Brief Description

Show your students, first or second graders, the issues of equality and rights of people through an online version of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the highlights of his life, family and pursuit of civil rights.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 5T-F1. Recognize electronic information sources
• 6T-F1. Use technology resources for problem solving, self-directed learning and extended learning activities.

• LS-FS6. Listen and respond to stories, poems, and nonfiction events.
• LS-FS7. Participate in-group discussions, activities, or peer interactions.
• 1SS-F1. Demonstrate the ability to place events in chronological sequence.
• 1SS-F2. Describe everyday life in the past and recognize that some aspects change and others stay the same.
• 1SS-F1. Using primary source materials, including photographs, artifacts, interviews, and documents to trace the history of a family from long ago.

Academic

• From viewing a primary source, http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/ the students will view, listen and respond to electronic speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr.  The students will respond to questions posed by the teacher about equality and civil rights and will relate personal experiences about fairness and unfairness in social relationships.  The students will also relate (through a teacher-facilitated discussion) the history of civil rights to the ways laws have changed today.  The students will view the timeline of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his family.

• The students will learn about the use of an electronic information source http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/ through viewing and responding to a primary source.  The students will also be involved in problem solving and initial tools that lead toward decision making through visual exposure of historical events.

The students will need to know:

• How to locate and use the URL address bar
• How to access a teacher-directed URL address
• How to browse a primary source website

The students will need:

• A computer with Internet access
• The URL address to access the primary source site
• Chart paper for the teacher to list equal and unequal rights
• Writing and drawing paper for students to write and draw peaceful (fair and unfair) ways to solve problems
• The picture book for First Grade entitled: A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. by David A. Adler
• The picture book for Second Grade entitled: Martin Luther King Day by Linda Lowery
• Materials to bind writing and illustrations into a class book

Special Education students will be included in the viewing of and a class discussion that pertains to the issues of civil rights and what Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking about.  On a more one-to-one basis, special education students should hear the picture book entitled, A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. by David A. Adler. After hearing this book, in a small group discussion with other students, students with special needs will be given opportunities to communicate one or two peaceful ways to solve a problem before being expected to verbally communicate peaceful solutions to conflict.

SEI students (limited English proficient students) will be assigned a parent volunteer who is well versed in using the Internet.  After this lesson is done in the classroom, this student will also be given additional time in the classroom to browse and have someone read aloud the informational text for understanding on this website.  SEI students will also be given opportunity to read and explore picture books and other text rich sources of this subject.

The gifted and talented (REACH) students will be given additional time to write and illustrate peaceful ways to solve conflict based on real life knowledge and personal experiences.  Gifted and Talented students will be given open-ended questions to find answers to on this website. These students will also be given time to pose scenarios for the class to discuss.  These scenarios will be kid-driven situations that the class will come up with peaceful solutions to and for problems that have been encountered.

Procedures

Prior to this lesson, the teacher should provide pre-knowledge for the students on the facts of Martin Luther King, Jr.  (This can be done through reading of a picture book on Martin Luther King, Jr.  See the books listed under Accommodations for Special Needs to meet this pre-knowledge requirement.)  Preview this website prior to displaying it for your class.  This website is text-rich and appropriate for intermediate students to read alone.  For primary students, preview is necessary to know where to go for displaying pictures of MLK as a boy and to also locate the major events in his crusade for civil rights of black people.

The procedural steps the students will go through:

Day 1:
1. The teacher will access the website http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/ for the class to view on the TV monitor/converter. (If a TV monitor is not available for the class, arrange students sitting in front of the classroom computer to view and listen to this website. Go to the bar on the left that shows Interactive Timeline for audio of one of his speeches.)
2. The teacher will begin a group discussion with the class on fairness and define equality.
3. The teacher will begin displaying the website for the children to see real pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his timeline.
4. The teacher will have discussion with the class on fairness and the struggles that people had in the 1960’s with civil rights.
5. The teacher will also lead the class discussion to have children relate personal experiences in which some form of inequality was experienced.
6. The teacher will navigate the website to show important events in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (his speeches and the audio of them).
7. The teacher will then redirect the class to a chart that has been divided into two columns.  The top of one column should say Fair Ways and the top of the second column should say Unfair Ways.  (The last attached sheet should be enlarged for the students on a large sheet of chart paper.  The teacher can write on the chart as the children dictate aloud their responses.  The Fair and Unfair Ways sheet can be reproduced for the children to copy 2-3 responses under each column after the teacher has modeled the responses on the large class sheet.)
8. The teacher will then demonstrate the first response and write it under the appropriate column.  (For example, the teacher could respond with, “ when driving, it is unsafe when people run red lights because it endangers everyone that is driving and it also breaks rules of driving”.)  The teacher should record (write) this response under the unfair column and then also write a response under the fair column that says, “Follow rules of driving.”
9. After the teacher has generated one example of fair and unfairness, ask students to respond with fair and unfairness in their terms or experiences. If the class is having difficulty in generating ideas, the teacher could bring up experiences with siblings, family members, cousins etc.
10. Complete the class Fair and Unfair columns and display for further discussion on civil rights and what Martin Luther King, Jr. was crusading for and why we should remember his message of equality regardless of color of skin.


Day 2:

11. Prior to the next computer lab, the teacher will prepare the URL for this website on strips of paper/construction paper or 3x5 cards for each student to find the website and to navigate for 15-20 minutes.
12. The teacher will give the children 15-25 minutes to draw and write about an unfair situation that has happened in his/her life.  The children will also be instructed to draw how the situation could have been handled better and to write about that as well.

Assessment for this lesson will be through displaying the URL address for this website and allowing students the opportunity to navigate during their computer lab time to find the timeline of MLK and pictures of his boyhood.
Once back in the classroom, the teacher will display and review  the class-generated responses on the chart where children were able to relate personal experiences to equality and inequality.  After the children have had time to view the website in the classroom with the teacher directed discussion, and navigate the website in the computer lab, additional assessment will be for the teacher to have children assemble in groups to draw and write about peaceful ways to solve inequality.  The children will be given opportunity to draw one way in which inequality (unfairness) was experienced and then draw the (fair) way the situation could have been handled better.  Then the students should write about this personal experience. The children should regroup to share their experiences in pictures and writing.  A class-authored book can be made with writing and illustrations of equality and inequality.  This book can also be sent home with a different student each night during the month of February so that the children can share this with their families and to demonstrate their learning about civil rights.