I did a complete grid with all our suspects (Revere through Chavez), along with all the standards and bits and pieces, and that was overwhelming, so I’m going to start out by focusing on just one of these people and see where it gets me.

I’ll start with Frederick Douglass.

So, for Douglass, we have to

• discuss his life, examining (I suppose) how he expanded people’s rights and freedoms in our democracy [SS3H2.a]
• explain social barriers, restrictions, and obstacles he had to overcome, and how he overcame them [SS3H2.b]
• identify locations significant to his life and times, on a political map [SS3G2.a]
• describe how place (physical and human characteristics) impacted his life [SS3G2.b]
• describe how he adapted to and was influenced by his environment [SS3G2.c]
• traces examples of his travel, and his ideas across time [SS3G2.d]
• describe how the region in which he lived affected his life and impacted his cultural identification [SS3G2.e]
• describe how he displayed positive character traits: cooperation, diligence, liberty, justice, tolerance, freedom of conscience and expression, and respect for and acceptance of authority [SS3CG2]

Easier to handle? Perhaps.

So how would the media center fit into a curriculum that asks third grade students to accomplish the above?