Please note, this class is 1 of a 6 part grade level series from Culture Corner Academy. Each class provides a full year of instruction. After completion of Part 1 a private registration link will be given to returning families who wish to move on to Part 2. Each grade level provides more in depth or different material. Ages are flexible, however please attempt to keep kids within 1 year of the age range for socialization purposes. 

📚 Class Information- Grade 5-African Americans and the Arts Throughout US History

Welcome to Culture Corner Academy! The ULTIMATE interactive FLEX experience! Upon enrollment get access to our virtual school. Each week enter a different area of the school to learn your tasks for the week. All weeks are posted in the platform so you can work at your own pace. Work ahead, take your time, the choice is yours! We also will host fun interactive games and activities  including: 

-Game of the Week in the Gym (GimKit, Kahoot, Blooket, etc) 
-Create Your Own Lunch Tray in the Cafeteria! (virtually)
-Decorate Your Desk
-Read of the Week in the Libray 

Flexible Schedule Information : This flexible schedule class will mirror the live class offered with a few difference due to its flexible schedule. This class will be hosted by me on a various 3rd party sites to help build engagement through out the semester. The class will mainly be ran through an interactive site called Genially.  Learners will then be able to self direct their learning by completing different tasks set out. Examples of these would be direct instruction/lecture (by me recorded with slides using Canva and ED puzzle), supplemental videos via Youtube or a other site, discussion questions which should be answered via the Outschool classroom, Warm Up/Ice Breaker Questions using Padlet. Account creation is not required for any of these 3rd party materials. Direct instruction lessons via Ed puzzle will contain check for understanding questions throughout. 

The history of the United States is indelibly intertwined with the history of people stolen from the African continent and forcibly brought to the Americas to live in servitude. Discover how this early history of Africans in America later gave way to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and the demographics and culture of Black Americans today.

African American culture has been a part of the history of the United States for some 400 years. In this class learners will learn about the development of culture unique to African Americans and the changes that have affected black music, literature, and food. When you think about American culture, what comes to mind? Maybe cheeseburgers, football, and shopping at the mall, all popular American pastimes. However, the many people who live in the United States reflect a variety of cultural backgrounds. African American culture, including the music, food, and language of Black communities and people, dates back to the early 1600s when Africans were first brought to America enslaved.

 📕 Class Information- Grade 5- African Americans and the Arts Throughout US History

 Fall Semester (PART 1)

Week 1-4:  Faith Ringgold | Underground Railroad and Quilt Codes

-Students will learn about Underground Railroad and Quilt Codes
-Students will learn "What Was the Underground Railroad?"
-Students will learn that Quaker abolitionist, Isaac T. Hopper, was the man who built the Underground Railroad initially.
-Students will learn about the numerous Underground Railroad routes ran across the country, with the exception of any state or city that was not considered free. 
-Students will learn that  a safe house along the Underground Railroad was often indicated by a quilt hanging from a clothesline or windowsill. These quilts were embedded with a kind of code, so that by reading the shapes and motifs sewn into the design, an enslaved person on the run could know the area’s immediate dangers or even where to head next.
-How Did the Underground Railroad Work?
-Why Was the Underground Railroad Important?
-Students will learn about Faith Ringgold, aka “Faith Willi Jones” was born in Harlem, NY. She was always politically involved in fighting for the equality of women and black rights issues.​ She is most known for storytelling and textile arts. Ringgold took the traditional craft of quilt making (which has its roots in the slave culture of the south) and used it to tell stories of her life and the black community. ​She also wrote a book, “Tar Beach” which pictures many of her story quilts.


Week 4-8: Jacob Lawrence | The Great Migration 

-Students will learn about Jacob Lawrence  who was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey.​ For most of the 70’s-80’s he was a professor of art at the University of Washington at Seattle.​ When he wasn’t teaching he was painting. He had a very distinct style of realism that portrayed scenes and landscapes of African American life and history.
-Students will learn about the Great Migration through discussion, analyzing primary sources in cooperative groups, watching a TED Talk, and reading an excerpt of a secondary source.
-During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans relocated from the rural South to cities in the North, West and Midwest. A variety of factors contributed to their movement including harsh segregation laws, better job opportunities, education and an overall improved way of life. As they settled in urban areas, they confronted economic, political and social challenges. This lesson focuses on the first migration that occurred in the early 1900s.


Week 8-12 : Gordon Parks | Jim Crow South 

-Gordon Parks created enough work for 10 artists. Born into poverty, segregation, and social upheaval, he was a self-taught filmmaker, writer, and composer but became widely known for his photography. As a photographer for the Farm Security Administration and later for the Office of War Information, he documented social conditions, elevating the work to an art form through beautiful compositions, iconography, and symbolism.
-What are Jim Crow Laws?
-Timeline of Jim Crow Laws
-The Jim Crow laws timeline stretches across a century. How did Jim Crow laws affect African Americans? From the end of the Civil War through the 1960s, these laws legalized discrimination against African Americans in all areas of life. 



Spring Semester (PART 2/New Registration)
*New private registration will be given for spring semester for those who complete Part 1 in the fall*

Week 1-8 : Augusta Savage | Harlem Renaissance 

-Sculptor Augusta Savage was a trailblazing superstar. She moved to Harlem in 1921 to study at Cooper Union art school, and when she was denied a scholarship to study at an art school in Paris, she galvanized support from the press and artistic community until the school relented and allowed her to attend. When she returned to New York, she opened her own gallery, giving others the opportunity she might have been denied. Savage was classically trained and created in classical traditions. Her work was exaggerated and idealized, and sometimes it betrayed the barriers she faced to make her art.
-Students will learn about the social, cultural and political forces which gave rise to the Harlem Renaissance. They will also learn about the influences that inspired the work of the Harlem Renaissance’s artists and musicians. Finally, students will be given several opportunities to create their own Harlem Renaissance–inspired work.

Week 8-12 : Alma Thomas | HBCU's 

-Alma Thomas was born in 1891 in Columbus, Georgia. Thomas was the first student to graduate with a fine arts degree from Howard University.​ She was an art teacher for junior high school students for over three decades. Later in life, she spent more time painting and was the first African-American woman to hold a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art
-Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are seminal institutions in the history of the United States yet are often over looked in American History and Literature courses. this 4 week session introduces students to the circumstances and context that simultaneously gave rise to and forced these institutions into existence.