Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday of January in the U.S. As one of the most important civil rights heroes of the 20th century, there are numerous materials available for teachers about his life and legacy.
Below are 4 websites that have curated books by and about Martin Luther King, Jr., his family, and the holiday named for him, plus other resources you can use with your students to celebrate MLK Day. Some of the websites include books on related topics as well and several books are included on more than one of these sites.
I have not read every book on all these websites but I only included websites that I am familiar with. When it says “Annotated list,” that means there is a written description of the book, not just the title, author, illustrator (if relevant), and age or grade level.
Following the websites are 2 resources I created about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the holiday. They are aimed at Multilingual Learners but can also be used by monolingual students. Both resources teach 20 vocabulary words about MLK and MLK Day.
Lastly, I’ve included a few quotations by Martin Luther King, Jr. that I feel are especially relevant today.
Books for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
* National Education Association (NEA)
Lesson plans, activities, background resources, websites and printables about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the holiday, divided for the following grade spans: Grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
* Reading Rockets
39 books, fiction and nonfiction, about Martin Luther King, several Civil Rights and other social justice and environmental activists; not organized by age or grade span but the appropriate age level is mentioned for each book.
* The Horn Book
Annotated list of mostly nonfiction books includes 13 books for Primary students, 3 books for Intermediate students, 5 books for Older students, and 1 Poetry book.
* We Are Teachers
37 nonfiction and fiction books about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the holiday, divided into 25 books for Elementary students and 12 books for Middle and High School students, which also include some books MLK wrote himself.
Vocabulary Resources for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
The following resources teach students vocabulary about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the holiday named for him. Click on each title for more info and to purchase the resource.
* Martin Luther King Day Crossword and Word Search Puzzles
The clues in the crossword puzzle define 20 terms about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a word is included for students who need additional support. The word searches use the same 20 terms and are differentiated into Easy, Intermediate, and Challenging levels based on the directions the words go in. Print and digital versions of the 4 puzzles are included.
* Martin Luther King, Jr. ESL Vocabulary Task Cards with Audio
This resource turns the same 20 vocabulary words into task cards that ask students to select or write the correct definition of the words. There is a print version and a Google Form version that is self-correcting. The digital version includes audio of the directions, word bank, and words read out loud.
Quotations by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Here are a few quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr. You can share them with your students and ask them what the quotations mean to them. You might want to put students in small groups to do this so Multilingual Learners don’t feel embarrassed when sharing their thoughts.
“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
From his I Have a Dream speech in 1963.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Used during the Selma to Montgomery March in 1963 and at the National Cathedral in 1968.
“Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.”
In an article written for the Morehouse College student newspaper in 1947.
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
