Strategic Lesson Plan

OC / Objective: Compare changes in social and economic conditions in the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries; Describe how the United States can be improved by individual and group participation in civic and community activities.
Standard(s): 7th Civics, Standard 11 & 12; CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4,ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7
BEFORE / Strategy: Vocabulary Acquisition
Description: The students will be engaged in creating a definition map during the warm up period. By creating a definition map, the students will be able to analyze words and their definitions more closely by creating a paraphrased definition, listing things that are similar to this word, and then by listing three examples/characteristics of the word.
Purpose: To help students analyze vocabulary more closely and to help students acquire information associated with the vocabulary.
4C: Critical Thinking, Communication
DURING / Strategy: Vocabulary Acquisition, Written Analysis, Organization of Information Visual Learning, Verbal Learning
Description: The students will engage in a differentiated lesson that introduces them to the concept of civic participation. They will then analyze different examples of how civic participation led to change during the Civil Rights Movement.
Stage 1: The students will complete a differentiated assignment that addresses the topics of civil rights, civic activities, and community activities. The assignment has six total tasks for the students to choose from; two are DOK 1, two are DOK 2, and two are DOK 3. The sub-topics are voting, letter to the mayor, civil rights, voting rights, political parties, and political campaigns. The students will have to complete at least one task from each DOK level, the choice on which task to complete will be theirs. The tasks are differentiated by product, some tasks may be writing, others graphic organizers, and even art. Some tasks will allow the students to pick between the three types of products for that one task. After the students have finished their tasks, volunteers will be taken to teach each task back to the class. This will allow the students to obtain information about the tasks that they did not choose to complete. This will also allow the students that volunteer to teach to learn through teaching.
Stage 2: The students will now analyze civil rights, civic activities, and community activities by examine some Alabamians contributions to the fields. The students will analyze a set of primary sources related to Rosa Park’s struggle in Montgomery. The students will analyze the police report related to her arrest, her fingerprint card, and illustration of the bus and where she sat, and a picture of Rosa Parks on a bus. The students will then complete a series of tasks, the tasks will range from a series of questions, to a discussion of nationality, to a discussion of personal experiences of refusing to obey orders, a one-act play, and a monologue between people that were on the bus. Students will be grouped throughout most of this assignment.
Stage 3: The students will continue to analyze Alabama’s contributions to civil rights, civic activities, and community activities. The students will now analyze Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. This will be a two stage lesson. For the first stage, the students will watch a short video that discusses Dr. King and the situation that led to the letter. The students will then answer a series of basic DOK 1 questions concerning the letter. For stage 2, the students will read and annotate a series of quotes from the Letter. After reading and annotating each quote, the students will then work in groups to paraphrase the quotation into their own words. Working to annotate and paraphrase these quotes will help the students gain an overall understanding of the letter.
Stage 4: The students will continue to analyze Alabama’s contributions to civil rights, civic activities, and community activities. The students will now analyze the famous “stand in the schoolhouse door” by Governor George Wallace. This will be a two stage lesson. For the first stage, the students will watch a short video that addresses the stand and allows students to actually see Governor Wallace’s speech in its entirety. The students will then answer a series of basic DOK 1 questions concerning the stand. For stage 2, the students will read and annotate an excerpt from Governor Wallace’s speech. This excerpt should help students understand Governor Wallace’s reasoning for his stance. The students will then apply the situation in Tuscaloosa in 1963 to situation around the world today. Helping them make connection to the modern day world.
Stage 5: The student will continue their analysis of civil rights, civic activities, and community activities by watching a video tilted Selma: Bridge to the Ballot. This is a 40 minute documentary that chronicles the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Before watching the documentary, the students will read a selection that gives them some background information on why the march was taking place. While the students watch the documentary, they will be working to complete a series of graphic organizers. The organizers will cover the topics of youth participation and its significance to social movements and voting and how it is fundamental to democracy. Also, the video will be stopped at the end of each act for discussion to help students to keep up with what is happening during the documentary.
Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to allow students to analyze different examples of social and economic changes in the United States, and Alabama, and discuss how civic participation helped led to these changes.
4C: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity
AFTER / Strategy: Verbal Review
Description: The students will engage in a verbal review of each day’s topics. (TOTD – Ticket Out the Door). On certain days, the students will work to complete a standard review that ties into some of the topics. This review system was created in response to the lack of achievement on certain types of DOK 2 questions on previous benchmarks.
Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to assess the information that was presented during the day and allow the verbal learners another chance to pick up information from that day’s lesson. The purpose of the standard review is to help students increase their achievement on certain types of DOK 2 questions.
4C: Communication, Critical Thinking
ASSESSMENT(s)
used / Civil Rights, Community Activities, and Civic Activities D.I. Assignment
Completion of the Rosa Parks Activities
Completion of the Letter from Birmingham Jail Activity
Completion of the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door Activity
Completion of the Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot Activities
Standard 11 & 12 Test
Ticket Out the Door

Label each activity with one of the 4 Cs that apply.

1.  Critical Thinking

2.  Creativity

3.  Communication

4.  Collaboration