates in the new broadcast are poet Maya Angelou, author Bliss Broyard, actor Don Cheadle, actor Morgan Freeman, theologian Peter Gomes, publisher Linda Johnson Rice, athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, radio personality Tom Joyner, comedian Chris Rock, music legend Tina Turner, and college administrator Kathleen Henderson, who was selected from more than 2,000 applicants to have her family history researched and DNA tested alongside the series' well-known guests.


Broadcast Times for the Henry Louis Gates Special:

Channel 50 (WNGN)
African American Lives: The Road Home; A Way Out of No Way
Thursday, February 14, 9:00pm
The second-season premiere features Tom Joyner.

African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Saturday, February 16, 3:00pm
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors.

African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Thursday, February 21, 9:00pm
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors.

WNGN Digital Channel
(Check Listings for Channel)


African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Thursday, February 21, 9:00pm
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors.



Channel 13 (WNET)

African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Saturday, February 16, 3:00pm
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors

WNET Digital Channel
(Check Listings for Channel)

African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Friday, February 15, 11:00am
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors.

African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Sunday, February 17, 9:00am
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors.

African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Monday, February 18, 12:00pm
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors.


Channel 21 (WLIW)

African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Sunday, February 17, 9:00am
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors.

African American Lives: We Come from People; The Past is Another Country
Monday, February 18, 12:00pm
Morgan Freeman's great-grandmother; Peter Gomes's ancestors.