During a recent grade level meeting, students in eighth grade were tasked with developing a community service project that would honor the work on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Before beginning their projects, students spent time journaling and answering the questions: 

• Do you think you need to be disobedient if you want justice? Explain why or why not.
• Write about a time when you observed something you thought was unjust or unfair, and you were not sure how to respond. What did you think and feel? What did you do?

This reflective journal exercise was the foundation from which they learned and began to understand more about the background, life, and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

With the guidance of Ms. Coffey and Mrs. Judkins, and after watching the video, "Martin Luther King III: My Father Had Another Dream | NYT Opinion," students discussed how the work of Dr. King is relevant to their generation and what is the greatest civil rights issue of their time.

With a partner or group, students started to design a project that will address one of the following unfinished focuses of Dr. King’s work:

• Poverty
• Education
• Jobs
• Housing
• Peace and Justice 

The first step was to create a poster project proposal explaining the project and the issues it would address. This project and the community service work will continue to be discussed and organized during eighth grade humanities.