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When it comes to making civil rights movements of the past accessible for young students, the connections to the present are right in front of us.

Every year around Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the news media start quoting his “I Have A Dream” speech. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a great speech – certainly one of the best ever given in the cause of civil rights.

This fourth-grade teacher, a TT Award winner, offers some classroom suggestions to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day an opportunity for deep, personal engagement—not a day off.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an ideal time to reflect on the life and legacy of this great leader, but it's important to do it with care and nuance—and to keep the conversation going beyond January 15.

My student Belinda got into a fight last year. It wasn’t a prissy, slappy, name-calling fight, either. It was a reality television-worthy, punch- throwing, eye-bruising fight that didn’t end until Belinda’s opponent had ripped the weave out of her hair and waved it around in front of the student spectators.