Unit Plan: Civil Rights

Lesson Plan for Wednesday

Grade: 1st
Social Studies Strand: History
Submitted By: Deavon Hinebauch


EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science
Nevada State College Spring 2014
Instructor: Karen Powell
Lesson Plan for Wednesday Strand: Civics submitted by: Deavon Hinebauch
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 2
B. Summary of the Lesson Plan: This social studies lesson is designed for first grade students to
learn about symbolism; it is the 3
rd
lesson in a five-day unit on civil rights. This lesson uses
the text Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies (pp. 143-147).
C. Basic Information:
Grade Level: 1
st
Grade
Time to Complete this Lesson: 50 minutes
Groupings: Whole group for vocabulary review, introduction, and monument voting,
individual for monument photograph, and small groups for classroom monument
discussion.
D. Materials:
Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies text (pp 143-147)
Coloring utensils such as coloring pencils, markers, crayons, etc.
Scratch paper and Construction paper for each student
Poster boards for each group
Tape
Introduction video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5BqLwb0TBs
E. Objectives:
o NV State Social Studies Standards
H1.1.3 Listen to histories of important local landmarks that create a sense
of community among citizens.
o Student-Friendly Standards
I can listen to histories of important local landmarks that create a sense of
community among citizens.
F. Vocabulary
Symbolism: to represent a person, place, or event, with a symbol.
Monument: type of memorial honoring an event, person, or special site and can be
found all over the world.
Memorial: designed to preserve the memory of a person or event
G. Procedure:
1. Introduction: Review vocabulary, and spend extra time explaining and providing
examples for symbolism. Show a video of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5BqLwb0TBs) and explain how this reflects
symbolism of non-violence and all of the things MLK stood for. Explain that this an
important landform that helps create a sense of community among the citizens and
serves as a reminder of the civil rights movement (Can show other monuments as well
Lesson Plan for Wednesday Strand: Civics submitted by: Deavon Hinebauch
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3
for students to get a better understanding of their purpose and meaning). Keep
image of monument of MLK up for students while they work throughout the lesson.
2. Inform students that today they will be designing a monument to represent what we
have been learning about with the civil rights movement and all the lives of those
affected. Allow student choice here, the monument can be based on a person, a
place, an event, or anything that stood out most to them from what they have
learned. Provide examples after about five minutes of student think time, such as
Martin Luther King Jr., the MLK memorial, separating class members (in class activity),
Paula Shelton, pictures from the videos, etc.-list them on the board. Remind students
that symbolism means we are creating a monument that represents the civil rights
movement, summarizing what we have learned about.
3. Once students have decided on the event or person, provide scrap paper and pencils
for students to sketch and design their monument or other memorial. Play soft music
while students are drawing and walk around to monitor and assist. Once students are
satisfied with their plan, provide construction paper and colored utensils to create a
final version of their design. Provide tape and assist students in hanging the final
product on the wall in, or outside the classroom (further instructions and examples for
this activity can be found in the Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies, p.
145).
4. Next, tell students that we will be creating a monument in our classroom. We want to
come together in small groups (3-4 members) and create a list of examples we believe
would represent our classroom and remind students to help ensure peace in the
classroom. This means helping us learn how to handle disagreements in a peaceful
manner, as MLK taught us, and to treat each student fairly. Explain that this will be the
place where students can go to work out a disagreement, along with teacher
assistance. The teacher will provide a binder in which students can write ways in which
they felt they were being treated unfairly, and how they believe the situation should be
handled; the teacher should read these at lunch and at the end of the school day
daily. We want to establish a sense of community and fairness in our classroom, so all
are treated equally. We need to decide on a symbol to help remind us of this, which is
symbolism. When each group completes a list of a few ideas, the class should vote
which symbol the class likes the best. Each group should present their top choice for a
symbol, and support WHY they think their symbol represents fairness and peace in the
classroom. (If there is a tie, we will ask the principal to choose between the symbols).
The teacher will create the symbol that night in order to display it the next day.
H. Assessment:
What will you use to measure student understanding?
Photographs and monuments will help interpret student understanding of the historic
event.
Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson.
I will evaluate if students listened to histories of important local landmarks that create
a sense of community among citizens in assessing their monument. The monument
will help reflect if students listened to the introduction video, discussions, and previous
readings about symbolism and landmarks that represent community among citizens.
Lesson Plan for Wednesday Strand: Civics submitted by: Deavon Hinebauch
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 4
I. Closure:
Students will walk in a straight line to observe all students monument and memorial
photographs. Students will be able to discuss the different photographs and decipher
how they represent the civil rights movement.
J. Reflection:
1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach?
I think the easiest part to teach will be the drawing. Students love to draw and get
creative.
2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach?
I think it will be more difficult to assist students with ideas for monuments without just
providing all the answers. I want students to reflect their knowledge of what the
learned (and listened to) about monuments and symbolism, finding symbols that
accurately represent an event or person. In addition, it may be difficult for students
to come up with ideas for a classroom monument that symbolizes community and
fairness in the classroom.
3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson?
I want students to learn more about how the monument for the classroom and how
this strategy will be implemented to solve conflicts and ensure fairness for students.
4. What can you do for students who do not grasp the concepts?
I will provide some examples after a few minutes of student brainstorming for the
civil rights and the classroom monuments. This will ensure that those students who
are having trouble creating monuments will have a prompt for the assignments,
and ensure they can complete the drawing.
5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change?
Perhaps more of an introduction to monuments would improve this lesson. I
appreciate the focus on the MLK monument so students will stay focused on
symbolism with the Civil Rights Movement; displaying other monuments may stray
students from the topic of the unit. If students need further examples to reinforce
vocabulary and understand the underlying meaning of memorials and monuments,
more examples should be provided, which should be previously uploaded in case
needed as a backup.
6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part?
This lesson was easier to write, because the activities are easily based on the
students levels. Again, the difficult part is discovering ways to make concepts
meaningful to students, and finding ways to apply knowledge in a classroom
setting.