I.

Purpose
Throughout the course of this unit, students will:
o Analyze and evaluate their own opinions on justice, freedom, and
equality
o Synthesize information from various documents for research
o Expand their knowledge of multiple perspectives in the United
States' Civil Rights Movement

II.

Goals
o Outline initial personal opinions on justice, freedom, and equality, and reevaluate these opinions given new understandings of these themes.
o Create a historical research-based character profile to defend one
perspective of the Civil Rights Movement.
o Summarize main ideas from a text for discussion.
o Sequence and synthesize information from multiple perspectives of
research.

III.

Objectives: Students will study various civil rights groups during the movement
and how they contributed to protests by following a Powerpoint presentation and
examining photographs from protests.

IV.

Standards
o Social Studies Learning Standards:
o 1.1: The study of New York State and United States history requires an
analysis of the development of American culture, its diversity and multicultural
context, and the ways people are unified by many values, practices, and
traditions.
o 1.2: Important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions from
New York State and United States history illustrate the connections and
interactions of people and events across time and from a variety of
perspectives.
o 1.3: Study about the major social, political, economic, cultural, and religious
developments in New York State and United States history involves learning
about the important roles and contributions of individuals and groups.
o 1.4: The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the
significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and
validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation;
understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of
different historical developments.

V. Materials
o Venn Diagram
o Pictures for picture walk from
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/archive-14/?_r=1 and other various
sources.
o Poster board
o Dry erase board
o Timeline
o Projector
VI. Anticipatory Set

o
o

Students will be given a Venn Diagram to brainstorm what they know about
protests. On the left side, students will write what they know about peaceful
protests. On the right side, students will write what they know about violent
protests. In the middle, students will write about what they know about
protests in general.
Students will work in small groups while brainstorming.
Students will share with the class what they come up with for the Venn
Diagram. Appropriate responses will be recorded on the board by teacher.

VII. Body
o Day 1:
o Students will be presented with five influential groups (CORE, SNCC,
SCLC, NAACP, The Black Panther Party) and five significant
events/protests (Project C, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom
Riders, Greensboro Sit In, March on Washington) they participated in
through Powerpoint presentation.
o Influential people and leaders (Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X,
Rosa Parks) will be introduced with their parties and their
contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
o Pictures from significant events/protests during the Civil Rights
Movement will be shown to the students and added to the timeline.
o Day 2:
o A guest speaker from the Rochester chapter of the NAACP will come
in and speak to the class about the group and what they stand for.
The speaker will address the events happening in Ferguson and how
the group is involved with the protests and any other significant
actions.
VIII.
o

Assessment
Groups will initial analysis of picture walk on poster board. Assessment will
be based on how well they analyzed the picture.

IX. Closure
o Students will be broken up into five groups. Pictures from significant
events/protests will be placed around the room with poster boards. Each
group will be placed at a different picture. Groups will be given five minutes to
analyze the picture and write on poster board what they see, feel, think, etc.
about what is happening in the picture. After five minutes, groups will switch
to another picture in carousel fashion.
X.
o

XI.
o
XII.

Extension: Edmodo
Students will be asked to respond to a question on Edmodo: Which picture
did you find to be the most emotionally moving? What did you see that made
you feel this way? Do you think the actions in the picture was the most
reasonable response? If so, why? If not, what could have been done
differently?
Modifications
Use fewer pictures will be presented.
Accommodations

Students will be given a print out version of the notes with space to make
additional notes. Pictures will be included with notes.