Lesson Plan 1

Title: Getting to Know Social Justice and Robert F. Kennedy

Grade: 8

Time Requirement: 60 minutes

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Understand the concept of social justice and how Robert F. Kennedy was an agent of change.
• Make the connection between Robert F. Kennedy and how the power of individual actions can effect change.

New York State Learning Standards

• Social Studies Standard 1: History of the United States and New York state KI 3, PI 2
• Social Studies Standard 3: Geography KI 1, PI 1
• Social Studies Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship and Government KI 2, PI 5
• English Language Arts Standard 1: Information and Understanding Grade 8 Reading, PI 2, 6, 9, 12; Grade 8 Writing, PI 7-8, 10; Grade 8 Listening, PI 1, 3; Grade 8 Speaking, PI 2
• English Language Arts Standard 3: Critical Analysis and Evaluation Grade 8 Speaking, PI 1
• English Language Arts Standard 4: Social Interaction Grade 8 Writing, PI 1

SOCIAL STUDIES CORE CURRICULUM

• Grade 8: United States and New York state History Unit 11, Section II D. Old and new problems must be addressed (p. 88)

SKILLS

• Thinking skills – drawing inferences and making conclusions
• Research and writing skills – organizing information; interpreting information
• Interpersonal and group relation skills – participating in group planning and discussion; cooperating to accomplish goals; assuming responsibility for carrying out tasks
• Sequencing and chronology skills – understanding the concepts of time, continuity and change
• Map and globe skills – creating maps

CONCEPTS

• Change
• Choice
• Civic values
• Citizenship
• Human rights
• Places and regions
• Technology Requirement
• DVD player and TV, Internet connection

Background

This is the introductory lesson to a five-lesson unit on social justice issues with a focus on Robert F. Kennedy's advocacy for change.

The scope of these lessons will be:

• Desegregation
• Rights of migrant workers
• Children's rights
• Bedford-Stuyvesant restoration project

Relevance to Current Issues

Individuals and groups still take on injustice and discrimination issues affecting the disenfranchised, the poor, the neglected and the indigent by getting involved in community activities such as being politically active, going into public service and going green.

Student Activities

Anticipatory Set

• Divide students into cooperative work groups.
• Show students the 2:19 minute clip on Robert F. Kennedy, Making a Difference, from this YouTube link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgpUMr7er54
• Show the clip a second time and ask the students to make a list of the people they see in the clip and write what they think the quotes were about.
• Ask the students to share their answers. Record the comments on the board, flip chart or smart board.

Activity 1

• Students will read the quotes from Robert F. Kennedy and answer the guiding question.

Students remain in cooperative groups.

Quotations:

• "It is not enough to understand or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task."
• "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."

June 6, 1966, University of Capetown, South Africa

Guiding Question

• List at least two ideas within the quote. Based on the two ideas, what do you think is the main idea of the quote?

Culminating Activity

• Based on the video, the Robert F. Kennedy quotes and biography provided in the introduction of the unit, each group will write a quote on one of the following:
• Helping children
• Helping communities
• Helping people to make their lives better

Extension Activities

• Geography – provide students with a map of the United States.
• Map the areas within the United States of social justice activities that Robert F. Kennedy engaged in between 1961 and 1968, based upon this PBS site: www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk/maps/index.html.

Sen. John F. Kennedy (L) and committee counsel Robert F. Kennedy talking to each other at a hearing of a Senate select committee. Photo by Paul Schutzer//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.