During my student teaching placement at Palisades Middle School, I created a unit to learn about and celebrate Black History Month. The cumulative activity for this unit was Café Jazz, where we explored the Harlem Renaissance. I decorated the classroom as a jazz café, and had music playing as students worked at stations in assigned groups. The students were grouped by their ELA MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) scores, or where they were on grade level for ELA. 

Each student had the opportunity to explore each section, which were: art, music, literature, history of Harlem, a Nearpod on Langston Hughes (Most Valued Poet or MVP), and the VIP (Very Important Poetry) section. In the VIP section, I met with students in small groups and we read poems based on their MAP scores and analyzed them, looking for its meaning and elements of poetry. 

The students were given a packet at the beginning of their class period that had a rubric and instructions for what they were to study for each station. Students were to write 2-3 facts about the people of study at their station, and examine a work of art, music, or literature from each. They recorded their thoughts and observations in their packet, and completed a self-reflection at the end of the activity. 

Reflection