• Interest/Readiness Questionnaire
• Teacher observation
• Venn Diagram (confirming/building background knowledge)
• Final Project from Tic-Tac-Toe Menu
• Civil Rights Quiz (optional)
• Research Rubric
• Creative Rubric

Day 1:

• Define culture. Discuss how cultural norms affect the school and classroom. List ideas on chart paper to be posted in the class.
• Give students Interest/Readiness Questionnaire and collect when students complete.
• Read aloud The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson.
• Discuss story and make a Venn Diagram of cultural customs of African American Virginians & Whites during the time period 1900-1940 on the overhead. Use as a pre-assessment of background knowledge.

Day 2:

• Review definition of culture and Venn Diagram from previous lesson. Provide background knowledge on Jim Crow; segregation; discrimination; desegregation; integration; Civil Rights as needed per pre-assessment feedback.
• Play pre-selected interviews of African Americans sharing their perspective of life during and after Jim Crow Laws. Excerpts of interviews are found at http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/remembering/ . Add additional observations to Venn Diagram. List student generated generalizations about culture during the time.
• Pose project question to class: How might your life have been different if the Civil Rights Movement had never happened or if leaders of the Civil Rights movement had not made their contributions? Share Word Sort with class on overhead. Tell students to choose a topic from the overhead to help them investigate and answer the project question. Have students write down their topic on an index card and collect.

Day 3:

• Review definition of culture.
• Explain to students that they will work in groups to the topic they chose. Each team member will be responsible for choosing an activity which will show what they have learned and how an aspect or piece of their life has been affected by their topic. Students will be expected to share with the class their final product. Use Tic-Tac-Toe Menu to help guide students in product choice.
• Direct students into subtopic groups, presorted by teacher (using index cards) based on student interest. Students should begin investigating by generating a list of questions about topics.
• Allow students time to investigate their topics with resources provided by teacher.

Day 4+:

• Allow students time to investigate their topics with resources provided by teacher.
• Allow students time to produce final product.

Final Days:

• Student presentations.
• Teacher will fill in any missing important information on content.
• **Give Civil Rights Quiz and (optional) post-assessment to measure growth. (Teacher will determine when appropriate to give quiz so that students have time to prepare.)

• Interest/Readiness Questionnaire(pre-assessment and optional post-assessment)
• Overhead
• Overhead Markers
• Poster Paper
• Markers
• Masking Tape
• Venn Diagram
• Computer with internet access
• LCD projector or connection to TV
• Project resources (books, internet, journals, pictures, etc.)

TEACHER RESOURCES

Internet Sites

http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/remembering/
This site features excerpts of interviews. It is a great source for teacher background knowledge. Selected interviews may be played for students, but not all excerpts are appropriate for fourth grade students.

http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu
The History Matters site is a great starting place to search on numerous historical topics. It is especially useful for teachers as it is thorough in its coverage as well as being user friendly. Use the “Quick Search” to focus in on the Civil Rights Movement specifically for this lesson.

http://www.adifferentplace.org/civilwar.htm
This site includes numerous curriculum links for the Civil War and a link for the Reconstruction period. Teachers may find numerous primary resource links including photographs, letters, and diary entries.

http://www.landmark-project.com/classweb/rubrics/4x4rubric.html
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
These sites feature premade rubrics and tools to tailor your own rubric assessments.

Books

Berson, Michael J. (Ed.) . (2003). Horizons: Virginia (Vols.1- 2). Orlando: Harcourt Press.
This is our school’s history book. We used it to gain background knowledge and as a reference for reteaching students.

Woodson, Jacqueline (2001). The Other Side. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
This is a great supplementary book for a read aloud. It tells of two girls, one white and one black, who gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides them.

Melvin, Ruth (Ed.). (2003) Virginia Studies: Fairfax County Public Schools Program of Studies, Grade 4. Fairfax County Public Schools.
This document is a compilation of background information for teachers as well as serving as a succinct reference of essential understandings and additional activities.

REFERENCES:

Gay, Geneva (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. NY: Teachers College Press.

Sharan, Y. and Sharan, S. (1992). Expanding cooperative learning through group investigation. NY: Teachers College Press.

Sternberg, R. (2003). Giftedness according to triarchic theory. In N. Colangelo, & G. A. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of gifted education (pp. 45-54). (3rd ed.) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann (2003). Deciding to teach them all. Teaching All Students, 61 (2), 6-11.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann (2nd ed.) How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. (2001)

Tomlinson, C. and Kalbfleisch, L. (1998). Teach me, teach my brain: A call for differentiated classrooms. Educational Leadership, 56 (3), 52-55.

Winebrenner, Susan (1992). Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom: Strategies and techniques ever teacher can use to meet the academic needs of the gifted and talented. MN: Free Spirit Publishing, Inc.

Jigsaw: Divide the class into 5 groups. Each group will be assigned a section of text in which they will become experts. They will use the Summarizing Graphic Organizer to help guide their thoughts. After a designated period of time, the teacher will break out these teams into 5 other groups. The 5 new groups will share their expertise.