3 Black History Month Research Project Ideas for Spanish Class
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With the month of February coming up, let’s take a look at 3 Black History Month research project ideas for Spanish class! Research projects are a great opportunity for students to learn about famous Black Americans and people in their own communities. Check out these research projects for Black History Month!
3 Black History Month Research Project Ideas for Spanish Class
Biography of a Famous Person
This research poster is my favorite Black History Month project to include in lesson plans. Students research and include information such as:
- their name
- their accomplishments
- a quote
- an interesting fact
- a flag to show their heritage
- date of birth
- birthplace
- family
- educational background
There is also space to include additional important information such as historic events and important figures in their lives, or major events in which they took part.
These research posters include pre-labeled versions for the following famous people:
- Miriam Jiménez Román
- Piri Thomas
- José Celso Barbosa
- Gwen Ifill
- Sylvia del Villard
- Felipe Luciano
- Julia de Burgos
- Arturo Schomburg
- Tatyana Ali
- Gina Torres
- Roberto Alomar
- Laz Alonso
- Nanshon Dion Anderson
- Carmelo Anthony
- La La Anthony
- Eva Ayllón
- AZ
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Ursula Burns
- Miguel Cabrera
- Ilia Calderón
- Mariah Carey
- John Carlos
- Orlando Cepeda
- Roberto Clemente
- Celia Cruz
- Victor Cruz
- Taio Cruz
- Christina Milian
- Naya Rivera
- Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro
- Rosario Dawson
- Joan Smalls
- Jaime Hurtado
- Marin de Porres
- Cecilia Tait
- Edgardo Armando Franco
- Nicolás Guillén
- Lupita Nyong’o
- Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez
I have placed an emphasis on Afro Latinos with this list, but the research posters also include a blank template for your students to write in other people they’d like to research, with your approval! They might want to learn more about Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., or George Washington Carver. There are so many famous African Americans to choose from!
As Black History Month is celebrated through the United States, they may have already learned about some of them, so it’s nice to give students a choice and explore a topic of interest to them. Maybe they did an in-depth project on the Underground Railroad as a younger student, but now your high school students are interested in learning more about the civil rights movement as they’ve heard about in their history classes, or other historical events. Choice is a great way to increase buy-in and makes a huge difference in student engagement!
When finished, these research projects make a great bulletin board. Check out the example shared below or see the post here on Instagram!
Check out more tips for supporting your students with this research project here.
Host a Wax Museum for Black History Month
Have you ever been to a wax museum? They walk the fine line between fascinating and creepy for me. Good news is, hosting a wax museum with your classes is actually just really fun and interesting! This Wax Museum Project will help your students create a biography research report on a famous person. The finished project is a Wax Museum event, where students dress up as the person they have learned about and hold a “pose”, like a Wax Museum, until someone walks up to them and presses the “button” near them. Then students give a short speech about that person’s life.
The PDF download includes:
- Notes for the teacher
- List of people for students to choose from (this is set up for Hispanic Heritage Month, but you can easily use the list of people above instead!)
- Printable “Buttons”
- Introduction sheet
- Rubrics
- 1 Page Research Organizer (1)
- 1 Page Research Organizer (2)
- 3 Page Graphic Organizers
- Rough Draft Template
- Notes (for listening to other presentations)
- Speech Draft (half sheet)
There are also editable digital versions for you to tweak for the grade level you are working with! Click here to download the handouts and rubrics.
Digital Biography Research Project
If you’re teaching virtually, you might prefer this digital biography research project instead! Your students will love completing this biography research report with this easy-to-follow digital template on Google Slides! Students can research any person and use the provided slides to complete their report.
You can let students choose Black leaders to learn more about, assign people to research, or post the project as a fast finisher option! This product is a great way for you to utilize technology in your classroom! Your students simply do the research, enter the text in the provided boxes, and add images, if desired.
The digital template is included in English and Spanish so it is the perfect activity for any level Spanish class. It is great for a day with a substitute teacher since students can lead themselves through the project!
This engaging Digital Report Packet includes:
- Project Note-taking Slide
- Report Cover Sheet
- Their Heritage
- A Closer Look at their life
- Their Achievements
- Additional Information
- Works Cited page
Click here to get it for your Google Drive account!
Save these Black History Month Research Project Ideas for later!
More Black History Month Activities
I hope this post has been helpful as you plan your Black History Month Lessons. Here are some more resources to help you with teaching Black History Month. Remember, it’s a good idea to celebrate not just the entire month, but be mindful of any influential figure & important topics you choose to include throughout the school year!
- Black History Month in Spanish Class
- Black History Month Research Project
- Free Resources for Black History Month
More Monthly Projects
