Student Activities
I will assign the class to find information about the context of Walker v. City of Birmingham. The students will present their information to the class. Using the summary prepared in this unit, I will fill in any details the students overlooked. Then I will lead a discussion about whether the City of Birmingham was right not to issue a parade permit and the court was right to issue an injunction against marching, or was Martin Luther King right in marching without a permit and disobeying the injunction. I will play the devil's advocate and argue against whatever point of view the students express. The purpose is for them to understand the circumstances and the constitutional and moral question of the case.
When we examine each of the three opinions, I will divide the class into groups of three or four and assign a section of the opinion to each group. The groups will prepare a presentation of their section, which will entail reading the section aloud to the class, explaining its reasoning, and analyzing its language, arguments, and perspective. To do this, they must read the section to themselves and highlight and annotate it. They will prepare the presentation together using their annotations. The group will decide who reads, and that person(s) must prepare the reading so that they read it fluently. They will put together the presentation and present it in the way they think is best. The class will notate the particular section during the presentation. At the conclusion of the presentation will be a question and answer session. I will add anything that was missed in their presentation.
Another option, in the technology is available, is having the students prepare their presentation on Power Point. They can paste their assigned text on slides and point out certain phrases, words, and letters by changing their color. This strategy will make analyzing a text fun and it will induce them to focus more on the language and reasoning.
We will examine the opinions in the following order: Stewart, Warren, Brennan, and King. The students will analyze the reasoning and the language in each of the three texts. However, in each particular one, I will tell them to look for some additional quality. In Stewart's opinion, they will look for what Stewart left out and explain what that implies. For Warren's and Brennan's opinions, they will look for the ways they answer Stewart's assertions. For King, they will compare King's style of argumentation with the justices and analyze how the audience of King's letter affects his writing.
After they have presented the four texts and notated them, the students will write a paper that contrasts the four men's perspective and explains how the language they use communicates their perspective. I will work with them in preparing an outline. (See Lesson Plan 3). This is important, for I have found that without doing an outline with my guidance, the students create a nebulous paper. Following the outline, the students will go to the computer lab and begin working on the paper. We will spend about three class periods there and then the students will finish the paper on their own. I want them to begin working on the paper at school, so I can monitor their progress and help them stay on track. I will actively move around the computer lab, examining what they have written, give them advice, and, most importantly, spur them to keep working. Many students find writing laborious and they give in to their inclination to give up and talk to someone or play a game on the computer. A good strategy is to pair students together, so that they can help each other.
Comments: