Lesson Plan 4

Title: The Power of a Group to Make Change

Grade: 4

Time Requirement: 120 minutes

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Discover that a group can generate more solutions to a problem than a few individuals.
• Create a list of non-violent actions that may be taken when faced with what may seem an impossible situation.
• Understand how the Freedom Riders worked together in a non-violent way to bring about change.
• Connect the character traits of respect, patience, courage and unwillingness to give up (perseverance) with the non-violent actions taken by the Freedom Riders to achieve their goal.
• Identify the historical events, including Robert F. Kennedy's role, surrounding the full enactment of the law that guaranteed all people, regardless of color, would be entitled to ride public transportation across state borders.
• Demonstrate that denying anyone the right to ride public transportation across state borders is a social injustice.
• State that the tactics used against the Freedom Riders could be considered harsh forms of bullying.

New York State Learning Standards

• Social Studies Standard 1: History of the United States and New York State KI 1, PI 2, KI 2, PI 2, KI 3, PI 2; KI 4, PI 2
• Social Studies Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship and Government KI 1, PI 1; KI 2, PI 2; KI 3, PI 2-3, KI 4, PI 1-2, 6
• English Language PI Arts Standard 1 Grade 4 - information and understanding: Reading PI 1-5, 10, 12; Writing PI 1-5; Listening PI 1-3; Speaking PI 6-7
• English Language Arts Standard 2 Grade 4 - literary expression: Reading PI 9, 11; Writing PI 1, 4-5; Listening PI 2-3; Speaking PI 1,7
• English Language Arts Standard 3 Grade 4 - critical analysis and evaluation: Reading PI1, 3, 6; Writing PI 1-4; Listening PI 1; Speaking PI 3-4
• English Language Arts PI 3 Standard 4 Grade 4 - social interaction: Reading PI 3; Writing PI 1-3, 6,-7, 9; Listening 2; Speaking

SOCIAL STUDIES CORE CURRICULUM

Grade 4: Local History and Local Government

Local and State governments - Citizenship and the roles and responsibilities of citizenship in the classroom, school, home and local community

SKILLS

Thinking skills - evaluating

Research and writing skills - getting information, looking for patterns, analyzing information, supporting a position

Interpersonal and group relations skills - cooperating to accomplish goals, assuming responsibility for carrying out tasks

CONCEPTS

• Change
• Choice
• Civic values
• Citizenship
• Conflict
• Human rights
• Justice
• Power
• Student Activities
• Anticipatory Set

The students will be asked to participate in a contest. Two students will come forward and each will be asked to hold 10 large books (or whatever the teachers deems a "heavy" amount) for 10 minutes.

• Without their knowledge, the teacher will start giving one of the students help by asking other students to share the load. If the other student asks or begins to complain, no help from the teacher will be given. The teacher should observe the social interaction of the class and bring the contest to a close at an appropriate time.
• After this contest is over, the class will be asked to make a list (which can be teacher-facilitated) of why one student received help and the other didn't. Ideas/questions that should come from this activity:
  • A group is more powerful than an individual.
  • An individual alone may sometimes not be as successful as the group.
  • How did you feel about the person in charge who could have given help to the individual student but did not?
  • In what ways could you assist a person or group who feels powerless?
  • How did you feel watching your classmate struggle?
  • Did you want to help your classmate who was struggling? Did you? If you didn't, why not?

Note: The emphasis here should be on:

• The idea of what is fair and unfair.
• In what non-violent ways could you have helped your classmate.
• Did you choose to help? How did you do that?
• Did you choose not to help? Explain why.

Activity 1

• The teacher provides each student with the brief summary of information about the Freedom Riders. (Passage provided on page 26.) This information could be read silently by each student, read aloud by the teacher or read in any other manner the teacher feels appropriate.
• After reading the passage, the teacher provides the picture of the Freedom Riders about to board a bus before one of their historic rides. Students should be asked to look closely at the picture so they will be ready to answer questions about it from Page 24.
  http://www.freedomridersfoundation.org/images/leavingLA1.jpg (Image 4a Freedom Riders Boarding the Bus)
• Using the graphic organizer (Worksheet 4e triple entry journal), the students will put the number of the question and answer under the appropriate column headers. Remind students to pay special attention to which questions can be answered using either the document only, the passage about the Freedom Riders only or their own thinking based on the document and/or passage. Note: this activity will help students practice gathering information from primary source documents and help prepare them to answer data-based questions on state assessments.
• The teacher may choose to discuss the answers the students have on their papers, collect their papers and discuss certain questions, work with questions the students had great success with, work with a question that was particularly difficult for a number of students or discuss why some questions are so much easier to answer than others. The teacher can decide on the manner or degree of assessment, but some checking for student understanding should be done at this point. It is important to note that the questions provided follow Bloom's Taxonomy and increase in both difficulty and complexity to help students develop their critical thinking skills. Questions numbered 1-7 address lower level, less complex thinking skills, while those numbered 8-15 address more complex thinking skills.
• Once the questions have been assessed in some manner, the teacher should ask the students to read and think about the following quote: "Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." –Michael Jordan
• The teacher asks these final questions:
  • When the Freedom Fighters were bullied by people they met on their journey, how did they respond and what was the final outcome of their actions?
  • What can a group filled with great courage accomplish together?
  • How can you as an individual or as a member of a group bring about change when you see a social injustice?

Culminating Activity

The teacher will assign students to free write/journal about the topic of "The Power of a Group to Make Change," using the chart on the following page to help them.

Student Activities

1. How many people are in the picture?

2. Tell in your own words why these people might be smiling even though they know they may face danger ahead.

3. What would you do before boarding the bus?

4. What do you think the Freedom Riders did before boarding the bus?

5. List examples that prove the people involved in the Freedom Rides felt differently as they were getting ready to leave.

6. Why did the Freedom Riders go on these rides even though they knew that danger was ahead?

7. Would you feel safer riding with one companion or many? And why?

8. What do you think the man in the back of the picture is feeling?

9. What do you think the woman in the front of the picture is feeling?

10. What is the relationship between the people who called themselves Freedom Riders?

11. If the man in the back of the picture decided to get off the train before you all arrive at your destination,what would you say to him?

12. What advice would a Freedom Rider give to someone about to take their first ride?

13. What were some assumptions that people made about the Freedom Riders?

14. How were the Freedom Riders either treated fairly or unfairly? Support your point of view.

15. What characteristics did the Freedom Riders possess that empowered them to endure the treatment they received on their way to overcoming segregation on public transportation?

Extensions

• The students may role-play the person in the picture that the questions were asked about. They might say what they think the people in the photograph would say or say aloud what the people might be thinking.
• Pretending to be a Freedom Rider, write a biography poem (form provided) on the night before the ride. (Found on page 27, Worksheet 4f Biography Poem)
• Read about and write a short report on John Lewis or Jim Zwerg, members of one of the famous Freedom Rides.
• Use the Internet to find pictures of the Freedom Riders as they looked when arrested and now as older adults.
• Write the dialogue that may have taken place between two Freedom Riders as the bus pulled into the terminal and angry crowds were waiting.
• Read one of the following books and discuss how the main character(s) overcame what seemed to be an impossible situation
  • Come Again in the Spring by William Kennedy
  • Teammates by Peter Golenback and Paul Bacon
  • My Secret Bully by Trudy Ludwig
  • Remember by Toni Morrison
  • Freedom Riders by Ann Bausum
  • Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
  • If A Bus Could Talk by Faith Ringgold
• Access the pictures from the links below. Write three questions about these for someone to answer and discuss with you.
  • Freedom Riders: John Dolan and friends in New Orleans; Group Shot of Houston Freedom Riders; http://freedomridersfoundation.com/photos.articles.and.artifacts.html (Image 4b)
  • Burning bus: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/freedom%20_rides/%20freedom_ride_jpegs/%2014_slide0001_image029.jpg (Image 4c)
  • Map of the bus route: www.crmvet.org/riders/frmap.htm (Image 4d)
• Write a short song or poem the Freedom Riders may have sung or chanted on their journey. Think about performing this piece of writing for your class.
• Prepare a list of ways in which the Freedom Riders could react when they were faced with unacceptable treatment before, during or after their rides. Put a checkmark by those the Freedom Riders would probably have used because they are non-violent ways of dealing with situations.

Graphic Organizer (Triple Entry Journal)

Directions: Put the number of the question and the answer under the appropriate column heading.

• DOWNLOAD: Worksheet 4e Triple Entry Journal (PDF)

Biography Poem

• DOWNLOAD: Worksheet 4f Biography Poem (PDF)

By:

• Today I see myself
• Tomorrow I see myself
• Here sits a person
• Who likes
• Who dreams about
• Who is afraid of
• Who has never
• Who wants to be
• Who desires
• Who dislikes
• Who wants to change
• Who someday sees
• Who would like to be like
• Who never
• Who wishes
• Who sees my friends
• Who hopes that someday
• Who wants all people

FREEDOM RIDERS

A group of Freedom Riders from Tennessee stands at the door of a Greyhound bus in Birmingham, Ala., waiting for a bus to leave for Montgomery on May 19, 1961. On April 25, 2008 the Tennessee Board of Regents changed its decision to deny honorary degrees to 14 students at Tennessee State University, who were expelled for participating in Freedom Rides of the 1960s civil rights movement. AP Photo/The Tennessean file.

Passage about the Freedom Riders

The United States Supreme Court in 1960 had granted travelers, regardless of color, race or creed, the legal right to disregard local laws that allowed segregation for interstate travel; however, this decision was being violated in the South. In May of 1961, the Freedom Riders - a dedicated group of men and women, black and white, young and old - began riding buses in the South to exercise their right under the law. These courageous travelers were considered criminals performing criminal acts and their actions were met with arrests and brutal beatings through mob violence. The Freedom Riders, though severely punished for doing what the law of the land stated they could do, never returned the violence heaped upon them. They had been well-trained in the ways of non-violence by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself.

When arrested and put in jail, the Freedom Riders often responded to their harsh treatment by singing freedom songs from their cells. The Freedom Riders refused to stop singing even though the prison guards had demanded that they stop or they would receive further punishment. Even as the Freedom Riders endured these further punishments for their non-violent reactions to the social injustices put upon them, they continued to stand up for what they believed in and stayed firm so as to reach their goal of being treated equally under the law.

Five months after the Freedom Riders left their historic rides through the South, the Interstate Commerce Commission, with U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, issued a tough new federal order banning segregation at all interstate public facilities based on "race, color or creed."

The law became effective on Nov. 1, 1961.