Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Curriculum Resources

To celebrate MLK Day, here are a collection of curriculum resources -- plus links to dozens of others! -- to help students put in perspective Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life, his impact on the Civil Rights Movement, and his significance to American culture and history.

Lesson Plans from NEA

Martin Luther King Jr.: A Fact or Opinion Activity
Grades 3-8 read a brief biography of MKL and learn the differences between fact and opinion.

Write Your Own "I Have a Dream" Speech
Grades 2-12 use Dr. King's famous speech as a model for their own.

Build a Black History Database/Timeline
The simple Black History timeline students create can be sequenced, sorted, and searched.

Rosa Parks Changed the Rules
Students complete a diagram of the Montgomery bus that carried Rosa Parks into the history books. Work sheet included.

The African-American Population in U.S. History
Charts, graphs, and maps help students learn about the growth of the African-American population throughout history.

The Black History Rap
Invite students to write a rap or hip-hop lyrics about the life of a famous Black American.

Melba Pattillo and Ruby Bridges: Two Heroes of School Integration
Put your students in the shoes of those who integrated Little Rock High School in 1957-58.

Works4Me: Holiday Teaching Tips
Find activity ideas and practical classroom teaching tips for many major holidays, including MLK Day

Additional Lesson Plans

Court Documents Related to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Memphis Sanitation Workers
(National Archives) This lesson relates to two clauses in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which ensure Americans the right to assemble peaceably and to petition the government for the redress of grievances. In very broad terms this lesson also relates to the Preamble of the Constitution, which lists to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, . . . promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" among the purposes of the union.

Lessonplanpage.com: Martin Luther King, Jr.
The students will recognize the chronology of Martin Luther King's life. The students will have an understanding of the Jim Crow laws. The students will become familiar with the speech "I Have a Dream."

AskEric: Using the Internet to Study, "I Have a Dream"
In this lesson students will learn more about who MLK was, what many of his contributions to society were and why those contributions were important. Some ideas which we will study are, nonviolence as a means of solving conflict, the "I have a dream speech," and MLK Day.

AskEric: Critical Thinking
The following is designed as an independent lesson to foster critical thinking over Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The lesson has individual sections divided into vocabulary development, rhetorical structures (figures of speech), understanding the speech, relating to the speech, and an optional opportunity for students to record the speech.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scavenger Hunt
In this fact-finding exercise, students learn how to search the Internet and access & use the information available on the Internet by answering questions about, and solving problems related to, Martin Luther King, Jr.

EDSITEment: Dr. King's Dream
In this lesson, students will learn about the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Students will listen to a brief biography, view photographs of the March on Washington, hear a portion of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and discuss what King's words mean to them. Finally, they will create picture books about their own dreams of freedom for Americans today. This page forms part of the EDSITEment website, created by the National Endowment for the Humanities in collaboration with the Council of the Great City Schools and the WorldCom Foundation.

Recommended Web Sites

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most dynamic civil rights leader in the 1950s and 1960s. His methods of nonviolent protest for social change exemplify civil disobedience. The King Papers Project's principal mission is to publish a definitive fourteen-volume edition of King's most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts. Lesson plans are made available through the Liberation Community section. Each of the Project's publications includes a table of contents where you will find many full text selections of speeches, letters, and sermons.

National Civil Rights Museum
The site opens with an audio clip of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. The interactive tour of the museum, housed in the hotel where King was assassinated, highlights people and organizations who fought for equal rights, the Civil War, civil rights acts, the migration north, Jim Crow Laws, gaining the vote, the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Freedom marches.

Seattle Times: Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Seattle Times created this site to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in April 1968. The site includes a timeline of King's life; the reflections of many King contemporaries including Andrew Young and Julian Bond; information about the creation of the MLK holiday; a look at streets bearing King's name in five communities across America; an interactive quiz; a study guide; and commentary by journalists, ministers, professional athletes, and high school students.

National Park Service: We Shall Overcome
This page lists 42 historic sites in the civil rights movement. Information on each site is provided in detail as well as an essay on the civil rights movement. The list of sites includes the homes of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Mary Church Terrell.

Other Web Sites

Wikipedia: Martin Luther King Day

Wikipedia: Martin Luther King, Jr.

The King Center

MLK Online

Library of Congress: Wise Guide: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Library of Congress: A Select List of Images of 20th Century African American Activists

Speeches of Martin Luther King

PBS African American World: Reference Room: MLK