League Baseball. For more
information on Breaking Barriers,
visit: MLB.com/BREAKINGBARRIERS
Breaking Barriers Lesson Plans
Click here for the Grades 4-8 Contest
Click here for the Grade 9 Contest
WELCOME TEACHERS!
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| Raeya Ponugoti, 2012 Grand Prize Winner, with Sharon Robinson, daughter of Jackie Robinson. |
April 15 of every year marks the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball in 1947. Ballparks across the country pause to celebrate this historic event. The educational program Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life brings the significance of this event and Jackie Robinson’s legacy of change to classrooms. Created by Major League Baseball and developed in conjunction with Scholastic Inc., this program has been in schools nationwide since 1997.
Breaking Barriers teaches students the characteristics and values that Jackie Robinson exhibited in his life. The program instructs students on how to use these values to face and overcome the barriers in their own lives.
At the heart of the program is the Breaking Barriers Essay Contest. This contest gives students from all backgrounds the opportunity to share stories about barriers they have faced in their lives. Celebrate the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball by sharing these lessons with your students. For more information about Breaking Barriers, please visit MLB.com/BREAKINGBARRIERS. Thank you for being part of the Breaking Barriers program.
Sincerely,
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Sharon Robinson
Consultant, Community Affairs & Educational Programming, Major League Baseball
sharonrobinsonink.com
Photos: Lesson 1 Courtesy Robinson Family; Lessons 2, 3, and 4, Courtesy MLB Photos; Lesson 5, © National Baseball Hall of Fame Library/MLB Photos via Getty Images.
Articles
Through reading and class discussion, students will understand who Jackie Robinson was and what the concept of a barrier means.
Through reading and class discussion, students will understand what values are and how they are important in facing barriers.
Students will understand important steps in the essay-writing process as they write an essay that can be entered in the Breaking Barriers Essay Contest.
Through examples featuring baseball statistics, students will apply basic math skills and understand how graphs help to represent information.
Through reading and class discussion, students will understand important milestones in the history of the Negro Leagues.
