Curriculum  /  ELA  /  5th Grade  /  Unit 4: Young Heroes: Children of the Civil Rights Movement  /  Lesson 34

Young Heroes: Children of the Civil Rights Movement

Lesson 34
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ELA

Unit 4

5th Grade

Lesson 34 of 34

Objective

Synthesize information from the entire unit in order to create and execute a plan to fight injustice in your community. 

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Target Task

Writing Prompt

Use what you know about nonviolent tactics and community organization to create a plan for fighting injustice in your community. 

Notes

  • The culminating project of this unit gives students a chance to apply what they have learned over the course of the unit about the different nonviolent tactics used during the Civil Rights Movement to bring communities together to fight injustice. 
  • This project is key for ensuring that students feel empowered by what they have learned in the unit and understand how they can use what they learned from the unit in today’s context. It is also a chance for students to think about what new tactics and strategies they could use based on the context of today’s society vs. the way things were in the 1950s.

Project Overview

This project can be split across as many days as needed. A suggested sequence for the project is outlined below. 

  1. Pick a small-scale or community-based issue. The issue should be one in which an injustice is apparent. It could be real or hypothetical depending on community issues. Potential hypothetical issues:
  • A local playground has lots of broken equipment. The playground is unsafe. The local government isn’t fixing the playground but kids need a safe place to play. 
  • The streets in town are covered with garbage. People throw their trash everywhere—alleys, streets, parks. Action needs to be taken to make the neighborhood cleaner. 
  • The city is talking about replacing the baseball and soccer fields in town with new apartments. 
  • The state department of education has decided to remove recess in grades three through five. 
  1. Think of the desired goal and outcome. What change is necessary? What are they pushing for? 
  2. Brainstorm potential areas of resistance and opposition. What would people on the other side say? How might they approach the issue? 
  3. Brainstorm which strategies and tactics would be most effective and why. Students should start by thinking about the tactics they learned from the unit, but then they should be challenged to think about what additional tactics might be relevant. For example, writing letters to the government, media, community meetings, etc. 
  4. Create a plan. Write a proposal that summarizes the steps needed for organizing and executing the plan. 
  5. If feasible, execute a real or mock version of the plan. 
  6. Reflect on what worked or didn’t work and what they would change. 

Common Core Standards

  • RI.5.9 — Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
  • SL.5.1 — Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
  • SL.5.4 — Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
  • SL.5.5 — Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

Lesson Map

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