Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Let this momentous day be the catalyst for ongoing civic engagement that extends throughout the school year.
Year-after-year, students receive similar lessons honoring MLK. Young people are ready for more engaging content and we’re here to help. Our Program Team has provided recommendations for honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – the World Savvy way – inclusive, student-centered, and relevant.
Resources to Support Students, Educators & Administrators
This non-exhaustive list will help support classroom discussions and enhance student engagement. Students can establish real-world connections to the ‘core’ material they are studying and elevate their voice by providing opportunities to explore and take action on the issues they care about most. Our staff has also provided resources to deepen educators’ and administrators’ awareness of culture and racial identity and understanding of the role we may (even unintentionally) play in others’ oppression (directly, structurally and culturally).
Learning for Justice: The Best of Our Martin Luther King Jr. Resources
It’s critical to help students of any age connect MLK’s message to the present reality, their lived experiences and systems of oppression that still exist post Jim Crow. Potential discussion questions: In what ways is MLK’s dream still unfulfilled? Who are other leaders who are leading this work in your community today? What can you do to leave a legacy like MLK?
Learn about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s daughter and how she is honoring his legacy and continuing his work.
Voting Rights
MLK’s children and the King Center are working tirelessly for voting rights legislation to be passed. Here are some resources to explore this issue:
- Whose Vote Counts, Explained (Nexflix): Why is the right to vote in America still a fight? From voter suppression to disenfranchisement, see the roadblocks that stop voices from being heard.
- What Long Lines in the US Really Mean (Vox): The sneaky ways that some US states make it harder to vote. Watch more 2020 election explainers.
- Georgia’s new election legislations highlights deep divide on voting access (PBS): Republican state legislatures across the country are moving rapidly to pass new voting laws, amid former President Donald Trump’s continued false claims of election fraud. Lisa Desjardins takes us to the battleground state of Georgia and explains the raging debate.
It Starts with Me, by Bernice A. King and Kimberly P. Johnson: This new illustration book follows a young girl as she sees the trouble in the world and realizes it must start with her to make the change.
MLK “I have a dream” in full: The full recording/video of the milestone speech.
Equity Oriented Books for Educators
- Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman – more info at https://gradingforequity.org/
- Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond – more info at https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/culturally-responsive-teaching-and-the-brain/book241754
- My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts by Resmaa Menakem – more info at https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/34146782-my-grandmother-s-hands
- Leading Equity-Based MTSS for All Students by Amy McCart and Dawn Dee Miller – more info at https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Equity-Based-MTSS-All-Students/dp/154437285X
- The Book Whisperer by Donalynn Miller – more info at https://bookwhisperer.com/books/the-book-whisperer/
- The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education by Katherine Evans and Dorothy Vaandering – more info at https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Little-Book-of-Restorative-Justice-in-Education/Katherine-Evans/Justice-and-Peacebuilding/9781680991727
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates – more info at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220290/between-the-world-and-me-by-ta-nehisi-coates/
- Teaching for Black Lives by Dyan Watson – more info at https://rethinkingschools.org/books/teaching-for-black-lives/
- This is Not a Test by José Luis Vilson – more info at https://thejosevilson.com/this-is-not-a-test-a-new-narrative-on-race-class-and-education/
- Pushout by Monique Morris – more info at https://thenewpress.com/books/pushout
- We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina Love – more info at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622408/we-want-to-do-more-than-survive-by-bettina-love/
- Lessons in Liberation by Jay Gillen – more info at https://bookshop.org/books/lessons-in-liberation-an-abolitionist-toolkit-for-educators/9781849354363
- Racial Healing Handbook by Anneliese Singh – more info at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43319546-the-racial-healing-handbook
- Grading Exceptional and Struggling Learners by Lee Ann Jung and Thomas Guskey – more info at https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/book/grading-exceptional-and-struggling-learners
- From Goals to Growth: Intervention and Support in Every Classroom by Lee Ann Jung – more info at http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/From-Goals-to-Growth.aspx