Tess McNamara

TL525

LESSON PLAN: Building background knowledge of activism during Civil Rights Movement

OBJECTIVES

Content: SWBAT identify and explain a variety of viewpoints on segregation and racism

from various key figures during the Civil Rights Movement/ from the surrounding historical

context of The Help.

Language: SWBAT extract the viewpoint and main idea from a historical text, and then

summarize and communicate those ideas in writing, as well as in small-group and whole-

class discussion.

(Lesson Preparation)

ASSESSMENT

-Teacher will assess the quality and level of contributions from the class during the whole-

class KWL chart activity.

-Teacher will assess students’ summarization skills, verbal communication skills, and

listening skills during whole-class KWL chart activity.

-Teacher will collect student packets at the end of class to assess their responses while

individually reading texts, and the information they gathered during small-group discussion.

(Review & Assessment)

CONNECTION TO STANDARDS

STATE STANDARDS

College & Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading 6-12

Key Ideas and Details, 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make

logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support

conclusions drawn from the text.

Key Ideas and Details, 2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over

the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details;

provide an objective summary of the text.

Craft and Structure, 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including

determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word

choices shape meaning or tone.

Craft and Structure, 5. Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and

refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or

chapter).

Craft and Structure, 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a

text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, 7. Analyze various accounts of a subject told in

different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining

which details are emphasized in each account.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, 9. Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and

literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address,

Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how

they address related themes and concepts.

WIDA STANDARDS

English Language Development Standard 1: English language learners communicate for

social and instructional purposes within the school setting.

English Language Development Standard 2: English language learners communicate

information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of

language arts.

WARM UP/DO NOW (Building Background, Lesson Preparation)

Students complete a brief KWL chart in response to the following questions:

-What are Jim Crow laws? How did they affect Jackson in the time of The Help?

-What was happening with educational segregation in the south during the time of The Help?

(Lesson Preparation, Building Background, Strategies)

INTRODUCTION OF NEW MATERIAL

1. Students share responses of their KWL charts during whole-class discussion while

teacher writes their responses on the board in a large KWL chart. (Interaction,

Lesson Delivery)

2. Teacher explains when Jim Crow laws were written and why they were written.

Teacher pauses for students to ask additional questions. (Building Background,

Comprehensible Input)

3. Teacher explains reading jigsaw activity of the day: around the room are numbered

folders containing multiple copies of different texts from the Civil Rights Movement,

many of which are primary source documents. The texts vary in viewpoints – some

are written by or in support of civil rights equality, while some are written by racists,

and others are written from an objective stance. Teacher clarifies what those three

viewpoints mean and what types of text formats would be more likely to have certain

viewpoints. (Building Background, Comprehensible Input, Strategies, Lesson

Delivery) Teacher then walks around the room to each station and gives a brief

overview of the texts’ authors, context, and stance on civil rights equality. Then, the

teacher explains that students will be given time to read at least two of the texts – one

of which will be individually assigned to each student, and the second of their own

choice. (The individual text assignments are selected by the teacher with

consideration of reading level and student interest.) (Lesson Preparation,

Comprehensible Input, Practice and Application) The teacher distributes a handout

to each student that lists their mandatory text at the top, and then a graphic organizer

chart with guiding questions to answer as they read. After students have sufficient

time to read the texts, they will then split into groups of four, also planned ahead of

time by the teacher based on reading level and diversity/relatability of the assigned

texts of those four students. (Lesson Preparation, Interaction) The students in the

group will summarize the texts they read, their reactions to the texts, and then

compare and contrast the ideas and the presentation of ideas in the texts. (Strategies,

Interaction, Practice and Application)

*Introduction of new material occurs during whole-class KWL discussion, and again

when teacher briefly reviews the authors and contexts of each text.

(CGUIDED PRACTICE

1. Teacher asks students if they have any questions about the activity directions.

(Comprehensible Input, Lesson Delivery, Review and Assessment)

2. Teacher distributes handouts with graphic organizers and personalized reading

assignment, but tells students not to begin yet.

3. Before allowing students to begin individualized reading, teacher uses projector to

display a text excerpt similar to the ones that the students will read on their own.

(Strategies)

4. Teacher asks student volunteer to read passage aloud while teacher replicates the

graphic organizer that students have on their worksheets and draws it on the front

board. (Interaction, Practice and Application)

5. In whole-class discussion, teacher facilitates by asking and explaining the questions,

but then calls on students to share their responses to the questions in the graphic

organizer. (Comprehensible Input, Interaction, Practice and Application, Review

and Assessment)

6. To make the discussion interactive and to give the students more autonomy and

responsibility, teacher will establish a system in which each student is given a

number (by having the students count off from 1 around the room). Then, the teacher

will have a cup with numbered Popsicle sticks, each representing a student. After

each student shares their response to the questions on the graphic organizer, that

student will pull a Popsicle stick from the cup. The student whose number was pulled

will then repeat the first student’s response in their own words and try to paraphrase

their main point in a clear way. If the student was not paying attention or had a

difficult time understanding the original student’s idea, then they may ask a friend to

help them repeat the response’s main idea. After the main idea of the original

student’s response is stated, then the teacher will write that main idea in the graphic

organizer on the board. In addition to making the discussion interactive for all

students and ensuring that all students remain engaged, it gives students an equal

opportunity and responsibility to practice listening, to track the speaker, to practice

oral communication skills, to articulate their thoughts, and to foster community

building. (Lesson Preparation, Comprehensible Input, Strategies, Interaction,

Practice and Application, Review and Assessment)

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE

1. Teacher asks students if they have any final clarifying questions before beginning the

activity on their own. (Comprehensible Input, Lesson Delivery)

2. Teacher tells students to find their assigned text and read that one first. They do not

necessarily have to read at their desks, so they may read on a spot on the floor if they

prefer. (Teacher will always keep a storage trunk in the classroom with large pillows

for students to retrieve and sit on for individual reading time if they prefer to sit on

the floor with a pillow instead of at their desk.)

3. After ten minutes, teacher will give warning that students should be moving on to the

second text if they haven’t already, and that there are ten minutes left.

(Comprehensible Input, Lesson Delivery)

4. After the next 8 minutes, teacher will let students know that they should be wrapping

up and that they have 2 minutes left. (Comprehensible Input, Lesson Delivery)

5. At the end of reading time, teacher will assign the groups of four and tell students to

find their group members. In small-group, students should summarize the main

points of their article, what surprised them, and what did not surprise them while

reading. Then, students can compare and contrast how similar topics were viewed by

various people at the time and how those viewpoints were represented in the texts.

(Strategies, Interaction)

6. The last page of the packet includes an organizer that asks students to record the title,

author, and brief main idea of the each text that their group members read. (Lesson

Preparation, Comprehensible Input)

7. Teacher asks each group to select one representative to share their major findings and

responses to the texts they discussed with the whole class. (Interaction, Review and

Assessment)

* Potential full texts or excerpts that will be hung around the room:

-articles on MLK’s march on Washington D.C. (mentioned in The Help)

-Jim Crow laws

-Junior League pamphlets and newsletters

-articles from The Rebel Underground on James Meredith enrolling at Ole Miss

-Ross Barnett against desegregation

-JFK on desegregation

-responses to the death of JFK

-LIFE Magazine on Medgar Evers death

-Jackson Daily News on Medgar Evers death

CLOSING/EXIT TICKET (5 min.)

After reading and discussing several texts about several topics from several viewpoints, what

surprised you and what questions arose in your head?

HOMEWORK (if appropriate).

Read chapters 16-17 of The Help.