LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

The Civil Rights Movement in context

This online course investigates the precursors to the Civil Rights Movement, its leadership, its opposition, and its legacy, including lesser-studied events of the movement and primary sources.

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Course description

Many students know little of the Civil Rights Movement other than Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Go beyond the movement’s familiar figures and relive the experiences of the freedom riders, the students in the SNCC, and the countless everyday people who marched, boycotted, protested, and volunteered to make the movement happen. We’ll explore the Civil Rights Movement from all of these perspectives using first-hand accounts from the people who lived this important history.

The instructor will assume that the main historical outlines of the movement are familiar to K-12 teachers — instead of recounting that basic history, we’ll spend much of our time delving into lesser-studied events of the movement and the primary sources that will allow us to explore our own ideas about the movement and its meanings in detail.

The best way to learn history is by doing history. This course will allow for the opportunity for deep historical analysis and interpretation using primary sources. We’ll tackle documents, images, newspaper accounts, artistic expressions, film, and other sources. By doing so, we’ll develop our own arguments and ideas about the movement, and help our future students do the same. Many of the resources we will use have been recently added to the Internet and they should be exciting additions to the course, and to historical scholarship more broadly. As you mine these sources, you’ll hopefully enjoy the historical process and also get some great ideas for classroom activities for your students.

The instructor has selected websites and multimedia resources that will give participating teachers access to literally thousands of documents including newspaper accounts, oral history interviews, government documents, photographs, works of art, film clips, and more. As a participant, you will have the opportunity to analyze these sources through engaging activities to create a lesson plan for classroom use; to receive individualized, constructive feedback and answers to content-oriented questions from a well-versed instructor; and to join other teachers from across the state in lively online discussions throughout the course — all on your own schedule from home or from your school’s computers.

Course objectives

  • To expand teachers’ knowledge of the civil rights Movement in its historical context.
  • To provide access to a wide variety of Internet-based primary and secondary sources on civil rights history that teachers can use for their own professional growth and/or in their classrooms.
  • To engage K-12 teachers as adult learners through creative, interesting assignments that will not only challenge teachers to expand their own understanding of course content, but also provide models for potentially useful assignments that could be adapted to the K-12 classroom.
  • To provide a forum for meaningful discussion of historical content and pedagogy related to the teaching of civil rights history and related subjects.
  • To allow teachers the time, resources, supportive community, and assistance that will help them develop an original, high quality lesson plan that they can use immediately in their classrooms and, if they choose, share with other teachers through the course discussion forum and by submitting their lesson plan for consideration for publication on LEARN NC.

Course information

Syllabus
You can view full the course syllabus here.
Audience
Though the primary audience is social studies and history teachers, teachers of any subject and grade level are encouraged to participate.
Time commitment
5-7 hours per week
Duration
Eight weeks
Credits
3.0 CEUs

Standards alignment

North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards (2009)

  • Goal 3: Teachers know the content they teach.
    • Objective 3.02: Teachers know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty.
  • Goal 4: Teachers facilitate learning for their students.
    • Objective 4.03: Teachers use a variety of instructional methods.
    • Objective 4.05: Teachers help students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
  • Goal 5: Teachers reflect on their practice.