Lesson 6: Day 2 - Intro to ICY
Google Doc for This Lesson
Activity 1: Hidden Clues, Hidden Histories
Overview: In this activity, students act as history detectives, combing through the article A Love Story; How the Institute for Colored Youth Birthed a Philly Public School in 1860 (Quinones, 2024) to uncover hidden clues about education, activism, community networks, and legacy. Working collaboratively, they will gather evidence, make inferences, and connect individual stories to larger themes of Black resilience and institution-building in 19th-century Philadelphia.
Time: 30 minutes
Format: Small groups
Objective: SWBAT analyze textual evidence from a historical article by identifying “clues” and drawing inferences about how Black Philadelphians built educational institutions and shaped a lasting legacy.
Tell students they will search for hidden clues in the article that reveal untold stories of Black resilience.
Explain to students that they will work in small groups to review the article.
Tell students that they will use the document to organize the clues they uncover while reading.
Invite students to make their own copy: ICY Hidden Clues (Student Copy)- Make a Copy
Divide students into small groups of three to four students.
Invite them to work in small groups to find specific “clues” (short quotes or paraphrases) and record what each clue reveals.
Activity 2: Share out
Time: 20 minutes
Format: Whole Group
Overview: In this whole-class discussion, students bring together the evidence they gathered during the clue hunt. By pooling their “clues” and inferences, students co-construct a bigger picture of how Black Philadelphians in the 19th century transformed education into a strategy of freedom, resistance, and legacy.
Objective: SWBAT synthesize evidence from multiple groups to articulate how education functioned as a tool of resistance, community survival, and institution-building in 19th-century Philadelphia.
Invite each group to share one clue and inference from their worksheet.
Once all groups have shared, guide the class in a whole-group conversation using the discussion prompts.
Encourage students to make connections across categories and to link historical examples to larger themes of resilience, activism, and love.
Looking at all the clues together, what story emerges about how Black people used education as a tool of freedom?
What role did young Black women like Cordelia Jennings and Carolyn Le Count play in shaping these institutions, and why might their contributions have been overlooked?
How does the story of places like Jacob LeCount’s shop at 930 Bonsall (now Whole Foods) or 7th & Lombard (where the Institute for Colored Youth was once housed) remind us that history is layered into the city around us?