Black History Month
African-American Heroes: A WebQuest
Introduction: Black History Month is a remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. It is celebrated annually in the United States (US) and Canada in February and the United Kingdom in the month of October. The remembrance was founded in 1926 by United States historian Carter G. Woodson as "Negro History Week". Woodson chose the second week of February because it marked the birthdays of two Americans who greatly influenced the lives and social condition of African Americans: former President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Black History Month
Task: This activity will help you think about important contributions made by African-Americans to the US History. Because of time constraints and lab use, you will create a chart/collage that will illustrate how an African-American hero had a positive impact in life today in the United States. Then, you will share your findings with the class in a five-minute presentation. Process: You will be divided in groups of three. Secondly, you will choose an African-American hero to work with. You have a 45-minute session in the lab to find information on the Web and one-week work to put it together for your five-minute presentation. Feel free to use our library resources if available in your site. Some of the questions you may answer to get information are: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Who is/was your chosen African-American hero? What were some important events about his or her life? How did this "hero" impact American society positively? What is this "hero" ed for?
The day of your presentation, make sure you and your partners are prepared to explain the important aspects you were requested to search for. Resources: 1. These Web-links will help you decide on prospective heroes you
want to search about: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/africanamericans/activity/4125.h tml?detoured=1 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/aframer/quiz/bioquiz .shtml 2. In this Web Portal you can find a number of links that can provide you with different links to get biographical information about African-American heroes: http://www.multcolib.org/homework/biohc.html#aabio
Black History Month 3. More information about African-American heroes can also be found
here: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmheroes1.html http://www.factmonster.com/spot/afroambios.html Evaluation: The evaluation and grading of your work will be based on your group's chart and presentation. Group and individual work, originality, and deepness of your final work will be taken into for your grade. Conclusion: Through this set of tasks, you will have learned about the important contributions African-Americans have made to American history in very different fields. This learning will help you reflect on the "important" contributions people from different ethnic groups have also made to our history. Celebrating "the Black History Month" is a way to pay tribute to those who have also made historical changes possible.