Black History Month Activities for Middle School

Student Activities for Black History 6-8

Silent Chalk Walk

The Audacity of Hope

Timeline of Racial Justice

Plot Summary

Plot Diagram for Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Plot Summary

Plot Diagram for Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Biography Poster

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Classroom Exercise for Grades 6-8

Students can read about or research the issues that led up to the civil rights movement and discuss ideas like equality, racism, segregation, and intolerance. A discussion of this sort is also a good segue into talking/learning about different groups that have been discriminated against in the past or present: Jews, Native Americans, Romani, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with cognitive or physical disabilities, Muslims, Latinos, women, the elderly, etc.

Example Questions for Discussion:

What does it mean to be truly equal?
Why is having equality important?
What are "stereotypes" and how do they relate to equality?
What are some of the reasons someone is considered a second-class citizen or inferior? Are they ever valid?

After having a discussion about equality or other topics, have students create a storyboard that combines elements of the conversation. This might be a linear narrative, a spider map about a central theme, or a comparison T-Chart.

Additional Black History Month Activities for 6-8

Create biography posters of a figure that students research.
Read a Langston Hughes Poem and complete a TPCASTT (Title Paraphrase Connotation Attitude Shifts Title Theme) analysis using Storyboard That.
Discuss Black artists like Jacob Lawrence or Faith Ringgold; have students choose one of their images and create a storyboard explaining its artistic or cultural significance.
Have students research famous Black history firsts, "First Black Man/Woman in History to…", and create a storyboard biography on one or more.
Have students create a poster explaining an invention created by a Black person.