TRAVERSE CITY — The region’s largest school district is not taking Martin Luther King Jr. Day off this year, it’s using it as an educational opportunity instead.
Traverse City Area Public Schools students and teachers will spend Monday’s half-day focused on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy.
“His legacy has been part of our history standards, but we are, at K-12, making an effort on this day in particular to expose all of our students to some type of learning around him,” said Chief Academic Officer for Secondary Education Jessie Houghton at the Jan. 7 curriculum committee meeting.
Junior kindergarten through second grade will read, “Be a King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You” by Young People’s Poet Laureate Carole Boston Weatherford. Grades 3-5 will read “Martin’s Big Words” by Doreen Rappaport, which was a Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Book award winner in 2002.
All four core classes in the middle schools will have Dr. King-focused lessons for the day. English and social studies classes will focus on his messages, themes and philosophy of nonviolence. Math classes will be scaling a mural for a hallway display and science classes will focus on representation and the advancement of science.
Social studies classes at the high schools will examine Dr. King’s papers, speeches, and more, with a slideshow developed for the day.
Electives will have regular lesson plans for the 28-minute classes.
The creation of the themed lessons took months of planning and teams of people. Elementary school lessons were developed by the elementary district-level social studies team, which included curriculum specialist Sam Walter; content leaders Michelle Charland, Beth Myers, and Liz Berger, with Alison Sullivan, the secondary social studies curriculum specialist, Stephanie Luyt, the elementary library coordinator, and Summer Baldwin, the Indigenous education coordinator giving support.
Middle and high school lessons were developed by the social studies department, and required curriculum specialists, content leaders, and volunteer teachers to work with school instructional coaches.
Teacher groups trained for the MLK lesson plans, with a half day in November and a brief refresher on Jan. 14.
Teachers will be provided lesson plans with all the resources and materials to ensure consistency in student learning — particularly surrounding the theme of MLK as “a real person who stood for equality,” said Director of Curriculum and Instruction Brittany Kay.
TCAPS deployed a similar structure for Indigenous People’s Day in October, which featured a half-day of lessons highlighting Indigenous cultures and contributions.
Board of Education Trustee Holly Bird thanked the district for taking the community “cue.”
“This is something that was very widely supported by members of our Black and Indigenous communities — instead of having the day off, actually treating this as an instructional day,” Bird said.
“I think it’s great that kids will have a half day of school and we’ll focus on that, versus a day off and not really understanding on this level. I think it’s great,” Board of Education Vice President Erica Moon-Mohr said. “I’m sure I’ll hear from my own children about having to go for school, but it’ll be good.”
Moon Mohr also said she hopes the learning and reflecting won’t end once the dismissal bell rings.
“I love the idea too, of not only a half day of school of learning but then the other half of the day is supposed to be dedicated to giving back in a way. I think that was a lot of a community push, too.”