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Content Lesson Plan

Instructors Name:
Vernon Turner
Lesson Plan Title:
Teaching Segregation
Grade:

Content Area:

11th

US History
Purpose of Lesson

I chose to do this lesson because I believe that segregation is one of the

most under taught subjects in US history. Most teachers refuse to talk about
it or talk about it in a very surface way. This leads to students not having a
full understanding of exactly how segregation affected American society. My
goal with this lesson is to focus on the impact segregation had on society
and have students reflect on the impacts it still has today. This will hopefully
help students have a better understanding of the Civil Rights Movement
moving forward. I believe that students cannot understand the issues and
risks the Civil Rights Movement took up unless they actually understand the
struggle African Americans faced day to day.
Concept(s) / Topic(s) to Teach:
-Jim Crow Laws
-Depth of Segregation in American Society
-"I Have A Dream" Speech excerpt
-Primary Document Analysis
-Creative Writing
Content Standards Addressed (be sure to include both the number
and the description of each standard):
USHC-8: The students will demonstrate an understanding of social,
economic, and political issues in contemporary America.

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USHC-8.1: Analyze the African American Civil Rights Movement, including

initial strategies, landmark court cases and legislation, the roles of key civil
rights advocates and the media, and the influence of the Civil Rights
Movement on other groups seeking equality.
Common Core State Standards Addressed: (be sure to include both
the number and description of each standard):
Common Core Literacy Standards Grades 11-12
1. Key Ideas and Details
a. (2) Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or
secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes
clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
b. (3) Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and
determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence,
acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.
2. Craft and Structure
a. (4) Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are
used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and
refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text.
Learning Outcomes (the student will be able to):
-Students will be able to :
-Understand the history of Jim Crow Laws and how they impacted
every aspect of society
-Students will be able to give an analysis of the "I Have a Dream"
speech excerpt
-Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis
-Determine the meaning of specific phrases and words in the "I Have a
Dream" speech
-Be able to make connections from the excerpt to Jim Crow South
-Students will understand the effect segregation had on race relations
in the United States
-Students will be able to write their own two paragraph "I Have a
Dream" speech citing specific examples of things they would want
changed from Jim Crow South
Required Materials/Resources:
-White Board

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-Internet
-Three Photographs of Segregation
-News article on Segregation
-Excerpts from Little Scarlet
-Copies of "I Have a Dream" speech excerpt for every student
-List of guiding questions for "I Have a Dream" speech excerpt
Assessment:
Creative Writing of their own "I Have a Dream" speech
This creative writing will allow me to assess how much the students
understand the pervasiveness of segregation in American society
before and during the Civil Rights Movement. Students will have to
write their own "I Have a Dream" speech, forcing them to show that
they understand the issues that segregation brought about. Also,
students are forced to reflect upon the effects segregation had on
society and how it would have impacted them if they lived during the
time. This is important because many students struggle to relate and
understand segregation because it is a topic that is not talked about
and rarely taught past showing segregated water fountains.
Step-by-Step Procedures for this lesson: Day 1
-First students will come in and look at the board to do their get started
activity. On the board will be a photograph of a black man under a "Colored
Waiting Room" sign. Students will analyze the photograph and then we will
discuss how the photograph makes everyone feel. This will allow for multiple
perspectives to be discussed in the classroom, hopefully resulting in a
cultural blend.
-After the students have analyzed and shared their feelings on the
photograph, the class will start a lecture review on Jim Crow Laws and
segregation. The lecture will cover:
-The formation of Jim Crow Laws after Reconstruction
*Focus on the dichotomous nature of the laws
-The inhibiting effect Jim Crow Laws had on the 15th amendment
*Poll Taxes preventing African Americans from voting
- The rise of the KKK
*Impress upon students how the KKK not only threatened African

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Americans but Anglo-Americans who were "too friendly" with African

Americans
- Lynching
*1992-1968: approximately 5,000 lynchings occurred in the United
States
-The rise of segregation as a legal act
-Plessy vs. Ferguson's ruling "Separate but Equal"
-The wide spread of segregation
*Making sure students understand that segregation took place in
places outside of the South
-The goal of this lecture is for students to understand the pervasiveness of
segregation in American culture before and during the Civil Rights
Movement. The pictures provided (photography 1, 2, 3) and the newspaper
article will be shown during the lecture to help assist students in their
understanding of how imbedded segregation was in society.
-Then, students will read three excerpts from the book Little Scarlet. I will
first briefly explain the setting is during the Watts Riots in LA in 1965.
Students will read the three excerpts to understand the impact segregation
had on the African American community. The students will read pages 33-34
in Little Scarlet, showing a conversation the protagonist Easy Rawlins has
with a white nurse. The nurse is fearful even talking to Easy and remarks are
made about how they could be "hung" if they are seen exchanging phone
numbers. Then students will read an excerpt from page 17 and pages 77-78.
Page 17 portrays Easy listing examples of things he has seen African
Americans get arrested for like "walking on the wrong side of the street" or
"looking a white man in the eyes." Pages 77-78 show a conversation that a
woman has with Easy explaining how all African Americans work for someone
white, "grow up thinking only white people make things, rule countries, and
have history." This brief reading will allow students to see how stratified
society is and how segregation has embedded itself so deep into the fabric of
society, that it has affected the very dreams of African American children.
-After students have read the passage, I will give them an excerpt of Martin
Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The excerpt is a section where MLK
focused on telling everyone his dreams of segregation no longer existing. He
gives examples of things he wishes to see his children do with white children
that they are currently unable to do. Students will answer the guided reading
questions after reading the excerpt. This will help students connect what we
have learned in class to the list of grievances and wishes that MLK states.

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-Finally, after students have completed the "I Have a Dream" excerpt, they
will construct their own "I Have a Dream" speech. This will act as an
assessment, showing me that they understand the hardships that African
Americans faced because of segregation and that they can place themselves
in the setting of a segregated society. After this assignment, students should
have a firm understanding of the depth that segregation affected society.

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Agenda
November 11, 2015

8:008:10

Students will analyze and the class will discuss the Jim Crow
photograph

8:11-8:35

Lecture on Jim Crow and Segregation

8:36-8:50

Short reading excerpt from Little Scarlet and Discussion

8:51-9:15

Students will read "I Have a Dream" excerpt and answer questions
from the guided reading provided

9:16-9:30

Two paragraphs of their own "I Have a Dream" speech (Finish for
Homework)

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Photograph 1

Jim Crow and Segregation - Primary Source Set | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress.
Webpage. Accessed November 11, 2015.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/civil-rights/.

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Photograph 2

Segregation, Jim Crow, and the Plessy Case. Accessed November 11, 2015.
http://www.fasttrackteaching.com/burns/Unit_1_Reconstruction/U1_Reconstruction_Plessy_case
.html.

Photograph 3

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Jim Crow and Segregation - Primary Source Set | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress.
Webpage. Accessed November 11, 2015.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/civil-rights/.

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Newspaper Article

Jim

Crow and Segregation - Primary Source Set | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress.
Webpage. Accessed November 11, 2015.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/civil-rights/.

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Close Reading Activity: "I Have a Dream" excerpt

Martin Luther King Jr.
1. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.
Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from
areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution
and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative
suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back
to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go
back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that
somehow this situation can and will be changed.
2. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
3. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this
nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal."
4. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the
sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat
of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice.
5. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will
not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
6. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious
racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and
"nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be
able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
7. I have a dream today!
8. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain
shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be
made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it
together."2
9. This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
10. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a
beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to
pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together,
knowing that we will be free one day.

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Close Reading Guiding Questions

Instructions:
First read through the excerpt with your partner/group carefully.
Afterwards, answer questions through collaboration. Everyone must
contribute to answering the questions to receive credit.

1. What words and phrases does MLK repeat and why do you think he is repeating them?

2. What do you think MLK meant when he said "great trials and tribulations?"

3. What are the "difficulties of today and tomorrow" MLK is referring to?

4. How does this excerpt make you feel? Why?

5. Do you believe any of these issues are still relevant today?

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Write Your Own "I Have a Dream" Speech

Instructions:
MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech was a powerful motivational speech filled
with imagery and references to social problems of segregation in America.
Your group's task is to write a minimum two paragraph (8 lines) "I Have a
Dream" speech that is based on the issue of segregation and what you have
learned in class.