finding your roots

For Educators

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The Colonization of the United States ~ Lesson Plan

In this lesson using video clips from Finding Your Roots, Spanish colonialism is explored through the ancestries of Linda Chavez and Adrian Grenier. Continue reading ...

May 21, 2012 | COMMENTS

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Free, but not Free: Life of Free Blacks before the Civil War ~ Lesson Plan

In this lesson using video clips from Finding Your Roots, students explore the life of free blacks in the United States prior to the Civil War through the ancestries of Wanda Sykes and John Legend. Continue reading ...

May 14, 2012 | COMMENTS

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Coming to America ~ Lesson Plan

In this lesson using video clips from Finding Your Roots, mass migrations in history are explored through the ancestries of Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Continue reading ...

May 7, 2012 | COMMENTS

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Realities of Life in the Jim Crow Era ~ Lesson Plan

In this lesson using video clips from Finding Your Roots, the Jim Crow Era is explored through the lives of three prominent African Americans. Continue reading ...

April 30, 2012 | COMMENTS

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Tradition & Identity ~ Lesson Plan

In this lesson using video clips from Finding Your Roots, students will explore the ways in which family narratives are woven into individual identity. Continue reading ...

April 23, 2012 | 1 COMMENT

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The Quest for Religious Freedom ~ Lesson Plan

In this lesson using video clips from Finding Your Roots, students examine how religion has played a part in attracting immigrants to the U.S. and the role it plays in the lives of modern American families. Continue reading ...

April 16, 2012 | COMMENTS

Slavery in the North

Slavery in the North ~ Lesson Plan

In this lesson using video clips from Finding Your Roots, the history of slavery in the U.S. is examined through the ancestries of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. Continue reading ...

April 9, 2012 | COMMENTS

Searching for Barbara Walters Familys Name Part 1

Sources of History ~ Lesson Plan

Using clips from Finding Your Roots, students explore how primary sources provide information about the ancestries of Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | 2 COMMENTS

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Crescent City Gumbo: Race & Jazz in New Orleans ~ Lesson Plan

This lesson, using the Finding Your Roots episode with Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis, explores the history of racial diversity in New Orleans. Continue reading ...

March 26, 2012 | 1 COMMENT

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Faith in Change: John Lewis ~ Lesson Plan

This lesson uses video segments from Finding Your Roots to explore the American civil rights movement through the experience of Congressman John Lewis. Continue reading ...

March 26, 2012 | 4 COMMENTS

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About the Series

The basic drive to discover who we are and where we come from is at the core of the new 10-part PBS series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the 12th series from Professor Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Filmed on location across the United States, the series premieres nationally Sundays, March 25 – May 20 at 8 pm ET on PBS (check local listings).

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Funding

Corporate funding is provided by The Coca-Cola Company, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s and American Express. Additional funding is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Atlantic Philanthropies, Ford Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Support is also provided by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS.

Production

A film by Kunhardt McGee Productions, Inkwell Films, and WNET in assocation with Ark Media.

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