Grade 8: Reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement

After a meaningful trip to visit the sites and museums dedicated to remembering the Civil Rights Movement, students returned this week and spent more than two days to a project designed to let them creatively express their learning. 
After a meaningful trip to visit the sites and museums dedicated to remembering the Civil Rights Movement, students returned this week and spent more than two days to a project designed to let them creatively express their learning.
 
“The primary objective is to give kids a way to process the more somber and emotional aspects of the trip,” explains history teacher, Jane Maslanka. “This hands-on approach can be a safer way for students to demonstrate their understanding and share what impacted them most.”
 
The creative pieces are accompanied by well-structured justifications to explain the themes and inspiration. Some chose to represent the inspirational words of activist Martin Luther King, Jr. Others shared themes of justice, perseverance and hope. Many students were impacted by the role that children played in the movement. 
 
In the Gates lab this week, Ruth Herrlinger (8) was at work painting a wooden chair in rainbow colors to represent equality. She wants to honor the one child who survived the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four other girls.
 
Owen Robert (8) was affected by the class’ walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, and chose to wrap a wooden stick, or billy club, in racist statements to show how poorly the peaceful crowd of marchers was treated on Bloody Sunday.
 
Sadie Burke (8) chose four leaders who died or were unfairly jailed during the movement. She is arranging their initials on a wooden stool to represent climbing toward social justice.
 
On Friday, November 16, all projects will be on display in the Gates Middle School Building where each eighth grader will spend time studying and assessing each piece of art. Seventh graders, faculty and staff have been invited as well. The top three projects will be presented at an upcoming Middle School assembly and students will continue to study the Civil Rights Movement after the Thanksgiving break.
 
The annual trip takes eighth graders to Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma, Birmingham and Memphis on a journey of understanding, empathy and maturity. 
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Graland Country Day School

Graland Country Day School is a private school in Denver, Colorado, serving students in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. Founded in Denver in 1927, Graland incorporates a rich, experiential learning approach in a traditional classroom setting, emphasizing the development of globally and socially conscious leaders who excel academically.