E. Quinson

D-201

8R, periods 2 and 3

 

Monday, October 27, 2008

SWBAT:  respond to the practice ELA and respond to their independent reading.

DO NOW:   Independent reading.

DEVELOPMENT:

1.      Independent reading. 

2.      Students respond to their independent reading.

3.      If time allows, we may have book talk or reading time.

4.      Explain that we are about to begin a whole class novel and that therefore, students may want to put aside their independent reading book for just a couple of weeks.  On the other hand, they are welcome, of course, to keep reading!  J

H.W.:  Independent reading. 

 

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

GOAL:  develop some background information for Warriors Don’t Cry by reading “Brown v. Bd. of Education,” by Walter Dean Meyers.

DO NOW: Independent reading. 

DEVELOPMENT:

  1. Write an entry in your writer’s notebook:  define freedom and what it means to you.
  2. Discuss prior knowledge and Brown v. Bd. of Ed.
  3. Distribute brown literature books.
  4. Begin reading by looking at the selection and the separate parts into which it is divided.  How will we attack this piece of non-fiction?
  5. Read first portion to students. 
  6. Stop and write:  what did freedom mean to slaves in America?
  7. Then create a summary, or even a little title for the first part.  The Meaning of Freedom for slaves?  Discuss first portion.  How did the meaning of freedom changes for African Americans?  What could that mean?  An elusive thing?  How can chains stretch across minds???
  8. Read second portion to students.
  9. Do a think aloud. 
  10. Stop and write:  why would parents struggle to get their children to be allowed to attend desegregated schools?
  11. Third section.  Read aloud to students to the bottom of p.233. 
  12. Stop and write:  what kind of a person does Thurgood Marshall seem to be?  What events in his life make you think so?  Be specific.
  13. Continue reading Third section.
  14. Stop and write:  What argument did he use against segregation:  bad for students.  It made them feel inferior, so they did not perform as well.  It violated the 14th Amendment.  Intangible factors were not equal. 
  15. Fourth portion:  read aloud.
  16. Stop and write:  why would the major struggle be in the hearts and minds of people and “in that gap between law and custom.”
  17. Last Portion:  Linda’s Brown’s adult perspective. 
  18. Stop and write:  how has this law changed our lives?

H.W.:  1.  Finish reading “Brown v. Board of Education” pp. 231-236, if we have not done so in class.  2.  Write one page in your writer’s notebook:  What do you think it might be like to be one of the first children to integrate a school, after the new ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.   3.  Independent reading.

 

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

SWBAT:  consider ways in which they can make a positive difference in our school, community, and nation.

DO NOW:  Write an entry:  for the most part, I think we can all be grateful to live in the United States, but let’s face it:  nothing’s perfect.  What are some things you might like to change about our county?  How could you help achieve a change for the better?

DEVELOPMENT: 

  1. Review DO NOW entries.  What would we like to change and how could we, even young people do to help bring that about?
  2. Define prejudice. 
    1. It is based on real or imagined differences between groups
    2. It attaches value to those differences in ways that benefit one group at the expense of others.
    3. It is generalized to include all members of a target group.
  3. Racism is a form of prejudice based on skin color.  Many people think there is no such thing as race.  That there is only one race:  the human race.
  4. Review memoir as a genre.   We are going to read a memoir called Warriors Don’t Cry a whole book length memoir.  Remember, we are only going to see the world through the author’s eyes.  But this does allow us to see real historical events in a very real, personal manner.
  5. Distribute books and allow students to look at intro, etc.
  6. Discuss what the author means when she writes in the intro that he book “conveys my truth of what it was like to live in the midst of a civil rights firestorm.”
  7. Begin read aloud, if time allows.

H.W.:  1.  Read pages 1-23, chapters 1 and 2.  2.  Write one page in your writer’s notebook:  Choose one passage from the reading that strikes you as particularly important, interesting, or striking is whatever way and explain why you think it is important, interesting, or striking.  Put a post-it in your book at the passage and then respond in your writer’s notebook to that passage.  Some ways to respond could be:  explain why you think it is significant, what you think it means, what connections you can make to it. 

 

Thursday, October 30, 2008

SWBAT: examine the ways segregation defines and confines Melba Pattillo and other African Americans in Little Rock in the 1950s.

DO NOW:  Re-read the passage on page 3, “Black folks aren’t born expecting segregation….Instead the humiliating expectations and traditions of segregation creep over you slowly stealing a teaspoonful of your self-esteem each day.”  Then, write an entry:  paraphrase this statement and give examples, using details from last night’s reading to support your ideas.

DEVELOPMENT:

  1. Discuss DO NOW.
  2. Discuss H.W. entries.  In some ways, having freedom of choice to respond is more difficult than just answering questions, but it is in posing questions that we really grow as readers and thinkers.
  3. Distribute copies of “Merry Go Round” by Langston Hughes.
    1. As a pair share ask students to discuss what the poet is comparing the merry-go-round to in the poem. 
    2. How does this relate to Melba’s experience with the merry-go-round?
  4. Discuss questions (for groups? Or fishbowl this?)

·        How does Melba learn the expectations and traditions of racism?

·        What does she know about segregation by the time that she has reached the age of 8?  What has she learned by 12?

·        How do the expectations and traditions shape attitudes and actions of adults in Melba’s family?  How does this affect the way Melba views their ability to protect her and themselves from mistreatment?

·        In 1954, when she was only 13, a white man tries to rape her.  How do the adults in her family react and respond?  Why don’t they call the police?  What do they fear?  How does this impede the course of justice?  How does this affect Melba?

·        What does Melba’s account suggest about the way racism affects everyone in society—those who are considered privileged and those who are the victims of racism?  What does this suggest about the way racism threatens democracy?

  1. Review/summarize.

H.W.: 1.  Read pages 24-46, Chapters 3 and 4.  2.  Write one page in response:  Melba’s grandmother likens Melba to a “warrior on the battlefield for your Lord.”  What is a warrior?  In what sense are Melba and the other eight students “warriors”?  What qualities do warriors have?  Which of those qualities do you think they will need to make it through the school year?

 

Friday, October 31, 2008

SWBAT:  examine the metaphor of warriors and how we can all be warriors for a cause.

DO NOW:  Write an entry:  Do you agree with advice Melba’s grandmother gives her at the bottom of page 44 top of 45.  When is crying a sign of weakness?  A sign of strength?  Who decides?  Is it different for men?  For children?

DEVELOPMENT:

  1. Discuss DO NOW and H.W. entries, perhaps as a pair/share?
  2. Discussion Questions:

·        Secrets: 

o       Why does Melba’s mother insist that she and Melba keep their encounter with the mob outside Central High School a secret, even if it means telling a white lie? 

o       What is a white lie? How is it different from other lies?

·        Melba’s Journal:

o       How does Melba use her journal?

o       Why?

o       Is this similar to anything you have ever experienced or seen before?

  1. We may create a time line of events so far relating to the integration of Central High.
  2. Review/summarize.

H.W.:  1.  Read pages 47-68, chapters 5 and 6.  2.  Write one page in response:  How do you think Melba really feels about becoming a student at Central High. Why?  Use text based details to support your answer.

 

Monday, November 3, 2008 – add more reading!!!

SWBAT:  explore the way Melba uses comparison and contrast to show the effects of segregation.

DO NOW:  Write an entry:  On page 52 Melba describes an ad created by a white man from a small town in Arkansas.  What is the message in his ad?  At whom is it directed?  How do you explain Melba’s response to it?  How do you think others in the community might have responded?  Why?

DEVELOPMENT:

  1. Discuss DO NOW and H.W. entries, perhaps as a pair/share?
  2. Discussion Questions:
  • How does the crisis in Little Rock affect people in Little Rock and other places:
    • How does Melba characterize the way that individuals and groups in Little Rock, both black and white, respond to the crisis?
    • What role does the media seem to play?
    • What role does the media play in our world, US, NY, Rockland, Clarkstown, FFMS?  (Think bomb threat.)
  • Thurgood Marshall:
    • What qualities does Melba attribute to Thurgood Marshall?  Which of these qualities does she most admire?
    • To what adults does she compare Marshall?  What does that comparison suggest about the way she views those adults?
    • What does her comparison suggest about the effects of segregation?
  1. If we have time, perhaps we should read “Brown v. Board of Ed.” In the textbook?  Yes!  We must!
  2. Review/summarize.

H.W.:  1.  Read pages 69-90, chapter 7 .  even more, because you will have election day to read as well.  J 2.  Write one page in response: It has been said that some leaders make history; others are made by history; and still others are run over by history.  Into which category would you place President Eisenhower?  Governor Faubus?  What qualities does each show in the crisis?

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