Look Up! Images in the Classroom

By Gwendolyn J. Cooke PhD

Too often, the children of the poor do not perceive highly accomplished men and women as realistic role models for themselves. By examining profiles of African American elected officials and other role models in the curriculum presented in Look Up! Images in the Classroom, students may be encouraged to enlarge their visions and embrace the fact that anything the mind can conceive and believe can be achieved.

Author Gwendolyn J. Cooke shares the details of Look Up!, a motivational intervention strategy designed to instill pride and foster high academic achievement and socially responsible behavior. It accentuates the positive outcomes of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the civil rights movement. The program exposes economically disadvantaged African American children to appropriate role models through photographic images and selected biographical information of elected officials at each level of government.

Lesson plans, hands-on activities, and coordinating website references are included to enhance the students learning experiences to show that success is possible through hard work, perseverance, creativity, and clear planning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491714027

Gwendolyn J. Cooke PhD

Gwendolyn J. Cooke, PhD, is a retired urban school superintendent with more than thirty-five years of teaching and educational leadership experience. She is an active believer in and advocate of multicultural mentoring and its associated positive outcomes for children, adolescents, and adults. Cooke currently lives in Missouri.

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Copyright © 2014 Gwendolyn J. Cooke, Ph.D.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1401-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1403-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1402-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013920801

iUniverse rev. date: 12/02/2013

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I

Curriculum Overview

1. The I Have a Dream Connection

2. A Motivational Strategy: Look Up!

3. Required Materials

4. National Application of This Manual

Part II

Description of Look Up! Lessons

1. Giving Life to the Lessons That Follow

2. Recommendations for Lesson Plans

Grade Two

Grade Three

Grade Four

Grade Five

Grades Six, Seven, and Eight

3. An Alternative Plan for Schools Not Implementing the Initiative Schoolwide

Appendix

A. Biographical Profiles

B. The Three Branches of Government

C. Facts: 2011 Black Elected Officials

D. Choral Reading Guide

E. Selected Lessons for Life by Marian Wright Edelman

References

Preface

Too often, the children of the poor do not perceive achieving men and women as realistic role models for themselves; however, by examining their profiles in the curriculum presented in this book, these students may be encouraged to enlarge their visions and embrace the fact that anything the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice, http://www.goodreads.com). By learning about elected officials* whose experiences and backgrounds are exceedingly varied, students will open themselves to declare that When I grow up, the sky is the limit! With hard work, optimism, persistence, creativity, and support from concerned adults, students can entertain more than one option as a realistic career choice.

It is hoped that encouragement from teachers and other school staff who use this curriculum will motivate students (grades five through eight) and their parents to seek additional information about possible careers. These profiles may also have a positive effect on the students’ self-concepts in that they will begin to believe that they can succeed in their career area of choice. To address this outcome, part 2 of this manual includes a list of career areas and possible role models.

The use of visuals is critical to capturing students’ attention, shaping their behavior, and heightening their motivation. Go for it!

I am indebted to the teachers who allowed me to observe them interacting with students as they shared important content about elected officials and displayed the officials’ pictures on the walls of their classrooms.

Acknowledgments

Salutations are extended to Superintendent Marian Brown of Kansas City, Missouri, for her commitment to academic excellence and affirmation of the importance of exposing students enrolled in Benjamin Banneker Charter Academy of Technology (BBCAT) to positive, achieving role models. Dr. Brown granted permission for the Look Up! motivational instructional curriculum to be implemented in Banneker.

BBCAT is an inner-city, pre-K through eighth grade charter school. In common areas and in each classroom, four pictures grace the walls at Banneker: a picture of President Barack Obama, a picture of Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, a picture of Mayor Sylvester Sly James, and a picture of Benjamin Banneker, the astronomer. A seven-foot poster of President Obama as well as a thirty-by-thirty-foot display of 2008 presidential inauguration programs and proclamations are on display inside the front entrance to the school.

Prior to the hanging of four pictures, the lessons included in this manual were taught to BBCAT students. BBCAT kindergarten students can now tell school visitors who Barack Obama and the other three officials are and why they are acceptable role models. Indeed, Dr. Brown has established a practice that validates the importance of role models who have beaten the odds and overcome obstacles.

Editorial support from retired educator Dr. Vanilla Lee is also acknowledged. Dr. Lee moved the author up on her list of clients who envisioned their words in print. Moreover, the assistance was provided during unexpected family challenges.

Introduction

Despite the hardships African Americans experienced prior to the passage of the civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965, in segregated schools, African American students were taught about African Americans who were excelling in a variety of endeavors. Good character,