Pursuing Justice

Here is a more substantive description of what you might want to discuss in your curriculum proposal memo on Wednesday, 7/9.

 Project Proposal Format; 7/9

1--Describe project: Please discuss the topic of the lesson or lessons you intend to create.  This might entail sharing what you have learned from the research you have already conducted.  You might also review central issues you are investigating.  If you have advanced your research to the lesson planning stage, you might consider outlining the following;

a)      An overview of the lesson that explores how it will fit into the unit and what in general will be the focus of the lesson. 

b)      A description of the student learning activity you contemplate designing.

c)       A list of the primary sources you intend students to use.

 

2--Research Question/Essential Question: Please lay out the questions that you are currently exploring in conducting your research.  This may range from a general topic-oriented question that directs you to what you want to learn more about and indicates what issues are arising out of this research  to a more refined interest-eliciting question that has an appropriate scope, employs accessible materials, and is neither too broad or too narrow.  If you are at the point of generating essential questions for your students to explore, please consider questions that spark curiosity, direct students to the heart of the issue that you want them to investigate, and cannot be easily resolved.

3--Scale of project: Please describe the number of lessons that you currently think will comprise your project.  (One is fine, though you may discover that students will need more than one class period to explore the issue you intend them to learn about. )

4--Performances of understanding: Tell how you will assess student learning as a consequence of your lesson.  This may simply entail “dipsticking”, i.e. informally checking in with students about their learning, or eliciting student prior knowledge, i.e. KWL charts.  You may also contemplate formative assessment, a more intentional and systematic data collection process by means of examination of student process work, exit slips, teacher observation, and self and peer reflections, that enable teachers to adjust, differentiate, and individualize instruction.  Finally, you may contemplate a summative assessment, either written or performance based, that will give you information on what students learned from your lesson in order to enable you to revise and refine your curriculum and instruction.

5—Resources: Please list the print, visual, and online research materials you have already consulted in your research.

6--Other questions/problems/concerns: Feel free to discuss any problems you are encountering in your research.  Here you might also cite questions you have about the research you have conducted so far.  Also we welcome your voicing of any concerns you might have about our lesson writing process or additional support you may need.

 

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Geoff Tegnell
7th Grade Social Studies, Curriculum Coordinator, Adjunct Professor

Project Proposal

1--Describe project: The lessons  within our brief unit focus on the invesitgation of the limits of free speech within the U.S. democratic society.  After reading various cases regarding this particluar issue, it is clear that there are certain times when limitations are justified as in the example of public safety.  Using this question as a platform for student investigation, the goal is to determine what is meant by free speech and in what contexts is it limited.  This topic is inspired our discussion of Abrams v. US in which the time of war allowed the government to make the Espionage and Sedition Acts with the eventual support of the Supreme Court. 

a & b)      To begin this brief unit students will grapple with the questions of what constitutes free speech/what does free speech entail?  The hope is that this will get students to engage in  a discussion about when, if at all, free speech should be limited.  In the first lesson students will explore these questions and then partake in a classwide discussion. This discussion will allow the teacher to clarify the scope of what has been regognized as "speech."  In the next lesson, students will be divided into smaller groups and asked to analyze a series of fact patterns (7 in total) and decide:  1.  Is the action a form of constitutionally protected speech?  Yes or No?  2.  Provide an explanation to support your opinion.  These scenarios and questions will be organized in a handout.  Prior to analyzing these cases, students will be guided through one landmark case, Schenck v. US, as an example of a court limitation of free speech and what this exercise looks like. For the next piece of this activity the class will refer to their graphic organizers (used in the previous activity) as the court's decision is revealed. 

c)       The following primary source documents will be used within this unit:  First Amendment, excerpts from:  Schenck v. US, Thornhill v. Alabama, US. v. O'Brien, Cohen v. California,
Clark v. C.C.N.V., Wooley v. Maynard, Texas v. Johnson, and Tinker v. Des Moines

2--Research Question/Essential Question: 

-What defines free speech and what does it entail?

-Should there be limitations on free speech?  Why or why not?

-Is opposition in a republic dangerous or necessary?

3--Scale of project: Three lessons and a final assessment essay assignment

4--Performances of understanding: As a culminating assessment to this unit, students will write an essay in which they respond to the following prompt:  What would you consider to be reasonable limitations on your First Amendment rights in order to protect the public safety?  What would you consider unjustified limitations? 

5—Resources: The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, landmarkcases.org, oyez.org, and Historic Supreme Court Decisions.

6--Other questions/problems/concerns: none at this time but i am sure you will find some:-)

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Erin Eriksen
9th Grade World History
12th Grade Sociology
Natick High School

Describe Project:  After accepting a new teaching position, I am now responsible for teaching American Literature for the first time.  I’d like to expand my understanding, as well as my students’ understanding, of the Civil Rights Movement in America as well as globally.  We’ll be spending a term on this time frame, reading Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God.  While I’ve mapped out the entire term of outside materials, essential questions, and major concepts, my project will be focused on “Class and Race in Huckleberry Finn”, and “Music and Poetry in the Movement”. 

 

Essential Questions:

1)      What were the promises of the US Government? Were these promises broken?

2)      What was the dream of the Civil Rights movement, and what was done to try to accomplish this dream?

3)      How does the movement exploit society as a classist and racist system?

 

Scale of Project: For my Curriculum Project, I’m hoping to focus on lessons including “Music in the Movement” and “Class and Race in Huckleberry Finn.”  However, for the proposal, I’d really appreciate your time if you could consider the term that I’m devoting to the Civil Rights Movement and help me make sure I’m not missing anything that should be in the curriculum. 

 Term 2 Outline -- Civil Rights Movement

(Please look at the above link, focusing on the essential questions and the outside materials, in order to ensure my competance in this area -- just make sure it's on the "Term 2" tab.)  Thank you!

Assessments:

1)      Students will do a research project comparing a modern figure to that of a figure from the Civil Rights Movement.

2)      Students will have a Socratic Seminar discussing the issues of race and class in either Huck Finn or Their Eyes, and then they will write an essay based on their discussion and their own opinion of modern society. 

 

Resources:

1)      Music from the Movement – Hendrix, Fiztgerald, Simone, Dylan, Negro Spirituals

2)      Poetry from the Movement – Hughes, Brooks, Angelou, Cullen, Randall

3)      Lillian Smith’s “Killers of the Dream”

4)      Kansas – Nebraska Act and the race issues surrounding the decision

5)      Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

6)      Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God

 

Other Concerns:   I’m worried that I’m leaving something out that really needs to be included in the curriculum.  I am including historical events like the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Compromise of 1877, issues of Jim Crow, speeches from the Civil Rights Movement, and major events from Reconstruction, in order to set the stage for the historical context of these novels.  Is this enough??

Term 2 Outline -- Civil Rights Movement

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Shannah Weeden
High School English
Newton North High School

For my curriculum project, I am re-structuring my unit on Civil Rights for my 11th grade U.S. History class.  What follows is my plan of action:

-Kate Leslie

 

Unit Outline

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Kate Leslie
Brookline High School
History Department

Dear Erin and Cindy,

It was great getting to know both of you during the Pursuing Justice summer institute. I think the essential questions you pose in your proposal are right on point. The selection of cases looks good, but it would be good to have a fuller rationale for each case. In other words, a sentence or two for each case that explains why you chose this particular line of cases. My principal concern is that this is quite a large number of cases for a "brief unit." Also, I wonder why you have chosen to leave Abrams off your list, since that case is so provocative and it helped get you thinking in the first place.

Other than that, I think you are off to a very good start.

best wishes,

Michael