This week on The Planning Period, Matt Hamilton explores fresh ways to teach Black History Month—centering hip-hop, local Michigan stories, and media literacy. Learn how to use PBS’s Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World and the documentary Formula 734 to explore hip-hop’s impact in the classroom. Plus, dive into Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s Making Black America and Great Migrations: A People on the Move for engaging social studies and English language arts lesson ideas. 

Matt also shares tips for teaching media literacy, celebrates Michigan libraries, and demos a resource that challenges students to think critically about the media they consume. Watch now & subscribe for more teaching tips! #Education #BlackHistoryMonth #HipHop #MediaLiteracy 

 

Related Resources: 

 

What’s On Michigan Learning Channel? segment 

• Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World docuseries – https://video.detroitpbs.org/show/fight-power-how-hip-hop-changed-world/  

• Fight the Power lesson plans – https://detroitpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/music-tool-empowerment-video-gallery/fight-the-power-how-hip-hop-changed-the-world/  

• Formula 734 – https://www.michiganlearning.org/educational-videos/formula-734/  

• Xavier Riddle meets Grandmaster Flash – https://youtube.com/embed/lyXRTenRjiE?si=gMu9SXrX891giGCe  

• Making Black America – https://www.pbs.org/show/making-black-america/  

• Making Black America lesson plans – https://detroitpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/making-black-america/ 

• On Location: Malcolm X Archaeological Site – https://youtube.com/embed/NW1uOJ0V2w0?si=_tCx8DBSMUl74aXZ 
  

 

What I’m Watching segment 

• Great Migrations: A People on the Move – https://www.pbs.org/show/great-migrations-a-people-on-the-move/  

• Great Migrations lesson lesson collection – https://detroitpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/great-migrations/  

 

Mini PD segment 

• NAMLE Key Questions for Media Literacy – https://namle.org/resources/key-questions-for-analyzing-media/  

• Media Literacy Playlist for Black History Month – https://www.michiganlearning.org/resource/media-literacy-learning-for-black-history-month-with-pbs-books/  

 

Library Love segment 

• Farmington Community Library – https://www.farmlib.org/  

• Michigan eLibrary – https://mel.org/welcome  

 

Media Challenge segment: 

• Media Activity Deck: https://www.michiganlearning.org/labs/getting-started-with-mlc-labs/  

• NAMLE Key Questions: https://namle.org/resources/key-questions-for-analyzing-media/  

• Wright Museum – https://www.thewright.org/exhibitions 

• National Museum of African American History & Culture – https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions