Lesson Plans: Historic African American Schools in Dallas

Objectives: Students will gain a deeper understanding of the significance of historic African American schools in Dallas.

Social Studies TEKS:

• TEK 7.21C Organize and interpret information from outlines, reports, databases, and visuals including graphs, charts, timelines, and maps
• TEK 7.7C Trace the civil rights and equal rights movements of various groups in Texas in the 20th century and identify key leaders in these movements

Suggested Time:

Approximately 2-4 class periods (depending upon the depth of the projects)

Materials & Resources:

• Printed photos from the Marion Butts collection
• Construction paper and/or copy paper
• Markers or colored pencils
• Glue & scissors

Student Project:

• Students will be assigned to heterogeneous groups of 3-4 students. Each group will be assigned a historical African American school in Dallas.
  • Each student should have a role:
    • Editor – In charge of the overall layout & look of the yearbook and editing errors in writing
    • Writer(s) – Responsible for writing the school history and biography
    • “Photographer” – Selects photographs from the collection and writes captions for each photo
• Students will create a yearbook for an assigned school including:
  • Cover
  • School history
  • Biography of the school’s namesake
  • Student life
  • Clubs & sports
  • Academics

Discussion Questions:

• Why do you think the schools were named for these particular individuals?
• How does this school compare to your school today?

Extension Activities:

• After looking through all of the yearbooks, students can decide which school they would want to attend and why.