The following plans are a sample of how I might structure two of these activities. They lend themselves to single-day or two-day mini-lessons, while some of the larger projects outlined above would need backward planning and more careful scaffolding.
VTS Lesson Plan: Image Analysis Mini-Lesson
Context:
I imagine this lesson to be a pre-reading activity which can be used with ANY photograph (or artwork) from the era. Teachers would have already given some quick background knowledge of the Civil Rights era, perhaps the day before, through a PowerPoint and class discussion. Now, before beginning
Getting Away with Murder
, the teacher can ask students to investigate some powerful images from the Civil Rights era. I am not writing this for any specific image, but rather as an open-ended lesson. This activity can be an opening to a variety of lessons or reading segments of the book.
Lesson Objectives:
Students will be able to analyze an image from the Civil Rights movement in order to build upon their understanding of history and the historical narrative
Lesson Outline:
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· Project image if technology is available or have copies ready to hand out as students come into class.
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· Introduce the aim of the lesson saying something like, "Today we are going to look together at this image and see how it relates to the information we've been gathering on the Civil Rights era. We are going to try to figure out what is happening in this image and what story it might be telling."
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· Start by inviting students to spend a few minutes really studying the picture and ask them to notice everything they can. Give them a minute or so to get started, and then ask students to start raising their hands and sharing what they see. Tell them to stick to just DESCRIBING what they see (how many people, what are they wearing, etc.) You may want to chart their answers or keep notes on the board to refer to later.
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· Push students to notice as much as they can in the image. You can ask slightly leading questions, but do not provide the information for them.
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· When you are satisfied that they have exhausted describing the image, ask students to begin to tell you what is HAPPENING in the image. Push the conversation further by asking, "Why do you think this?" or "What shows you that?" Try not to affirm or disaffirm student answers. Stick to pushing for elaboration and visual evidence only.
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· Allow students to continue this for awhile. You can also ask a small group of students to do this in a "fishbowl" format if you are worried about management while other students take notes on what they say. Alternatively, you can ask students to undergo the same process though writing in their notebooks quietly if the class struggles with orderly discussion.
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· When students have reached a consensus or stalemate as to what is happening in the image, only then can you step in and provide some context for the image.
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· You may want to push students to consider why the image is iconic or what its intended audience was.
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· Make sure you make an explicit connection to the day's activity or reading in order to ensure a smooth transition to it and reinforce the relevance of the era.
Primary Source Lesson Plan: Text Analysis Mini-Lesson
Context:
Like the visual analysis lesson plan above, this lesson could be used in multiple places within the unit. It provides a general process for how students might look at author point of view. Again, this lesson won't use a specific document, but rather highlight the protocol. It might be worth noting, however, that using this protocol to investigate the primary text,
Getting Away with Murder
, is probably a good jumping off point for further textual analysis.
Lesson Objective:
Students will be able to analyze author's perspective and purpose in primary and secondary source documents in order to better understand the relationship between authors and their messages to readers.
Lesson Outline:
· Introduce to the class that today you are going to be looking at a piece of writing related to the Emmett Till case. You are going to ask students to investigate the author's perspective and how that might shape the writing or message of the text.
· If the piece you are looking at is a short piece, you might read it aloud (with or without projection if that technology is available). If it is a longer piece, you can copy it for kids and either ask them to read it quietly or complete a class shared read, depending on the needs of your students.
· You can then introduce the protocol questions in a variety of ways. If this is the first time you are using the protocol, you might want to model some thinking or writing about each of the questions and chart students' answers. If it's a short piece, you might want to go through the protocol as a class. Alternatively, you can split students into groups and ask them to discuss and/or write on one of the questions and then come back into a whole group and share
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· Why do you think the author wrote this piece? Point to the part of the text that made you think this.
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· What does the author want us to know as readers? Why do you think this is the author's message?
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· What is the writer's message about justice or injustice? This might be a tough question for students if it's not explicit or if they don't have sufficient information about the writer; feel free to sub out for another question.
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· How does the author view the events of 1955 around Emmett Till's death? What makes you think this?
· It is important to end this mini-lesson by exploring how the work of the day widens/changes/differs from the narrative the class has about Emmett's death until this point. What new perspective does this give us and how does it change our understanding of this historical event?
· Make an explicit transition to the day's reading or writing.