The district will be closed to observe the holiday on Monday, Jan. 15
The Washington Township public schools will honor Martin Luther King Jr. with activities throughout the district’s schools both this week and next week. King’s birthday, a federal holiday, will be observed on Monday, Jan. 15, and the district will be closed in observance of the holiday. District activities include:
Bunker Hill Middle School
- In Kristine Mallett’s classes Thursday and Friday, students will be watching “Selma Lord Selma” (Disney from 2004), then answering comprehension questions, discussing positive character traits and incorporating English/language arts by crafting a paragraph and illustrating a theme from the movie.
- In Catherine Zeoli and Kevin Appleby’s classes Friday, students will complete a Nearpod — an interactive Power Point Presentation — activity which incorporates background information, a video and checks for understanding. Students also will watch the “I Have a Dream” speech, analyzing it to look for different elements of figurative language as well as the meaning behind the words.
- In a cross-curricular activity, students in Nick Guerrieri’s ELA classes and Emily Conaway’s social studies classes will watch a brief clip of King and have a discussion as a warm-up activity on Friday. They then will complete a comprehensive Black History Month project/mini-unit, discussing King in further detail during February.
- Students in Kathy Jeffries’ social studies classes will watch a video clip about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement, followed by a discussion centered on whether the students think something like the mistreatment during the movement could ever happen again in our country.
Chestnut Ridge Middle School
- On Friday and Tuesday in Milissa Wechter’s sixth-grade social studies classes, students will complete background on the Civil Rights Movement, Gandhi’s non-violent protest influence, watch the movie “Selma, Lord, Selma” and identify positive character trait examples from the film.
- In Wecther’s seventh- and eighth-grade classes, students will watch a documentary about the Montgomery Bus Boycott and creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Council with footage of interviews with King. They also will make motivational posters using MLK quotes.
- In Nancy Benninger’s social studies classes on Tuesday, students will be watching a short biography of King, followed by a discussion.
Orchard Valley Middle School
- In Ashley Sulla’s social studies classes on Friday, students will be playing a Kahoot! game and then having a class discussion on the life of MLK.
Washington Township High School
- Students in Matt Kiser’s social studies classes will watch “The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306” and have a discussion about King’s life and dedication to bringing about equality.
- U.S. History II classes will be comparing some events that took place during the Civil Rights Movement to other events that have occurred in this century.
