The Civil Rights Movement—Thinking Outside the Box
INTRODUCTION In this lesson, groups of students will be given a box that contains primary source “clues” related to the Civil Rights Movement. By carefully examining the clues in their box, each group of students will attempt to determine the specific aspect of the Civil Rights Movement that their box represents (Montgomery Bus Boycott, Brown v. Board of Education, The Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Non-Violent Protests). Through these numerically sequenced clues, the instructor can have students work from concrete to abstract clues or vice versa. This lesson can be used to introduce a unit on the Civil Rights Movement and especially to gauge student understanding of its aspects before embarking on specific topics of study. It could also serve as a concluding activity following a study of the Civil Rights Movement. LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will: • Develop an understanding of some of the people and events that contributed to the Civil Rights Movement. • Discuss the significance of these people and events and how they connect to each other in view of the Civil Rights Movement and as part of United States history. • Describe the migration of African Americans in the United States. NCSCOS CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT Grade 5 Information Skills Goal 1: The learner will EXPLORE sources and formats for reading, listening, and viewing purposes. Objective 1.11: Explore primary and secondary sources. Goal 4: The learner will EXPLORE and USE research processes to meet information needs. Objective 4.05: Gather information. Objective 4.07: Organize and use information. Objective 4.09: Present information in a variety of formats (print, graphical, audio, video, multimedia). Goal 5: The learner will COMMUNICATE reading, listening, and viewing experiences. Objective 5.01: Respond to reading, listening, viewing experiences orally, artistically, dramatically, through various formats (e.g., print, multimedia). Social Studies Goal 3: The learner will examine the roles various ethnic groups have played in the development of the United States and its neighboring countries. Objective 3.01: Locate and describe people of diverse ethnic and religious cultures, past and present, in the United States. Objective 3.02: Examine how changes in the movement of people, goods, and ideas have affected ways of living in the United States.
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Goal 4: The learner will trace key developments in United States history and describe their impact on the land and people of the nation and its neighboring countries. Objective 4.02: Explain when, where, why, and how groups of people settled in different regions of the United States. Objective 4.03: Describe the contributions of people of diverse cultures throughout the history of the United States. Objective 4.06: Evaluate the effectiveness of civil rights and social movements throughout United States history that reflect the struggle for equality and constitutional rights for all citizens. CLASSROOM TIME REQUIRED Approximately 1 hour MATERIALS NEEDED Printed primary source clues (see Box Resource Guides included with this lesson plan) Primary source sound files (see Box Resource Guides included with this lesson plan) Small boxes (or other containers) for clues Historical Sleuthing worksheet (included in this lesson plan) “Thinking Outside the Box” Visual Map Box Resource Guides: • The Harlem Renaissance • Brown v. Board of Education • The Great Migration • Montgomery Bus Boycott • Non-violent Protests TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES NEEDED Computer (Internet connection preferable to access resource websites and online sound files) Digital primary source files for printing (See Box Resource Guides provided with this lesson) Printer (preferably color) PRE-ACTIVITIES Students should be familiar with the concept of a primary source and have had practice analyzing primary sources (images, documents, maps, etc) from an objective and subjective point of view. The instructor should print the primary source clues and number the back of each clue according to the Box Resource Guide for each topic. Each set of clues should then be placed in a box (clues may be laminated and rolled to fit inside each box). The clues should be printed in a size that fits into the selected box or container. The suggested print size for photographs is 4x6, but larger sizes may be used if the box can accommodate them (and at the discretion of the instructor). Manuscripts and documents may need to be printed in a larger format so that students can read any pertinent information. ACTIVITIES 1. 2. 3. 4. Begin this lesson by brainstorming what students already know about the Civil Rights Movement. Ask them to share specific people, places, and events related to this topic. Write the students’ responses on the board. Divide students into 5 groups. Distribute a box to each group of students and a copy of the Historical Sleuthing worksheet. Explain to students that they will examine the clues in their box in numerical order from lowest to highest (lowest is the most difficult/abstract). Students should understand that the clues in their box all relate to a particular aspect of the Civil Rights Movement and that they should use their clues to determine what aspect their box represents.
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In order to examine the clues, students should use both objective and subjective analysis. Remind students that to objectively analyze means that you only look at things you can actually see in the item and that to subjectively analyze means that you make judgments about the item based on its objective features. In order to accomplish this, students should use and complete the Historical Sleuthing worksheet to describe the items in their box. 6. Ask each group of students to consider the following questions as they examine the contents of their boxes. (Write these questions on the board for students to refer to as they work.) a. What aspect of the Civil Rights Movement do my clues represent? b. How are these clues representative of this aspect of the CVM? c. How do you think this aspect figures into the Civil Rights Movement? How might it have been important or significant to the movement? 7. The instructor should frequently check with each group to be sure they are successfully examining their clues and that eventually are able to reach the appropriate conclusion about their box of clues. 8. Have student groups share their findings with the rest of the class via an impromptu oral presentation, using their Historical Sleuthing worksheet and the questions in step 6 to guide them. 9. As students listen to their classmates’ presentations, have them complete the “Thinking Outside the Box” Visual Map: Taking Notes to organize the information given about each topic. 10. Using the “Big Ideas” Visual Map, help students order the events chronologically and then lead them in a discussion about the connections between topics and their relationship to the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. Specifically, students should fill in the boxes on the visual map with the topics from the activity (in approximate chronological order) and then draw arrows between the boxes to show relationships between the topics. (See the visual map answer key.) ASSESSMENT • The instructor should assess student understanding during the group sharing time at the conclusion of the box activity. Students who made the appropriate connections during the activity will have correctly determined their civil rights topic and have answered the questions from step 6 (activities) while sharing with the class. Overall, did each group present the essence of their event in a way that had impact for the audience? • The instructor may also choose to collect and view the students’ completed visual maps. Were students able to follow the presentations of their peers and to appropriately record important aspects of each topic? Were they able to make connections between the aspects of the Civil Rights Movement by placing appropriate arrows on the visual map/flowchart to indicate relationships? • Results of the informal assessment for this lesson may be used to dictate the direction of the unit of study to follow this introductory activity. (The instructor may note certain aspects of the Civil Rights Movement on which students need additional focus or may note aspects of special interest to the students.) MODIFICATIONS This activity can be modified for students with learning disabilities by having students view the clues in numerical order from highest to lowest. This provides the student with the opportunity to move from concrete clues to abstract clues (instead of abstract to concrete). The instructor may also choose to cognitively distribute the boxes, as some boxes contain clues that lead to more abstract concepts and some more concrete concepts. (For example, “Non-Violent Protests” is a abstract concept, whereas the “Montgomery Bus Boycott” is a concrete event.) RELATED WEBSITES Primary sources used in this lesson are from: With an Even Hand: Brown v. Board at Fifty, Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-aftermath.html
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African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html The African American Mosaic, Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam011.html The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920, Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ohshtml/aaeohome.html Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991, Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/panoramic_photo/index.html Columbia University History Department (Paintings by Jacob Lawrence) http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/odonnell/w1010/edit/migration/migration.html Additional primary sources for this lesson can be found at: American Memory Collections http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html The Greensboro Sit-ins (from the Greensboro News and Record) http://www.sitins.com/index.shtml COMMENTS This lesson was adapted from an activity developed by the Adventure of the American Mind program (www.aamprogram.org).
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