Mar 01, 2023 2023-03-01
Digital Learning • Learning Support
Learning Companions to Films Focusing on Social Justice and Race Relations
Ava DuVernay, the filmmaker behind films for television and theaters, including When They See Us, Colin in Black & White, and Queen Sugar, has released a free online resource that includes lesson plans, or “learning companions,” which teachers can use to accompany instruction about her films. The resources include tools to examine voting rights, for example, after students watch Selma, which centers on three months in Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and the harrowing 1965 march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, capital of the state.
The learning companions focus on race relations and social justice issues, in the past and present day. Some lesson plans focus on how the Jim Crow laws still reverberate today. In the post–Reconstruction Era, state and local laws disenfranchised Black voters by restricting access to polling centers. Students also learn how nearly 2,000 Black Americans, including formerly enslaved people, were elected to serve in political office during Reconstruction.
Each learning companion includes Themes, Objectives and Key Points, Essential Questions, Classroom Activities, and Resources for Self-Reflection and Deeper Learning. The lesson plans in each learning companion can easily be modified, remixed, and adapted by teachers to meet their students’ needs. The learning companions can be used as standalone units or integrated into existing lessons.
Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Social Studies Media Literacy
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