Topic: Black History
Instructor: Mr. Bathen Caffee
Time Line: 1840's-2010
Classroom Assignments: Black History Worksheets, Videos, and Research Papers on various influential African Americans throughout the history of the United States.
Activity: Black History Program
My field time for the week: 10 hrs
Within Mr. Caffee's class, I was able to observe the students learning about Black History. On Monday, the students watched about the underground railroad and how Harriet Tubman helped to free over hundreds of slaves throught the course of ten years. After the video students had to create a timeline of Ms. Tubman's events. The following day on 2/16/10, students had to create a map of the routes that Ms. Tubman and fellow slaves took to reach freedom. On Wednesday, Mr. Caffee was discussing the details of the black history program that was to take place on Friday as well as discussing the research papers that students had to turn in on Thursay pertaining to an influential African American and their contributes to American Society. Next, students watched a video about the Civil Rights Movement titled "Eyes On The Prize". After the video, students had to write a 2 page essay of the events that they saw on the video. This video is long, so they only watched 30 minutes of it on Wednesday, and 10 minutes of it on Thursday. For the remainder of class on Thursday, students presented their Research papers.
On Friday, I was able to watch and enjoy the Black History program that took place. The timeline of the plays and presentations took place from the early 1800's to 2010. Students honored such inflential African Americans such as Fredrick Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, and Michael Jackson.
Overall, I enjoyed my week at Martha Gaskin Middle School in Mr. Caffeee's class. It was very entertaining. I enjoyed the insight that he brought to his lectures, the postive reinforcement of students filling out timeline worksheets and creating visuals of map routes of the underground rail road, to the creativity that was displayed in the black history program. Two thumbs up!
