Objectives:
To record, compare and reflect on the many stages in Malcolm X's life. To specifically think about what he was like at the beginning of his life and then at the end.
Materials:
Multiple copies of a biography of Malcolm X, notebook paper, post-it notes, a comparison matrix on chart paper, markers.
Procedure:
1. After reading a biography of Malcolm X, display the enlarged comparison matrix on chart paper as shown below:
The Many Transformations of Malcolm X
Stage His Priorities His Beliefs
2. Begin with a discussion of how people change over time. Ask them to think about the many changes they have gone through in their lives thus far.
3. Ask the students to go back to their books, and mark passages in the story with post-it notes that show a distinct change in Malcolm X's life examining also if and when his priorities and beliefs changed. Realistically, this may well be done over a period of many days and managed by taking a chapter at a time. Discussion should naturally follow as students share their findings.
4. Together as a group fill in the categories on the above comparison matrix.
5. Ask the students to fold a piece of notebook paper in half and label one column 'beginning' and the other 'end'. Then ask them to write down a description of what Malcolm X was life at the beginning of his life, perhaps when he was a successful student before his father was killed and at the end of his life after he had broken away from the Nation of Islam.
6. Students will then share their responses and a discussion will ensure.