Look Up! Images in the Classroom

Too often, the children of the poor do not perceive highly accomplished men and women as realistic role models for themselves. By examining profiles of African American elected officials and other role models in the curriculum presented in Look Up! Images in the Classroom, students may be encouraged to enlarge their visions and embrace the fact that anything the mind can conceive and believe can be achieved. Author Gwendolyn J. Cooke shares the details of Look Up!, a motivational intervention strategy designed to instill pride and foster high academic achievement and socially responsible behavior. It accentuates the positive outcomes of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the civil rights movement. The program exposes economically disadvantaged African American children to appropriate role models through photographic images and selected biographical information of elected officials at each level of government. Lesson plans, hands-on activities, and coordinating website references are included to enhance the students' learning experiences to show that success is possible through hard work, perseverance, creativity, and clear planning.