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UDLib/SEARCH

UDLib/SEARCH

A state-funded collaboration between the Delaware Department of Education and the University of Delaware Library providing online magazines, journals, encyclopedias and training for all Delaware K-12 public schools

Black History (House Bill 198)

Please Note...

The sources you see listed below are broken down into categories that are named in House Bill 198. These are merely a fraction of the sources that are found with databases through the UDLib/SEARCH program. You can find more links and lesson plan examples on the PDF linked on the left-hand side of this page. If you need help find specific articles on topics, reach out to your UDLib/SEARCH Coordinator! 

You also can find additional information and resources in the Middle and High School section of this research guide! 

K - 2nd Grade

  1. Go to PebbleGo Social Studies

2. Click on The United States

3rd - 5th Grades

  1. Go to PebbleGo Next Social Studies 
  2. Go to Gale In Context: Elementary

In order to learn about African American history, you must look beyond American slavery to uncover the rich details of Africa and African cultures. You can find articles that support this topic in many of the UDLib/SEARCH databases by searching for keywords such as these:

  • Africa
  • African Music
  • African Empires
  • African Dance
  • African Art

In WorkBook Kids which focuses primarily on K-2nd grades, if you search for "Africa", you will find a basic article focusing on the facts and details about the continent:

Similarly, if you search for "Africa" in the PebbleGo database, you will find information broken down into sections about the continent and its culture:

By conducting this search, your students can find information about Africa and the culture of its people in many elementary school databases

If you are looking for visual resources for 3rd - 5th grade students, databases such as Gale in Context: Middle School will help you find images related to African culture. A search for "African dance" in Gale in Context: Middle School will uncover images like this one of a Koumankele African dance:

If you use the "Browse Topics" section on the main page of the Gale in Context: Middle School, you can uncover even more information included in the database about Africa. You will need to click "Cultures" and choose "Ancient Africa" to find these resources:

Remember that you can change the reading level on many articles by clicking on the different lexile scores located at the top left of articles.

For additional age-appropriate resources, please see the full list of UDLib/SEARCH elementary school databases and the information provided on the Outside Additional Resources tab.

A great way to discover rich information about Black people is to search for topics related to their contributions and the famous people behind them. The UDLib/SEARCH databases are flush with biographies and great information about historical movements in history such as the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement.

Do you need more resources or ideas? Visit the Middle and High School page.

For younger students, PebbleGo is a great place to start to locate information on famous people. A quick search for "Martin Luther King, Jr." (this result will autofill for you), will deliver an article appropriate for a K-2nd grade student:

 

 

Keep in mind that PebbleGo is primarily a known item database and will not return any results for topics that it does not have. You must be careful in your searching in order to find all of the relevant results. 

Similar articles for K-2nd grade that could be helpful include:

Databases for 3rd-5th grade students have much more robust articles for younger students. To search for information about the contributions of Black people to American life and culture, you can search for "Harlem Renaissance" in the Britannica School: Middle database:

 

 

This exact search will retrieve the parent search page for the Harlem Renaissance, which links to many prominent Black Americans who contributed to the movement. You can also search the many articles that refer to this cultural movement to enrich your research by not using the autofill option:

 

Depending on the grade level and database, you can find varying levels of information on parts of history related to slavery. Below are a few options that we feel emulate good information for elementary school students. As you can see, some sections do not have information for the younger grades, so we have supplemented content from other resources. 

Slavery and the Development of the American Economy: 

K - 2nd Grades: 

  1. Go to WorldBook Kids
    • Search for Slavery, and it will pull up multiple results
    • Click on the top link: Slavery

WorkBook Image for Slavery Article

3rd - 5th Grades:

  1. Go to Britannica School: Elementary
  2. Go to PebbleGo Next Social Studies

Central Role Racism Played in the Civil War: 

K - 2nd Grade:

See the Outside Additional Resources tab in the Elementary School section of this guide. 

3rd - 5th Grade: 

  1. Go to Britannica School: Elementary
  2. Go to PebbleGo Next Social Studies
  3. Go to PebbleGo Next Social Studies
  4. Go to World Book Kids
  5. Go to World Book eBooks

Civil War ebook screenshot

Relationship between White Supremacy, Slavery, and Racism: 

Grades K - 2nd: 

Because of the heaviness of this topic, there are not many articles in the databases, like PebbleGo, that discuss slavery or its impacts. We found additional resources to help address these topics.

3-5th Grade: 

  1. World Book Kids

    • Type Racism in the search bar

Current events are an important component in teaching the history of Black people in America. Campaigns such as "#1000blackgirlbooks" can be found in UDLib/SEARCH databases, including PebbleGo for younger students:

Link to #1000blackgirlbooks article 

Black Lives Matter, an anti-racism movement, is recognized with articles in Gale In Context: Elementary with two reading levels available. A search for Black Lives Matter in either the basic or advanced search boxes retrieves multiple results:

Link to Article (Reading Level 2)

You can also provide a similar article with a lower reading level to younger students in the same database:

Many of the UDLib/SEARCH databases have newspaper articles within the results. The best two databases to find current events are in Gale In Context: Elementary and SIRS Discoverer. Both of these databases allow you to narrow down the results by Source Type. 

Screenshot of SIRS Discoverer Newspapers Result Page