Black American leaders as responsible citizens: Their roles, their contributions, their diversity

The focus of this lesson will be to help third grade students to clearly identify the need for having leaders arise from the citizenry of a given community. Students will review factual information to guide them in distinguishing the positive and negative qualities of leaders. Techniques will include guided reading of factual historical text during a Jigsaw, student note taking, student development of open-ended questions, and student engagement in a Socratic seminar.

A lesson plan for grades 3 and 5 Social Studies

By Debbie Rollins

Learn more

• Journey to Excellence This article provides tips for utilizing Socratic seminars in your classroom.
• Historical Focus on Civil Rights Index The University of Virginia library has links to resources on the nation movement, micro-histories, important people, and more.

Related pages

• Civil rights wax museum project: In this lesson plan, students will choose African Americans prominent in the Civil Rights Movement and research aspects of their lives. They will create timelines of their subjects' lives and a speech about their subjects, emphasizing why they are remembered today.
• A living timeline of civil rights: This fifth grade lesson plan is one piece of a civil rights unit. This particular lesson is an opportunity for students to demonstrate knowledge of a specific person or event that occurred during the civil rights movement. The students will share their research with others as they take on the role of a museum artifact.
• Jackie Robinson taught us more than baseball: After determining student knowledge about Jackie Robinson, the teacher/counselor reads "Teammates" by Peter Golenbock to fifth graders. The teacher/counselor then divides students into four groups to work cooperatively on questions. Groups select leaders and recorders and each group leader presents answers to the whole class. The teacher/counselor ends the activity with a question that individual students will respond to in writing.

Related topics

• Learn more about African American history, African Americans, Socratic method, civil rights, history, and social studies.

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Learning outcomes

The desired learning outcomes for each student participating in this lesson are:

1. To work collaboratively with classmates to take notes and generate open-ended questions based on a given text.
2. To be familiar with Black leaders during the Civil Rights period and be able to identify their contributions and discuss their roles as leaders including the difference each leader made in society–then and now.
3. To describe the diversity (roles, contributions, actions, background, etc.) of the identified leaders.
4. To generate open-ended questions based on a given text.
5. To appropriately respond during a Socratic seminar and respect the rules and procedures of the seminar.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

90 minutes

Materials/resources

• Reading text prepared by teacher. See the Supplemental section for a list of recommended texts.
• Space to allow students to meet in groups of five.
• Note-taking pages for students.
• Highlighters.
• Space to allow chairs to be assembled for a seminar (large circle).

Technology resources

Teacher may elect to display questions using an overhead projector or document camera.

Pre-activities

Prior to this lesson, students should be able to define in their own words and demonstrate understanding of the following terms and concepts: leader, leadership, diversity, role, and responsibility. Students should also be familiar with Black American leaders during the Civil Rights period (e.g. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, Malcolm X). See the Supplemental section for a list of Civil Rights leaders as well as a site to secure additional names and information.

Students need to be able to read and take notes independently and within a cooperative learning setting. Students should be able to distinguish open and closed-ended questions.

Students should be familiar with the process and procedures of a Socratic seminar. The teacher will want to, ahead of time, explain rules and share the selected rubric.

Activities

Focus and Review

Teacher begins the lesson by reviewing key terms and checking for student understanding. (Terms: leader, leadership, diversity, role, responsibility)

Teacher Input

1. Identify five to seven Black American leaders from the Civil Rights period and prepare reading materials (1-2 pages each) or guide students in choosing a text related to each leader. See the Supplemental section for a list of recommended texts.
2. Prepare students for a Jigsaw by assigning groups. Students will work in groups of five.
   • Expert Groups are created by assigning each group of five students one Black American leader and providing the prepared reading materials. Students spend time reading silently and highlighting key information evidencing the individual’s leadership role and responsibilities. Students then talk within the Expert Group to create an agreed upon set of notes related to the reading. Expert Group members also develop a set of 3-5 open-ended questions based on their reading. NOTE: Each student will use the notes to teach classmates about the assigned leader. Students will also pose their questions to members of their learning group to check understanding.
   • Learning Groups are created by reassigning students in groups of five with each group member having expertise on a different leader.
   • The teacher may to use an appropriate model of note taking and provide a note taking page for students. This page may be used to guide students as they “teach” classmates.
3. Prepare and share rules and procedures for a Socratic seminar including a list of teacher-prepared questions at least one of which should focus students on the diversity of the studied leaders. See this Word document Easy Steps to Planning a Seminar and the Supplemental section for resources on preparing for a seminar.
4. Select or design and share rubric for student assessment. See the Word document First Thoughts for Creating a Rubric and the Websites section for additional resources on designing a rubric.

Guided/Independent Practice

1. Jigsaw:
   • Expert Groups: Read, prepare notes, generate questions.
   • Learning Groups: Take turns teaching using prepared notes.
2. Socratic Seminar: Teacher begins the seminar by posing an open ended question based on objectives of lesson and assigned texts. Students expand the discussion by responding to the teacher’s question(s) and by posing their own questions (those generated by the Expert Groups). Again, see the Word document Easy Steps to Planning a Seminar for a step-by-step guide to planning a seminar including developing questions.

Closure

The teacher should “invite” responses from those students who have been less engaged in the discussion by posing a summary question, providing “think time” then providing the opportunity for less talkative students to speak first.

Assessment

The teacher will use the identified rubric to assess student performance.

Supplemental information

Definitions

Jigsaw. The jigsaw is a specific cooperative learning technique with a three-decade track record of success. Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece–each student’s part–is essential for the completion and full understanding of the final product. If each student’s part is essential, then each student is essential; and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective.

The students are divided into small groups of five or six students each. As an example, suppose their task is to learn about World War II. In one jigsaw group, Sara is responsible for researching Hitler’s rise to power in pre-war Germany. Another member of the group, Steven, is assigned to cover concentration camps; Pedro is assigned Britain’s role in the war; Melody is to research the contribution of the Soviet Union; Tyrone will handle Japan’s entry into the war; Clara will read about the development of the atom bomb.

Eventually each student will come back to her or his jigsaw group and will try to present a well-organized report to the group. The situation is specifically structured so that the only access any member has to the other five assignments is by listening closely to the report of the person reciting.

There are numerous benefits to the jigsaw strategy. First and foremost, it is a remarkably efficient way to learn the material. But even more important, the jigsaw process encourages listening, engagement, and empathy by giving each member of the group an essential part to play in the academic activity.

Note taking. There are numerous strategies which may be employed by elementary students to help them take notes. The teacher should consider the learning style and ability of each student when selecting a strategy. Strategies may include:

1. KWL (what you Know, what you Want to know, what you Learned)
2. Data Sheets (identifying sources and specific interesting facts)
3. Cluster Method or Mapping (record and organize notes using a chart or graph)

Visit the All the Information in the Known Universe website for examples of note taking strategies appropriate for elementary students.

It will be helpful to students if the teacher models each note taking strategy recommended for students. The teacher may model or may have a student model.

Open-Ended Questions. Open-ended questions are those questions that will solicit additional information from the inquirer. Sometimes these questions are called infinite response or unsaturated type questions. By definition, they are broad and require more than one or two word responses. Closed ended questions are those questions, which can be answered finitely by either “yes” or “no.” Closed ended questions are also known as dichotomous or saturated type questions. Closed-ended questions can include presuming, probing, or leading questions. By definition, these questions are restrictive and can be answered in a few words.

Examples:

Open-ended question	Closed-ended question
What aspect are you looking for?	Is this correct?
What kind of information are you looking for?	Are you looking for (topic)?
What would you like to know about [topic]?	Do you need help?
What do you mean by [topic]?	Is there a reference?
What further clues can you give me?	Is it (a) or (b)?
What examples can you give me?	What did (a) do?
How will you use this information?	Who did/said (blank)?
How will this information help you?	Is this the information you need?

Read this commentary prepared by Dr. John V. Richardson Jr., UCLA Professor of Information Studies, for pros and cons of both open and closed ended questions and to see additional examples.

Civil Rights Leaders

Consider this list of Civil Rights Leaders:

• Ralph Abernathy
• Jesse Jackson
• Rosa Parks
• Stokely Carmichael
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Vivian Malone Jones
• Medgar Evers
• Malcolm X
• Hosea Williams

Recommended Elementary Texts

• A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Picture Book Biography) by David A. Adler
• Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport
• What Is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day? (Special Holiday Books) by Margaret Friskey
• My Dream of Martin Luther King (Dragonfly Books) by Faith Ringgold
• Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges
• If a Bus Could Talk : The Story of Rosa Parks by Faith Ringgold
• The Civil Rights Movement for Kids: A History With 21 Activities by Mary Turck
• White Socks Only by Evelyn Coleman
• Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles
• The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
• Cracking the Wall: The Struggles of the Little Rock Nine (On My Own History) by Eileen Lucas
• Freedom School, Yes by Amy Littlesugar and Floyd Cooper

Socratic Seminars

These sites not only provide some background information related to Paideia and Socratic seminars, they also provide a number of helpful tools for educators including step-by-step directions for planning and conducting a seminar, a seminar planning sheet, a rating chart, an observation form, and assessment criteria.

Modifications

The teacher should prepare questions appropriate to the various learning styles and abilities of the students within the class. Each student should experience some success within the seminar setting, therefore, the teacher may present a question, allow “think time,” then call on selected students for whom the given question was designed before allowing other students to respond to the question.