Jeremy B. Landa
Lesson Plan 1
Key Question: How does Thomas Jefferson complicate the ideas of inferior and superior races? Why is it important to trace the origins of race conflict to a man like Thomas Jefferson?
Lesson Goals: 1) Identify the racial beliefs that Thomas Jefferson expressed and the ambivalence of his actions 2) Analyze how Thomas Jefferson's views on race and writings are important thinking processes that become part of the structures of the nation
Homework: Using local newspapers, find an article that addresses race or socioeconomics. Read and bring for class discussion.
Teaching Strategies: Chunking Difficult Text, Big Paper analysis + Discussion debrief, Pre-Reading with predicative writing
Narrative: The ability of students to connect historical events to make meaningful analysis or synthesis is predicated by the teacher's ability to utilize a teaching methodology like Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's
Understanding By Design
framework, which implores teachers to plan by starting with their final product.
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Using a method like this allows a teacher to identify the components necessary to create the final product. In this case, Thomas Jefferson, as a Founding Father, has been identified as a responsible party for the creation of a thinking structure that still exists around race inferior and superiority. In order for students to understand the manifestation of race tension as a structure – a riot or a protest – they must be able to trace the roots of the problem. The suggestion in this case is to utilize a teaching technique, like Big Paper, to pull out small pieces of Jefferson's ideas from his writings on race. Big Paper is a silent conversation on poster boards around quotes, pictures, or ideas to provoke bigger conversations in a classroom.
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The quotes from Jefferson should not be identified because the context might be in question. A number of different questions should be asked by the teacher, including thinking around using context clues as well as thinking about the content itself. After the Big Paper exercise, Thomas Jefferson should be introduced. The complexity of this lesson revolves around Jefferson's hypocritical behaviors comparing his writing to his actions. For dramatic effect, Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings could be used.
The Declaration of Independence
should also be used to complicate the man. This lesson will culminate with students writing multiple paragraphs in class about Jefferson as well as discuss how they believe Jefferson connects to race conflict in the 1960s. They will discuss with each other and peer edit each other's work.
Lesson Plan 2
Key Question: What does chaos theory such as the "butterfly effect" have to do with understanding race riots and protests of the 1960s?
Lesson Goals: 1) Demonstrate understanding of the butterfly effect through modern examples 2) Create counterfactual history stories about important historical events to illustrate understanding of the butterfly effect
Homework: Write about the butterfly effect at work in your own life – Explain the point of origin, the resolution, and how a small event created a large outcome. It can be positive or negative.
Teaching Strategies: Teaching with technology – examples of butterfly effect, Primary Source Document Analysis, Understanding Historical Methodology, Fishbowl discussion
Narrative: This lesson is predicated on the belief that in order for students to be successful in this unit they must be able to connect theories to historical content. This practice is what I refer to as the connective tissue of history. This terminology is fitting because it is necessary for students to understand how history connects over time. Likewise, it is important for students to understand and be able to explain how individuals are able to influence events throughout the world. This class will examine a variety of examples of the butterfly effect and counterfactual history. The lesson will begin with students posting their newspaper articles around the room. Students will examine the articles with one central premise in mind: How does the issue in the article connect to Thomas Jefferson's beliefs in the 1780s? The class will spend 15 minutes reading the articles and spend an additional 15 minutes discussing as a group. The outcome is to push students to connect the past with the present in order to understand how conditions today are an outcome of previous decisions by individuals and groups. Following that, we will explore the butterfly effect by watching a number of videos on YouTube and sharing observations and reflections. Some examples are a commercial that shows the effect of a butterfly landing on a car and how that causes a series of events that result in a boat being thrown through the roof of a home. Once students understand this example, they will examine their own lives and share with each other an example of this theory in practice in their own lives. We will also examine the Arab Spring of 2011 because Mohammed Bouazizi setting himself on fire is a visible and easy to digest way to understand how history is affected by the butterfly effect. In the process, we will devise a list of central questions that can be asked to challenge history and ask the question what if, such as what if Bouazizi had not set himself afire. The last part of class will involve introducing the 1960s, the movements of the 1960s, and the Detroit Riots in 1967, and the New Haven May Day Protests in 1970. The purpose of this is to give students background information about the cities, people, and movements that encapsulate the 1960s.
Lesson Plan 3
Key Question: Why are New Haven and Detroit in the 1960s similar places to live? Why are they different?
Lesson Goals: 1) Demonstrate understanding of job and housing barriers that existed that prevented blacks from gaining acceptance into mainstream urban societies 2) Compare and contrast Detroit and New Haven in 1960s before the riot/protest to see how they are similar and different
Homework: Group 1: Read Chapter 1 and 2 –
Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer
Group 2: Read P 52 – 57 –
Violence in the Model City: The Cavanagh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967
with role specific question for literature circles
Teaching Strategies: Analysis of tables and graphs, Small group discussion, Pre-reading – using lesson to prepare students for reading homework
Narrative: This class is meant establish problems that African-Americans struggled with during the Civil Rights Movement. It will establish a number of issues that are similar to New Haven and Detroit before the riots in 1967 and the protests in 1970. Both cities have clear connections with migratory patterns, housing, job, and education discrimination. Similarly, they also struggled with police departments that subscribed to militaristic-styles of policing, which effected community relations. For this reason, this class will led students through a number of exercises that establish the role of identities in the creation of conflict. The class will begin with a simple exercise – we will watch a short clip entitled "The Lunch Date", which is a clever scenario where a black man and white woman interact without words. The white woman ends up believing the black individual, who is shoddily dressed, steals her salad. She is wrong and gets a laugh about the situation, but it calls into question many ideas about the power of pre-judging someone. This will lead us into an examination of tables and graphs that show information about Detroit and New Haven's housing and job markets, and education system. Immediately following these inferences, the students will view pieces from "Eyes on the Prize" from PBS, which has some really excellent pieces on race and race inequality surrounding the problems from the 1960s
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or read a story about struggles in a city like Chicago with these issues. The purpose of pushing students in this direction, which will leave New Haven and Detroit, is to establish that these two cities problems were not unique; rather, they were a part of general trend of institutional discrimination, which put people in many cities, including Detroit and New Haven in a position where they had no choice but to fight back. This day will serve to establish a base for students reading text, some of which is difficult to understand.
Lesson Plan 4
Key Question: How does the lack of democratic process for some groups create conditions where revolt is the only possible solution?
Lesson Goals: 1) Identify the role of marginalization, stereotyping and, membership in creating rule followers or rule resisters 2) Analyze how these ideas affect people like Warren Kimbro and John Sinclair.
Homework: Visit website http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm and write a one-page summary about the Detroit riots OR read chapter 5 in
Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer
Teaching Strategies: Literature Circle (reading comprehension with a Butterfly Effect Commentator, People Pundit, Connection Queen or King, Comparison Connoisseur, Event Expert)
Narrative: This class is going to introduce Kimbro and Sinclair in Detroit and New Haven. These characters were part of radical movements. Kimbro eventually resorted to murder while Sinclair was the founder of the White Panther Party. The class will be introduced to the two characters – Sinclair through an autobiographical documentary called
Twenty to Life: The Life and Times of John Sinclair
and Kimbro through a piece of the chapter entitled "The Making of a Panther" from
Murder in the Model City
. The purpose of this exercise will be to help develop a deeper understanding of the connection between people feeling oppressed or marginalized and the impact that has on individual's behavior. Students will then have a literature circle to discuss their reading assignment from the previous class. The roles mentioned above will have students prepare for group work very specifically – for example, the butterfly effect commentator will seek examples of the butterfly effect in the reading. To do this, they must know what eventually happened in Detroit and New Haven. The people pundit will talk about the people involved. The Connection Queen or King will connect Jefferson to the reading and events that happen. The comparison connoisseur will examine Detroit and New Haven for differences and similarities. The event expert will be able to explain the Detroit and New Haven events in detail. This small group discussion will enhance understanding of the reading while also allowing students to answer, in detail, the question of the day from lesson plans 3 and 4.
Lesson Plan 5
Key Question: What is punctuated equilibrium? Why does Detroit explode into one of the biggest riots in our nation's history and what effect does it have on the city?
Lesson Goals: 1) Identify the events in the Detroit riots in 1967; the factors that caused the riot, and determine whether it was preventable 2) Analyze how music portrays a deeper understanding of the racial divisions of Detroit and the differences between cities and suburbs.
Homework: Read Chapter 14 and Chapter 16 from
Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer
Teaching Strategies: Chalk Talk – Using white board to help facilitate group discussion
Narrative: This class will begin with a short reading that discusses the riots and how they began. We will especially focus on a number of details that had to happen in order for there to be an escalation and eventual implosion of order in the city of Detroit. This again relates to the butterfly effect because if the blind pig that was raided was not raided or raided differently, would the riot have occurred? If the riot had not occurred then, would it ever have occurred? Following this examination the beginning of the riot, we will watch a large majority of the BBC documentary "Motor City's Burning: From Motown to the Stooges", which does an excellent job of contextualizing Detroit through the lens of music that acted as a vehicle of defiance.
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In light of the Northern High School walk out, it is a great place to bring the class because it connects the riot itself to bigger movements happening during the time. The class will conclude or homework will be added for students to research the lyrics of 3 out of 4 songs that have origins from Detroit – possibly The Stooges "1969", Diana Ross and the Supremes "Love Child", Stevie Wonder "Living in the City", and MC5 "The American Muse" are all good options, but there a large number of songs that are social critiques about urban living. This is just an interesting way of presenting Detroit in more detail to understand what happened and why it is important.
Lesson Plan 6
Key Question: What happens in New Haven? Why does it not become a seminal event in the history of New Haven and our nation?
Lesson Goals: 1) Identify the events in the New Haven May Day Protests in 1970, the factors that prevented it from becoming a riot, and determine what prevented it from being worse 2) Analyze how knowing the differences between Detroit and New Haven can help us predict future events
Homework: Read Chapter 14 and Chapter 16 from
Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer
Teaching Strategy: Teacherless Discussion (Socratic seminar) with technology – scripting conversation on overhead projector for students to reference and teacher to grade, Primary Source Analysis
Narrative: This class will focus a discussion around the protests in New Haven. At this point, students should be familiar with the events that transpired because of the various readings that they should have done. This class will begin with a Big Paper conversation that centers on photographs, speeches, and
Yale Daily News
articles from the lead up to and the May Day Protests. From here, we will conduct a formal discussion called a teacherless discussion that will begin pressing students to question how this event happens in New Haven and how they avoid it becoming a bigger event. This discussion acts much like a Socratic seminar with central questions that push the conversation. However, as the teacher, I am only there to clarify points of interest and script the conversation, which I do with the technology in the room. The scripting allows me to record the conversation for assessment as well as allows students to reference their peer's thoughts. Ultimately, this class is a summative assessment of student understanding. In the process, students should be questioning how Jefferson's ideas have become structures in society, how Detroit could have become a riot, and New Haven did not. They should also be prepared to say whether riots are predictable and preventable.
Lesson Plan 7 - 11
Key Question: How are Thomas Jefferson and his writings related to the New Haven May Day Protests in 1970, and the Detroit Riots in 1967? How can understanding all of these things and how they are intertwined allow us to be better prepared to prevent these things in the future?
Lesson Goals: 1) Analyze the connection between Thomas Jefferson's writings, the Detroit Riots of 1967, and the New Haven May Day Protests in 1970 2) Create a top 10 list and manual for individuals, institutions, and for understanding racial tension and preventing future racial tension
Homework: Prepare for formal writing assessment where students answer one of the unit essential questions in essay form (4-paragraph minimum with thesis).
AND group preparation for Mayor briefing presentation on how this history can be used to prevent, predict, and avoid future conflicts in New Haven, or at least help them end peacefully.
Narrative: The final lessons will be devoted the creation of a final product. One academic work that students could be exposed to is an opinion editorial in the
New York Times
written by Thomas Sugrue entitled "A Dream Still Deferred" that discusses the problems Detroit faces today.
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Likewise, it would be ideal to engage the students with projects ongoing in New Haven to address inequality and discuss whether these are effective options for improving race relations. You may even ask kids to research other race riots and research them as a comparison to the two already discussed in class. The final product in the class will be to create a checklist for three different types of individuals to utilize much like an airplane pilot uses checklists to prepare for departure or arrival. These checklists will be for the average citizen, for an institution like a university, and for a government institution like the mayor's office and the police department. They will also be responsible for writing a two-page policy brief from their checklist that will be presented to the leader of a government or private entity in New Haven. The purpose of this brief is that the students will develop a presentation for a member of the city government. The teacher will be responsible for inviting a prominent member of the city government or institutional community in the city you reside. The purpose is to add meaning to the learning because students will be required to utilize the past to generalize and inform the future. The goal with this project is to develop something that could potentially be publishable on a school-wide scale. In the process, students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of how individuals play a major role in the creation of history as well as how we can use the past to inform the present and affect the future.