This 6th Grade Teacher Had His Students Recreate Historical Black Book Covers, and You Have to See the Pictures
When sixth grade teacher Terrance Sims put together this year's Black History Month program for his elective class at Milwaukee College Prep School in Wisconsin, he had no idea how popular his vision would become. The work, of course, is a series of beautiful images in which Sims's students recreated book covers of historical black icons, ranging from the First Lady to activists and pillars of black culture. "Once the students approached me about the idea [to shoot book covers], I wanted to tie it in with the project I do yearly called 'Representation Matters,'" Sims explained. "I gave them books based on people I thought they resembled and they began reading."
From there the idea morphed into widely lauded effort. Sims tapped into something that enabled his students to explore learning, reading, and cultural identity all at the same time. "These [sixth] graders are apart of my elective class I teach at the school. In the elective we explore topics like bullying and colorism. We decided to include a book club portion within our elective," Sims explained further.
Read on to get a glimpse at the photographs. And if you're wondering why they're so good, Sims's didn't just get lucky with the camera. "I am a photographer when school is in Summer session, so I have experience with taking and editing pictures. I definitely see growth in my craft from the first year I did this project to today."
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