Respect for all: Significant people from the past (Ruby Bridges, Bessie Coleman and Frederick Douglass)

This activity was used with children in key stage 1, year 2.

Context

Most of the children in this school are from minority ethnic communities. Many are bilingual learners who are not yet fluent in English. Language development plays an important role in the teaching and learning of history (eg there is a focus on the vocabulary of chronology and on the historical period being studied as well as general communication).

The teachers wanted the work to be engaging, relevant, stimulating and not too heavily dependent on writing. They chose examples to help build self-esteem and respect for others, and to help develop the children's own orientation towards positive goals in life.

Aim

• To learn about the lives of some black people who were determined to make a difference, who have had to struggle against injustice and who achieved something significant and inspirational.

Activity objective

• To develop the following:
• • skills in placing events and objects in chronological order;
  • understanding of terms relating to the passing of time;
  • understanding of motivation (why people do things);
  • understanding of the consequences of actions and events;
  • understanding of change and continuity;
  • skills in using historical evidence;
  • skills in communicating knowledge of history.

Activity description

The enquiry was planned to take one half of one term. Two teachers planned to spend two weeks on each of the people from history chosen for study. Before the start of the enquiry, the children had been introduced to timelines relating to their own lives and to the lives of people in the past, who were alive before the children's own living memory.

Ruby Bridges (sessions 1 and 2)

The children had heard the story of six-year-old Ruby Bridges during story time before the history sessions.

Session 1

In the first part of the session, the teachers reviewed the story with the whole class, asking questions such as:

How long ago is this story?
Where is it happening?
Why is this happening?
What do Ruby and her parents decide to do?
What do we think about this?
How do you feel about segregation?
Would you have acted in the same way as Ruby did?

The resources to support this first session included:

• a ready-prepared timeline to help children understand '40 years ago';
• a world map to show the children where they are in England and that Mississippi is in the Southern States of the USA;
• the story book to remind the children about the new laws to integrate segregated schools.

The second part of the session was devoted to sequencing the main aspects of the story. The children's sequencing and literacy skills were supported in a range of ways. Some children sequenced ready-prepared pictures and captions, some wrote their own captions, others produced the whole sequence with their own writing.

Session 2

The children were told that Ruby is still alive, although she is older now. They looked at a recent photo of her taken from the web and they put it on their timeline. They were asked to think what they would like to ask her if they could meet her. In this session, the main aim was to compose questions rather than answer them. The teachers hoped to communicate with Ruby Bridges through her Foundation later on.

This second session was designed to develop understanding and to develop enquiry skills, including skills for oral history to be used later on.

The next part of the session aimed to help children think about the significance of Ruby Bridge's actions in 1963. The children learnt they were going to make a book for other children called Why we remember Ruby Bridges and were invited to brainstorm and discuss what parts of Ruby's story to include. The children chose what to draw and write about from these ideas, and drafted their work to be produced later on the computer and made into a book.

Bessie Coleman (sessions 3 and 4)

The pupils had already heard a story about Bessie Coleman during story time before the history session.

Session 3

This session was similar to the first Ruby Bridges session. The children were given pictures of early aviators and aeroplanes, and other aspects of life in the early twentieth century (eg cars, clothes) and asked to place them on a timeline. The teachers also made links with Ruby's story, since Bessie's life was affected by discrimination against black people and possibly against women. The children thought about how Bessie decided to make her life better and moved from this into sequencing work to organise Bessie's story.

Session 4

The second session used the drama technique of hot-seating to help children review what they had learnt and understood. The children prepared questions in small groups and then questioned 'Bessie', (who was the teacher in role). Afterwards, the children talked about why we remember Bessie and her courage and determination.

Frederick Douglass (session 5)

The children heard the story of Frederick Douglass learning to read in their story time.

A picture of the young Frederick Douglass was put on the timeline (160 years ago), as was one of Frederick as an adult. The children talked about how long ago Frederick lived and whether it was before or after Bessie Coleman and Ruby Bridges. They made links with the themes introduced in the previous sessions and also found out that long ago some people were not free but were slaves. The main activity was to role-play young Frederick's efforts to learn to read, and then how he learnt to write. Some children developed dialogue in groups.

Drawing the enquiry together (session 6)

In a whole-class group the children talked about what they had learnt about people who tried to change their lives. Individually or in pairs, the children chose one person from the three they had studied. They identified three things they thought were significant about their person. These were things that they would like to tell someone else. The children then told each other about the significant aspects of their chosen person's life while the teacher recorded their thoughts under a picture of each of the three people.

Lastly, the children produced a drawing with a caption about their chosen person.

Commentary

There was a common theme in the three people chosen: all the stories were set in the southern states of America and all three people had to struggle with racism. All three triumphed through their own courage and determination. However, to help the children with the concepts of chronology, change and continuity, the teachers chose three people from different periods, starting with a person who is still alive, through to someone from 160 years ago. Stories from the person's childhood were chosen to help the class identify and empathise with them.

The people chosen allowed the teachers to do related work about the children's own goals and hopes for life, about the power of prayer, forgiveness, courage, concern to help other people. These concepts connect with citizenship, PSHE and RE.

Resources

Coles, R, The Story of Ruby Bridges, Scholastic, 1995

Joseph, L, Fly Bessie, Fly, Simon and Schuster, 1998

Keenan, S, Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Freedom Fighter, Scholastic, 1995

Walvoord Girard, L, Young Frederick Douglass: The Slave Who Learned to Read, Albert Whitman and Co., 1994

The history schemes of work can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net

History introduction

All subjects and activities

Respect for all introduction