History in perspective: Exploring Martin
Luther King Jr.
Grade level: 5th
grade
This activity
is designed to engage 5th grade students in a research project that
integrates a variety of technology and tools
Time
Allotment: This lesson was originally based on a unit plan however, I have
taken the lesson on Dr. King and have applied it to this assignment. This
lesson would probably take a 40 minutes to an hour depending on how fast
students work.
AZCCRS: 5th grade social
studies
Performance
Objectives:
The student will be able
to:
1. Use the following to interpret and
create historical data:
a. timelines – B.C.E. and B.C.; C.E. and
A.D.
b. graphs, tables, charts, and maps
c. Create and understand how to use a Venn
diagram for historical events (e.g. The Civil Rights Movement). Venn Diagram
will be used to compare and contrast events about The Civil Rights Movement and
the Black Lives Matter Movement.
2. Construct timelines of the historical
era being studied (e.g., presidents, civil rights movement, key events and
people).
Lesson Implementation
Mini lecture
“Martin
Luther King was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was
a Baptist minister and his mother was a highly respected schoolteacher. His
parents originally named him Michael, after his father. But later his father
changed both of their names to Martin Luther, after the German religious
reformer (Lambert 1993). As a child, Martin enjoyed singing, riding his
bicycle, playing football and baseball, and reading. He spent many hours at his
fathers’ church, listening to him preach, and singing in the choir. He was a
very good student and he skipped grades in elementary school and in high
school” (Adler 1986).
“Martin learned
about discrimination first hand at a very young age. When he was five years old
he often played baseball with the white sons of a nearby grocer. One day, when
he went to ask the boys to play, their mother told him that her sons could not
play with him ever again because he was black. Martin was deeply hurt (Adler
1986). When Martin was fourteen and in the eleventh grade, he entered a
speaking contest in Dublin, Georgia, sponsored by the Negro Elks Society. His speech
won first place. However, on the bus ride home, Martin was forced to give up
his black section seat to a white person. He stood up for the ninety mile trip
home” (Lambert 1993).
“Martin wanted
to keep up the family tradition, so he decided to become a minister. He
graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and then went to Crozer Seminary to
become a minister. It was at Crozer that Martin learned about Gandhi. Gandhi
was an important leader in India. To get the British rulers of India to leave
his country, Gandhi had the people protest non-violently. Martin was very
impressed with Gandhi and he would later follow Gandhi's example of non-violent
protests” (Sorensen 1994).
Show students
a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. explain that Dr. King worked for civil
rights, the basic rights and freedoms of citizens.
Online Journal and Media
History in
perspective: Students will watch the first section of the “I Have a Dream”
speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. After they watch this, they will log
onto their computers and make a video journal discussing their initial thoughts
and reactions to the speech. Students will also watch live footage of police
brutality in Birmingham, Alabama. After the video students will discuss their
thoughts and feelings in a video journal. In the journal students will answer
the following questions “If you were asked to give a public speech in
Washington, DC about what is needed today for a better America, what would you
say? What is your “dream”? Compare the civil rights movement with the “black
lives matter movement” today. Is there any similarities is there any
differences? How would you convince
others to follow your dream?” Share as a class if time allows.
Tasks
After this students
will start building a time-line. Students will reference important dates during
the civil rights movement. Examples include: Martin Luther King Jr. Speech,
Rosa Parks sitting in the front of the bus, Birmingham Alabama march, etc.
Students will
start building a Venn Diagram comparing some similarities and differences
between the civil rights movement (1954-1968) and what is happening in our
world today e.g. “black lives matter” movement
Class Discussion
Once the timeline and presentation are completed, the class
will meet together to share and discuss their thoughts and come to some
conclusions about the civil rights movement. During the class discussion, each
student will be encouraged to share any change in their personal ideas about
the civil rights movement because of the findings presented.
Formative Assessment
Students will
split up into groups of 3 and make a quick online Google slide presentation.
They will use ideas and research from the internet to compare and contrast the
civil rights movement to current events happening with “black lives matter”
they will highlight key features of current events today and from the civil
rights movement. Students will then use this information to make informed
decisions on whether or not these movements are positive or negative. Or how
they are effecting our world today.
Summative Assessment
The Individual
Report: Once everyone has had a chance to share their ideas about the Martin
Luther King Jr. And the Civil Rights movement, students will have the
opportunity to write a final report about Civil Rights. This report can be done
in one of the following ways: Students can write a book using iAuthor, students
can create a google slide presentation or students can use iMovie to generate a
powerful movie.
Students will
create their own individual report that includes the following elements:
· The report must be generated using
some technology publishing tool (i.e. Word, PowerPoint, Prezi, iMovie, iAuthor,
other as ok’d by the teacher)
· The report must include a Venn
diagram that accurately compares the civil rights movement (1954-1968) to some
of the issues of racism we see in America today.
· The report must answer the following
questions:
Who is Martin
Luther King Jr. and why is he important?
Why do you think the civil rights movement was
an important piece of history?
What do you
think the civil rights movement was trying to accomplish?
What did you
learn about civil rights and civil liberties?
Do you think
there is a connection between the issues of race today and the issues of race
during the civil rights movement? Why do you believe this? What evidence do you
have to support this?
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
Students will
need several tools to research, gather, organize, and publish your
findings.
·
Research
tools, such as a web browser (i.e.
Internet Explorer) and an Internet Search Engine (i.e. Google) to gather
information, images, sounds, video and perhaps other media to help you answer
the research questions.
·
Writing and
multimedia presenting tools, to share your team’s findings (i.e. tools for the PC like;
MS-Word, Google slides and Movie Maker.
·
Organizing
tools, (i.e. MS-Excel, Open Office
Calc, or iWorks Numbers) to list and organize your information in a way that it
is easy to find.
·
Multimedia
tools, such as image, audio, and or
video editing to help create new media or edit some of the media you’ve
collected during your research. You may
even want to produce a movie of your Ancient Structure. (i.e. Adobe Photoshop,
LView Pro, or Audacity).
·
Timeline
resources: http://projects.seattletimes.com/mlk/?utm_source=redirect&utm_medium=vanityURL&utm_campaign=redirect
·
Venn
Diagram resources: http://projects.seattletimes.com/mlk/?utm_source=redirect&utm_medium=vanityURL&utm_campaign=redirect
Media
Bibliography
Lambert,
K.K. (1993). Martin Luther King, Jr. :Civil Rights Leader. New York: Chelsea
House Publishers.
Adler,
D. (1986). Martin Luther King, Jr. :Free at Last. New York: Holiday House.
Sorensen,
L. (1994). Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Vero Beach, FL: The Rourke Press, Inc.
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Criteria
|
Approaches
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
|
Read and construct
simple timelines
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The
report included a timeline that was mostly accurate and included some of the
important facts about the Civil Rights movement
|
The
report included a timeline that was well constructed and included most of the
facts about the Civil Rights movement.
|
The
report included a timeline that was well constructed and included all of the
facts about the Civil Rights movement.
|
|
Use knowledge, facts and
concepts drawn from history to create a Venn Diagram about the civil rights
movement
|
The
students provided a good Venn diagram that identified similarities and
differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter
movement.
|
The
students provided a compelling Venn Diagram that accurately identified similarities
and differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter
movement.
|
The
students provided a detailed and accurate Venn Diagram that identified
similarities and differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black
Lives Matter movement.
|
|
Compare and contrast
different events happening in different eras of history.
|
The
report provided some evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was important
in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.
|
The
report provided plenty of evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was
important in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.
|
The
report provided all of the evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was
important in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.
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