Daniel Bridges

Martin Luther King Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan

I. Describe the class

- Twenty-five fourth grade students. Five have exceptionalities (Jerome, Kyle,
Roberto, Susan, and Isabella), three are gifted (Samantha, McKayla, and Zach),
and fifteen are English Language Learners (Nastascha, Juan, Sicilia, Kyle,
George, Joseph, Samuel, Claudia, Susan, Gregory, Sia, Victor, Carla, Jake, and
Thomas).
II. Subject/Skill
- U.S. History/ Identifying the Key Events in Dr. Martin Luther Kings Life
III. Objective
- Students will, from within their Jigsaw cooperative learning groups, be able to
describe and categorize the major life events of Dr. Martin Luther King with 90%
accuracy.
IV. Procedures
- Did you know that there was once a time in U.S. History when I would have
been labeled as inappropriate teacher to teach this class? There was once a time
in our history, when I would have only been deemed worthy to teach students like
Jerome and Jake. Can anyone tell me what made me an appropriate teacher for
Jerome and Jake, but not for students like Nastascha and Jared?

The color of your skin? Is it because you are black and Nastascha and Jared are
not?

Unfortunately, yes George. There was once a time in the history of the United
States of America where people were judged by the color of their skin, not by their
character. Luckily for us, there was once a brave man named Dr. Martin Luther
King, who stood up against injustices like these. It is because of men like Dr. King
that I, Jerome, and Jake are able to be here right now. Without Dr. King, some of
our closest friends, who are sitting in this class right now, would never have had
the chance to meet us. So, with keeping in the importance of this lesson, we will
be spending some time today learning about the life and times of Dr. Martin
Luther King.

By the end of this lesson, you will all be able to tell me the key events in Dr.
Kings life, and how the lessons he taught our grandparents and great
grandparents are still impacting us today.

- 2. Before we dive into this lesson, lets go over the basics of segregation.

Was there once a time when people of different colors we forbidden from going
to the same schools?
 Was there once a time where people of different colors had to eat at different
restaurants?
What were the names of the laws that made segregation legal?

- 3. Modeling/ the presentation of new material will begin:

The teacher will break the class of 25 students into three groups of six, and one
group of seven. The groups will be heterogeneous, and randomly chosen. When
the groups have been chosen, the teacher will assign each student in the group a
topic. The topics will be: Family, Education, Early Life, Civil Rights Activities,
Set Backs, and Impact on Society. The group that has seven, will have two
students learning about Dr. Kings impact on our society.

The students will be given time to study their topics, and then they will meet up
with the members of the other groups that have the same topic. As they meet up
with the members of the other team, they will become experts on their sections by
discussing what they learned amongst each other and challenging each others
knowledges on the subject.

Once the students have become experts, they will go back to their original teams
and share their information with the rest of the group. The students will then listen
to their fellow team members, and then they will gain all of the information they
need to become familiar with the major events of Dr. Kings life.

- 4. The learning probes for this lesson will be the teacher walking around and
asking questions as the students work. Not only will I be walking around to
ensure all groups are on topic, but I will also be asking them questions to make
sure they are not going down the road.

V. Materials
- In order to help guide the students through this lesson, I will need the necessary
article to give to the students. I will print out the 30 articles on Dr. King, then I
will divide the article into the seven specific categories. I will need 30 copies of
the homework called Martin Luther King Homework, which will be explained
later in this lesson plan. I will also need 12 tables, 30 chairs, and they all must be
set up so the students are able to see the visuals and actively participate.

VI. Grouping Structures

 - In a classroom environment, the twenty-five students will be put into three groups
of six, and one group of seven. The groups will be heterogeneous, and randomly
chosen. This grouping structure will be used to reflect the structures of Jigsaw
grouping.
VII. Modifications
- This lesson is riddled with modifications. Cooperative learning, which has been
shown to hold many benefits for ELL and exceptional students, has been built into
this lesson. With the high number of ELLs, there may not be enough non-ELLs
for the ELLs to team up with. So, to make sure the ELLs are getting the help they
are entitled to, I will make a group in the back and call the ELLs over to make
sure they understand what is going on. For exceptional students, we have adapted
the size, time, level of support, or the difficulty of the assignments to make sure
they all can be successful.
VIII. Assessment
- 6. It is our belief that this lesson would be best assessed by an in class
questioning. This check on learning type of assessment will tell us if the lesson
stuck and if the students are ready for the homework assignment. It the students
do not do well on this verbal assessment, we have already factored in time for
another explanation of the subject.
- 7. This lesson has a homework assignment that will take the students five to ten
minutes to complete. The students will be tasked with completing this and
bringing it back for grading. The homework will be the assignment labeled
Martin Luther King Homework. It will consist of questions that pertain to all of
the information that the students learned in class that day.