Southern Tenant Farmers Museum Curriculum
Southern Tenant Farmers Museum
Site Tour Curriculum Framework
The Southern Tenant Farmers Museum site tour is a great supplement to the classroom curriculum for K-12 grade students. During guided tours, students will learn not only about the sharecropping and tenant farming systems, but also about the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, and civil rights issues in the Arkansas Delta during the Great Depression, and how each impacted the people and culture of the Arkansas Delta region. The topics discussed during the tour are aligned with the Arkansas Department of Education Social Studies and Arkansas History Curriculum Frameworks.
The Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, as a historic site, is a cultural document - a primary source - that can be "read" and analyzed by students. Through analysis of certain historical events and cultural changes, which contributed to the creation of the site, students garner an understanding of the past and its impact on the people and culture of the Arkansas Delta region. Students also learn how the site fits into a larger historical narrative and reflects a diverse cultural heritage. The guided tour offers an interactive opportunity to apply a "reading across the curriculum" approach that is aligned with the Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies for grades 6-12.
For example:
Grades 6-8: Key Ideas & Details
3. Identify key steps in text's description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, as a text, documents the evolution of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, the first integrated agricultural labor union in our country).
Grades 9-10: Craft & Structure
6. After the tour, examine two or more authors' works on the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, and compare the authors' descriptions to the students' descriptions of the Union, emphasizing the treatment of socio-economic and racial details.
Grades 11-12: Integration of Knowledge & Ideas
9. Integrate information from diverse sources into a coherent understanding of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union's connection to the events of the Great Depression and the New Deal Programs, noting discrepancies among sources.
*For a complete description of the Reading Standards for Literacy in
History/Social Studies, please visit http://www.arhistoryhub.com/frameworks/
As you prepare for your class' tour of the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, the below list can serve as a guide for where the tour content fits into specific Arkansas History/Social Studies curriculum frameworks. The tour can either be used to address a specific subject such as the sharecropping system in the American South or the tour can provide a multi-subject review for students. Please consult the museum staff on how the tour can be tailored to meet your classroom curriculum needs.
K - 4 Social Studies Curriculum Frameworks
Geography: Location, Place, & Region
G.1.1.7 - Explain how climate, location, and physical surroundings affect the way people live (e.g., Arkansas Delta, food, building construction, transportation).
G.1.3.9, 1.4.9 - Locate major rivers in Arkansas and in the United States (e.g., the Mississippi, Arkansas, St. Francis, & White Rivers).
Geography: Culture & Diversity
G.2.K.2 - Discuss the location of a community and the ways that location affects the people of a community (e.g., the Arkansas Delta region).
G.2.1.2 - Explain ways in which the location of a community affects people's lives, dress, and occupation (e.g., Arkansas Delta region, agricultural-centric community).
G.2.1.3 - Explain the difference between rural and urban areas (e.g., Arkansas
Delta and cities such as Little Rock, Memphis, New York City, or Washington, D.C.).
G.2.2.2 - Compare the lifestyle, dress, and occupations of Arkansans to those of people in other parts of the world (e.g ., compare the occupations of the Arkansas Delta region to the occupations in urban areas such as Little Rock or Memphis).
Geography: Human Environment Interaction
G.3.K.2 - Recognize the importance of protecting the air, water, and land (e.g., agricultural production in the Arkansas Delta).
G.3.3.3 - Describe how people affect and alter their environment (e.g., farming, building levees, irrigation, crop dusting, pesticides).
G.3.4.4 - Explain how people are influenced by, adapt to, and alter the environment (e.g., agriculture, housing, occupation, sharecropping).
G.3.4.5 - Describe the social impact of extreme natural events on human and physical environments (e.g., New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 in northeast Arkansas, 1927 Mississippi River floods, other flooding events including contemporary floods).
G.3.1.3 - Identify ways in which people depend on the physical environment (e.g., agriculture in the Arkansas Delta). History: Regionalism & Nationalism
H.6.1.3 - Identify historical sites of Arkansas (e.g ., Mitchell-East Building, the "unofficial headquarters" of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union)
H.6.3.2 - Examine historical people and events of Arkansas (e.g., American Civil War, Flood of 1927, the Great Depression, New Deal programs, Elaine Race Riots, civil rights, Southern Tenant Farmers Union).
History: Continuity & Change
H.6.K.6 - Discuss how historical events relate to the present day (e.g., New Deal programs, Southern Tenant Farmers Union, 1927 Mississippi River flood)
H.6.2.6 - Determine how photos and documents are used to gather information about the past (e.g., how such documents are used to research the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, cotton production, and the changing technology of farming).
H.6.3.7; H.6.4.9 -Analyze a timeline that illustrates selected historical events & evaluate data presented in relation to Arkansas History (e.g., Southern Tenant Farmers Union timeline & certain events connected to Arkansas History such as the Elaine Race Riots).
H.6.4.11- Discuss advances in technology (e.g., mechanization of agriculture).
Grade 5-8 Social Studies Curriculum Frameworks:
Geography: Location, Place, and Region
G.1.6.4 - Explain the importance of the major river systems of the United States and Arkansas (e.g. Mississippi, Arkansas, St. Francis, and White Rivers).
Geography: Culture & Diversity
G.2.5.1, 2.6.1, 2.5.2, 2.6.2 - Describe, examine, and comprehend the customs, celebrations, and traditions of racial, ethnic, and religious groups in Arkansas; describe, examine, and understand the contributions to the cultural identity of Arkansas and how these groups attempt to sustain and preserve their cultural heritage (e.g., African American heritage and European heritage).
G.2.5.3 - Recognize examples of cultural diffusion, cultural exchange, and assimilation (e.g. African American culture & European culture).
G.2.6.3 - Identify the occurrences of cultural diffusion, cultural exchange, and assimilation in local and national history (e.g., cultural changes in the Arkansas Delta).
G.2.7.1 - Examine creative work as examples of cultural heritage (e.g., art, literature, architecture).
G.2.8.1 -Analyze the work of writers and artists as examples of cultural heritage from communities around the world.
History: Continuity & Change
H.6.6.8 - Analyze the causes and effects of the Great Depression: Federal Reserve actions, farm prices, crop failures, stock market crash, Roosevelt's New
Deal (e.g., Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, formation of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union).
History: Cultural Diversity & Uniformity
H.6.5.31 - Investigate the roles of African Americans, American Indians, and
women during the Civil War.
Grade 7 - 12 Arkansas History Curriculum Frameworks:
GD.8.AH.7-8.1 - Describe the economic and social effects of the 1927 flood on Arkansas using primary and secondary sources.
GD.8.AH.7-8.2 - Describe the consequences of the 1930 drought on Arkansas using available technology
GD.8.AH.7-8.4 - Discuss the effects New Deal programs had on society in Arkansas during the Great Depression (e.g., Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933).
GD.8.AH.7-8.5 - Explore the economic and social consequences of the Great Depression.
RP.6.AH.7-8.2, 9-12.2- Describe the effects of sharecropping on society in Arkansas (e.g ., cotton production in the Arkansas Delta).
RP.6.AH.7-8.4, 9-12.4 - Describe the economic challenges Arkansas farmers faced during the post-Reconstruction period.
WWP.9.AH. 7-8.2, 9-12.2-Describe the social and economic effects of World War II on Arkansans (e.g., impact on cotton production in the Arkansas Delta).