#4556. Intro to the Civil Rights Movement

Social Studies, level: 3-5
Posted Mon Apr 25 09:55:20 PDT 2011 by Kristin Lovenberg (Kristin Lovenberg).
Pomona, NJ
Materials Required: Note Cards: green and red with a number on the back (1-4)
Activity Time: 1 Class Period; 50 Minutes
Concepts Taught: The examination of individual experiences, historical narratives, and events promotes an understandi

Engage: When students walk in, I will give them either a card with a red X or a green X. Students who had a green X will sit in the back of the classroom and students with a red X will sit in the front. I will ask students to leave their card face up on the desk.

Once students are seated,I will explain that this classroom represents 2 separate schools. One school is for the green group and another school is for the red group. I will promise that the two schools will be separate, but equal. I will show the prezi (http://prezi.com/cfah6ovvjp_i/edit/#9_5232298) to further explain the inequalities between the two schools.

Explore: Next, I will instruct the green group to give all school bought school supplies to the red group. I will also announce that only the red group will have computer access (because we only have enough for them). The green group will get one very old and out-of-date textbook (supplied by me).

I will instruct students that they only have 10 minutes to research the civil rights movement and complete a quiz. I will tell students this will be collected as a quiz grade. This information will be easily found in the school bought textbooks supplied to the red group. The red group should be able to easily answer questions on the worksheet, while the green group will struggle. The green group is expected to protest against the inequality, but I will treat the students with indifference.

Once the 10 minutes are up for the quiz I will ask the class if they would like to continue to treat our classroom as separate schools. I expect that a majority of the class will rule this treatment to be unfair. For students who believe this was fair treatment I will ask why. I will also ask students from each group how they felt about the separate schools.

Explain: I will show the class a presentation explaining the differences they are about to face along with a short (4 minute) video on the Civil Rights Movement.

Elaboration: I will ask the students regroup basked on the number written on the back of their note cards. there will be 4 groups. I will give students 1 minute to regroup. once students are regrouped, they will think of 3 ways students in their school may be segregated or treated unfairly. In this section, I will encourage students to consider bullying in their schools due to differences in their peers.

Evaluation: On an exit card I will ask students how the treatment of the green group was similar to the treatment of African Americans in the 50's.