Tomlinson and McTighe advocate the backward planning approach to lesson and unit design
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: teachers should start with their objectives and then craft strategies and lessons that will achieve those ends. Therefore, it may be helpful to linger on the goals of this unit before delving into the sorts of activities and plans that can accompany the text.
In writing this unit, one objective is to create cohesion across the many areas this text and students' work together touches upon. I want to help students discover the climate and history of the Civil Rights era, while also setting up a foundation on which to connect the idea of injustice and civil rights struggles to eras and locales beyond the South of the 1950s and 60s. Students should also have the opportunity to at least briefly engage with a variety of texts: primary and secondary, visual and written, prose and poetry. Through this immersion we can construct the beginning of an ongoing dialogue about the role of each and how we can approach them as readers. While we cannot possibly tackle all of these genres exhaustively, I want to at least present students with the idea that different kinds of readings will require different strategies. There are a number of texts available that present Emmett's Till murder in a variety of formats, including a picture book written in the form of a poem, a historical novel, a documentary, and a collection of primary source documents (see student reading list).
In addition,
Getting Away With Murder
includes several powerful, and disturbing, images. These include an image of Emmett's mutilated corpse in his casket
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and an image of students holding a sign that reads, "We Will Not Go to School with Negros."
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Students naturally flip through the book when they first pick it up, and for that reason, seeing these images can be one of their first encounters with the reality of the Civil Rights Movement. They often have vocal and emotional reactions to seeing these images. I think these moments provide a valuable opportunity to discuss the power of images and do some analysis of photographs. These images might be a gripping way to introduce the unit and create some contextual knowledge as well. It might also be worth investigating iconic images from other parts of the Civil Rights Movement and discussing how they are framed/created and what their role might be in our understanding of the historical narrative of the time period.
Students will also create our own poems about the era and the text. Although this assignment needs refining, it has been largely successful for students. Other formal assessments might include persuasive essays or a formal class debate. This is an ambitious aim for what will essentially be a four-to-five week period, but through careful crafting of lessons and use of resources, it is very possible. I imagine this unit to be a touchstone for the rest of the year-- one that we can return to in our studies from January to June. Below is a list of some of what I hope students will know and be able to do by unit's end. Many items on the list are continuations of year-long skills and content, although some will be new to this unit. Following this list are descriptions of many of the activities designed to reach these objectives.
Content:
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· The societal conditions at the start of the Civil Rights era
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· Some of the early actions in the Civil Rights Movement
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· The role of Emmett Till's murder as a catalyst for greater national action
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· The differences between the North and South during this era
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· Definitions of martyr, victim and hero
Analysis:
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· The role/importance of images in reaching an audience ( i.e, the way that photographers and writers can present information to evoke emotion)
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· The role of an author/photographer's point of view in creating argument
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· The idea that history is a construction of images/texts
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· The difference between primary and secondary sources
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· Ways to approach the analysis of images
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· Ways to approach textual analysis including citation from texts
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· How non-fiction and historical fiction differ in presenting a historical event
Writing:
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· Persuasive argumentation using citations from texts
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· Writing creative poetry that also provides a definition or explanation of a historical event or term
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