Date: Week 2/Tuesday
Period/Class Title: US History
Name: Alicia Vosberg
# of students: 30
OBJECTIVE:
Students will be introduced to the historiography of the Emmett Till murder to discover more about the case and to evaluate how history is reliant on interpretation. Students will also refine analytical and critical thinking skills as they continue to analyze media coverage of the case. Students will analyze and interpret photographs as an important form of media. They will also apply and reinforce prior knowledge of objectivity, subjectivity, and bias learned in prior week of unit.
MATERIALS:
lecture notes, laptop, Powerpoint presentation of Ernest Wither's photographs, back-up hard copies of Wither's photos, overhead projector for back-up photos, back-up overhead transparencies, 30 photocopies of Defender and NYT articles, 30 copies of worksheets with questions
NOTES:
Bring two extra copies of lecture notes for learning disabled students. Assign students to groups and be careful to mix groups up so the same students are not always working together.
STEPS:
Anticipatory set: 10 minutes - Students will verbally answer the question: "What most struck you about the murder of Emmett Till?" to determine what they learned from the documentary on the murder of Emmett Till viewed the previous day.
1. 20 minutes - lecture discussing the historiographical aspects of the Till case using the following works as a foundation:
Hugh Stephen Whitaker's thesis "A Case Study in Southern Justice: The Emmett Till Case", Stephen J. Whitfield's "A Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmett Till", Ann Moody's "Coming of Age in Mississippi", Susan Brownmiller, "Against Our Will", Christopher Waldrep's "War of Words", and photographs by Ernest Withers
2. 10 minutes - students will read the two newspaper articles individually and silently
3. 20 minutes - students will break into groups to analyze text and photos included in articles and individually answer specific questions on worksheet.
-What are the differences you perceive between the two articles?
- Why do you believe these differences exist? What purpose do they serve?
- What effect would these articles have on their target audiences? On non-target audiences?
- What is your personal response to the articles? How do they each make you feel? Why?
4. At the end of the period students will add worksheets to their interactive notebooks
FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY:
homework: Students must go to http://www.petitiononline.com/ via the Hip Hop Circuit website and start their own petition for social justice by Thursday. In the computer lab on Friday we will all sign each other’s petitions.
Also students must investigate links on Hip Hop Circuit website on Democracy and voting issues, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, at: http://www.umich.edu/%7Eexppro/activities/democracy.html and add the information about the Act to their timeline
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION:
The anticipatory set will divulge to the teacher how much students learned from film the previous day. Students will be evaluated on group participation, which is an important portion of the class participation grade, and on the effort put into the answers to the questions on the worksheet. Lecture notes and worksheets are both important components of the student interactive notebook.
LITERACY ASPECT:
During the lecture students will refine their note taking skills using the Cornell technique. Students will utilize reading, deciphering, and analytical skills while critically examining the two articles from the Defender and the New York Times. Students will also learn to analyze photographs. Students will also gain oral literacy skills as they work as a group.
REFLECTION/RESPONSE:
Students may not be as successful analyzing the articles depending on skill level. They may require more teacher interaction so teacher will evaluate student progress and redirect the lesson depending on student frustration level. It may be more successful to try the analysis as a whole class with the teacher leading.