9 Month Social Studies Course for Grades 6-12
Black Gold is comprised of a series of Themed Units, each covering a different topic. A Themed Unit contains a collection of carefully selected media (books, movies, videos, etc.) from which to choose. Activities and projects follow up each media experience to help solidify understanding of the material and encourage critical thinking.
Parents/teachers and students should decide together which media will form the basis for their personalized study and activities. Choice of media depends on student interests, as well as age, maturity and reading level.
The Themed Units contain a brief description of each recommended piece, with hyperlinks to obtain the media and a more extensive description.
Because critical thinking is such an important life skill, we designed Black Gold with a strong emphasis on developing and honing this skill set.
Most of the activities and projects require students to determine an outcome or share their opinion based on the material in the unit.
Students must support these opinions by citing facts from the material.
Rubrics are provided to help parents and teachers effectively grade with a focus on assisting the student to develop these skills.
Learning to set and manage goals is an important life skill. SMART goals are explained in this course and students are given planning tools required to set milestones, short term and long term goals and achieve them.
They will get experience in how to be flexible and readjust milestones as necessary.
English language arts is another important life-skill covered in Black Gold. Proficiency in English language arts is critical for effective communication and expands possible career options.
The lessons in Black Gold focus on practice and improvement of language arts.
Students read, watch and listen to stories and historical accounts. Students are asked questions that require them to refer back to the resources they have chosen. This stresses critical thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills that are required for success in college, career and life.
A wide variety of activities and projects, which include creating time capsules, mini-magazines, dioramas and a course-wide time line spanning 400 years, all help students relate to and visualize the content.
These activities are designed to stimulate critical thinking and consider ideas learned from the unit content.
Choose from over 25 different media selections each month. Included are books, movies, videos, TED talks, podcasts, and essays. Select the quantity and type of media that fit your schedule and suit your needs.
Each media is followed up with an activity or project assignment to clarify and reinforce concepts discussed.
The Time Line activity creates a physical multi-page visual overview of events from all of the Themed Units, providing a context for the material covered in the Units.
Each Unit has an associated set of color-coded cards which, when laid out in the Time Line, allows students to visualize how events relate to each other in time.
Additionally, cards with major world events provide a historical backdrop for each era of the Time Line.
Every day a card or two is drawn from a jar, researched and placed in the appropriate place on the Time Line.
The 92 different question cards are put into a jar and a handful are drawn randomly each time this activity is chosen.
These cards encourage students to think outside the box, when reflecting on the book just read or movie just watched.
Cards under the categories of “Deconstruction”, “Hypothesize” and “Reflect” ask students to evaluate the causes and events in the story.
The “Big Picture” and “Evolution” cards help them think about the story as a whole and how the messages relate to their lives and today.
“Specifics” and “Interaction” bring focus to various important details and how they impact the story.
Finally, “Unresolved” and “Alternative Viewpoint” cards help the student see beyond the story and prompt them to find more information.
Seven different formats of OnePager templates and questions are included, with a rubric that will help children understand how to excel and help parents understand how to evaluate.
OnePagers are designed to combine written answers and creativity on a single page. Students are encouraged to embellish their answers with drawings, cutouts, or other forms of expression.
Different styles of OnePagers offer different questions that will help students explore crucial concepts and their reactions to poetry, podcasts, movies, books, TED Talks and more.
Students can use our templates to craft their OnePagers, or create their own, as long as the questions for the appropriate media are answered.
Included is a Workbook that contains all of the lesson plans needed and a task log.
These are designed to help the parent stay on top of what is going on and what’s needed in the upcoming weeks.
But they also help students learn goal setting; how to break down large goals into bite-sized tasks that can be accomplished in an hour or two per day, over the course of several weeks.
Black Gold helps teach and strengthen at least twelve different life skills that are valuable in navigating today’s world. These skills fall into four different categories
- Improving employment options with critical thinking, creativity, and problem solving
- Advancing digital literacy including information literacy, technology skills, and media literacy
- Enhancing personal empowerment by practicing decision making, language arts, and self-management
- Nurturing active citizenship by fostering empathy and respect for diversity, and enhancing communication skills
Business
Theater & Dance
Women's History
STEM
ART
Vocalists
- A selection of carefully vetted options in each media allows for course customization based on age and skill level.
- Projects and activities, which include OnePagers, time capsules, mini magazines, dioramas, and a time line spanning 400 years, help students relate to and visualize the content.
- Units with activities that provide students with insight into the human dynamics of a diverse society.
- Student participation in critical thinking activities allows the student to explore their thoughts, encourages understanding of conflicting opinions, and requires them to express their conclusions citing supporting evidence.
- Activity planners and curriculum calendars allow students to plan their month and work independently.
- Access to the curriculum on a 24/7 basis so students can work at any time during the day or evening.
Critical thinking skills
Needed to readily absorb new information and respond to complex problems
goal setting skills
Critical for teaching students to take responsibility for their behavior and to plan for the future
cultural awareness
Fosters empathy and understanding and helps build bridges with others
Praise and Testimonials
As a professional curriculum facilitator, I found Black Gold timely and relevant to what many families are looking to teach their children. I believe this has a wider audience than just homeschoolers.
I'm impressed with the work and detail that went into Black Gold; it is unbelievable.
All six units have excellent books, movies, videos, and podcasts. I am astonished at the individuals and events that have been selected. I actually found myself exploring many of them out of interest.
The Critical Thinking Activity Pack has excellent teaching and learning resources throughout. It contains everything a student needs to succeed in this section. The definitions and descriptions on page 7 are a great way to set the stage. I also really like where you compare the protagonist/antagonist in conjunction with the book versus the movie. There are good opportunities for analysis there.
WOW! The Question Cards! There are excellent higher-order thinking opportunities on them. This is what I wish teachers provided at all levels of schooling instead of the traditional recall questions.
I found myself personally learning a ton by reading through the timeline entries.
Great job and congratulations!!
African Americans make up a large part of the U.S.'s history and there is a lot of interesting and informative material that is not included in standard curricula. With the help of Black Gold, you can learn about African American heritage in an effective and engaging way that fills this gap in our standard curricula for public, private and home-schooled students alike.
This extensive and interactive homeschool curriculum will help parents empower their children to excel in the future. Black Gold provides goal setting, critical thinking and a wide range of topics to choose from, tailored to the child's learning styles, attention span and aptitudes.
I am a retired principal who has been a consultant for over 10 years and a mother of three grown children. I believe in empowering my children and my students with the tools they need to excel.
Black Gold by Beccastone is a 6-unit, 9-month curriculum that combines the history and highlights of the brightest and best in African-American history in the USA. Afrocentric history, science, art and literature with social studies and SMART goal setting, critical thinking exercises.
Accomplishments include being named as 1997 Teacher of the Year, 2010 Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year and a nomination for 2016 Principal of the Year.
