Keynote Quilting for Black History Month

This year’s Black History Month Theme is Resistance. The Library of Congress has a Free to Use and Reuse Primary Source collection titled: Images of African American Women Changemakers.  Here is a blog post in Teaching with the Library of Congress by Danna Bell about that collection.

And we all know that to get learning to linger and make a difference in actions and attitudes, it helps if learners are involved in the activity creation process of a commemorative or celebratory history month.

So I thought about how this theme might be crafted into a Challenge Based Learning lesson, starting with the Engagement phase:

• Big idea - Black History Month
• Essential question - How can we highlight the contributions of African American Women throughout Black History?
• Challenge - Spread the word on Black History Women Changemakers

Your learners with come up with their own challenges.

And perhaps one of the activities they select, might be a digital quilt in Keynote. Learners collaborate on stitching the story of the contributions of African American women into a class quilt and then print or digitally share that quilt around the school or community.

Quilts have been made to honor heroes or causes and stitching for a purpose is a way to tell a story. Actual quilting in a class would be marvelous but if you don’t have the time or supplies, digital quilting can be a quick substitute, still conveying a message while also emphasizing research and learning.

To try with learners, create a template in Keynote emulating a quilt. This example is from a pattern in the Library of Congress.  In each square add a shape that you’d like a photo of a Changemaker to be “masked into.” (Add Shape and photo to a Keynote slide, tap the Shape and the photo, then select “Mask with Shape” from the Format Menu.)

Now have learners share and inspire. This activity can be applied to a variety of topics and content areas.

Here are a couple other posts in our Apple Education Community Social Studies “bucket” that would work for Black History Month (and beyond).

• Creating History Exhibits
• About this Place - History + Apple Maps Map Cards  

What other activities or creative and impactful lessons have you set up for Black History Month? Please share!