Civil Rights and Service Learning

This time line, titled "African American Freedom Struggle Timeline: An International Human Rights Perspective," appeared in the April 2008 edition of OAH Magazine of History.

Below are links to reports developed to provide models of action research reports for educators participating in the Teaching American History Grant module on Civil Rights/Service Learning. The documents use data collected from module participants to report on the success and needs of the module. Note the appreciation of confidentiality in the reports (names and other identifying information are removed from the report) and note that this report is based solely on assessments appearing in the form of action research reports. A true action research report would address many pedagogical elements in addition to assessment data (e.g., instructional design and delivery, student participation and attitudes toward instructional delivery). Phase I: "Plan of Action"Phase II: "Data Plan"Phase III: "Data Collection"

Lecture: Michael S. Green, Ph.D. — "Civil Rights in Las Vegas"

I highly recommend the StoryPath unit plan by Margit McGuire titled "Freedom's Summer." During this unit, students become personally involved with civic education and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The unit is targeted at students in grades 5-8. The curriculum and teacher's guide (including all needed resources) is available for free online. For teachers hoping to teach similar concepts (e.g., service learning, civic responsibility, making community change) in the younger grades, I recommend the StoryPath unit titled "The Park." It is also available for free online.

I also highly recommend the resources from Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center that provides educational resources to teachers. All their kits are free to teachers, paid by generous gifts from supporters of the Center. In addition, they publish a biannual magazine about teaching tolerance in the classroom. The magazine is also available free to educators. A list of their kits is available online and you may order kits using this form.

Lecture: Christy G. Keeler, Ph.D. — "Introduction to Service Learning"

Lecture: Michael S. Green, Ph.D. — "Civil Rights: The 1950s"

Lecture: DeAnna Beachley, Ph.D. — "Civil Rights: The 1950s"

Lecture Slides, Session 1 Lecture Slides, Session II

I highly recommend the Project Citizen curriculum, a product of the Center for Civic Education. There are several curricula available for varying age groupings (beginning with a grade 4-8 text) that guide students through the decision to do a project, development of an action plan, implementation of that plan, and evaluation and presentation of the results. A benefit of the curriculum is that students who participate in the program (beginning in fifth grade) are eligible to compete by sharing their projects with other Project Citizen participating teams. To obtain a copy of the Project Citizen curriculum, teachers must receive training. Pam Bledsoe is the Regional Coordinator for Southern Nevada for Project Citizen and is eager to help teachers receive the training needed to participate in the process. Additionally, Marcia Ellis is the Law-Related Education Coordinator and State Coordinator for Project Citizen. She can also help with training and assistance throughout the program. Please contact either Pam or Marcia if you have an interest in expanding your service learning experience through the use of the Project Citizen materials and methods. An invitation to participate in Nevada competition is available here. Information about the research supporting use of civic education programs including Project Citizen is available here.