Tag: king

Civil Rights, Social Movements

Free Martin Luther King, Jr. Online Quiz

Aren’t online quizzes fun?  They test your knowledge and give you immediate feedback.  Occasionally, BrainPop will have free stuff on their site.  (Click here to see what they are offering for free at the moment.)  They currently have a video and quiz about Martin Luther King, Jr.  The video is very informative but may be a little childish for high schoolers.  However, the 10-question quiz is interactive and would be a great bell ringer or warm-up at the beginning a class or lesson (if you have an interactive board or projector).  Go through each question and have the students collectively pick the correct answer.  It’s not a ground-breaking resource, but it would be a great tool to break the monotony of doing the same thing every day.  This resource may not be free indefinitely, but I used it last month and it’s still free now.

Use this resource to:

  • Gauge your students’ prior knowledge
  • Start a discussion
  • Review previously covered material
  • Fill the last few minutes of class before the bell rings

 

Assignment Ideas, Miscellaneous, Teaching Tips

Biography Book Cover Assignment

If a book was written about your life what would it look like? What picture would be on the cover? What tag line would be used? What would the summary on the back say?

While working on my lesson for Benjamin Franklin, I decided to have my students create a book cover for a biography about him. This would be a great idea to use with any historical figure that you wanted your students to know a lot about.

 

You could use this book cover idea to reinforce the importance of people such as:
  • Christopher Columbus
  • George Washington
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • Andrew Jackson
  • Civil War generals
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Teddy Roosevelt
  • Franklin Roosevelt
  • Dwight Eisenhower
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
My students have to include the following things:
  • A catchy title that reflects the life of the person
  • A picture that represents that person’s life
  • A tag line under the title that gives a little more information (A phrase or one-line summary of this person)
  • A paragraph on the back of the book that gives a summary of the book, which includes some details of this person’s life/interests/importance.  (You may want to give a specific number of details required if you think your students might skimp on the information.)
  • You could also include an optional book endorsement quote by someone who would have known the person. (If the book was about Ben Franklin, you could have something like this… “A great book about a great man.” – Thomas Jefferson)
I whipped up a quick book cover template that I thought I’d share with you.  It would be a good idea to also show your students several copies of real book covers, so they get an idea of what you want.  (Just run down to the media center before class and grab a few.)