The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of the Civil Rights Movement

Lesson #3: Socratic Seminar

Learning Objectives:

1. 1. Students will conduct a Socratic seminar about the legalization of gay marriage and the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

Lesson Development:

1. The day before the Socratic Seminar, review the discussion protocol. In the seminar, they will be graded using the following guidelines: 1pt for making a comment or asking a clarification comment; 2pts for building off another students remarks or asking a discussion question; 3 pts for referring to the text. All students must earn a minimum of 4pts.
2. For homework the night before the seminar, they should brainstorm some questions, and fully prepare themselves for the discussion.
3. On the day of the seminar give the students 5mintues to review their notes.
4. Spend as much time as needed having the discussion. Usually, I make a list of students that have potential discussion questions, and simply have the class work their way through those questions. Either the teacher can keep track of the points, or even have students keep track of each other's points.
5. Two questions that should be discussed are whether same-sex marriage ought to be legalized by the Federal Government and whether openly gay men and women should be allowed to serve in the military.
6. As a follow up exercise to check for understanding, student should be required to write a 1-2 page reflection about the seminar discussion.

Appendix 1: Implementing Standards

This unit applies most appropriately to three of the Connecticut State Standards for the teaching of Social Studies. This can be found at the following website: http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2618&q=320898 and on the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies website at: www.ctsocialstudies.org.

Content Standard 1: Historical Thinking: Students willdevelop historical thinking skills, including chronological thinking and recognizing change over time; contextualizing, comprehending and analyzing historical literature; researching historical sources; understanding the concept of historical causation; understanding competing narratives and interpretation; and constructing narratives and interpretation.

This unit addresses this standard in many ways. To begin with, students are continually asked to formulate their own questions and to think critically about the past. Also, students are asked to work deeply with primary source documents and write about the past as historians formulating their own opinions.

Content Standard 4: Applying History: Students willrecognize the continuing importance of historical thinking and historical knowledge in their own lives and in the world in which they live.

To address this standard students are asked to think critically about the past, and make very specific, concrete connections to the present day. This is most evident in the Socratic Seminar, where students should use their knowledge of the past to support their ideas about the present.

Content Standard 6: Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens: Students will demonstrate knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of citizens to participate in and shape public policy, and contribute to the maintenance of our democratic way of life.

This standard is addressed specifically in the section of the unit that examines the debate between Anita Bryant and Harvey Milk.

Bibliography

Aaron, Geoffrey Bateman, and Eds. Belkin. Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Debating the Gay Ban in the Military. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, Boulder And London, 2003. This volume had two chapters that were useful to this project about openly gay servicemen.

Duggan, Lisa, and Nan D. Hunter. Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture. New York: Routledge, 2006. This book provides a good analysis of the sodomy cases.

Gerstmann, Evan. Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. This book examines the issue from a constitutional perspective, and looks at the debate in light of other Supreme Court Decisions.

Kotulski, Davina. Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage. Chicago: Advocate Books, 2004. This volume does a nice job of presenting arguments for the legalization of same sex marriage in colloquial terms.

Lucian, Truscott. "Gay Power Comes to Sheridan Square." The Village Voice, July 2, 1969. A great resource, this article was written just after the Stonewall Riots. It is heavily biased, but could proof to be very useful in the classroom.

Rimmerman, C. Gay Rights, Military Wrongs: Political Perspectives on Lesbians and Gays in the Military (Garland Reference Library of Social Science, Vol 1049). New York: Routledge, 1996.

Gay and Lesbian Rights in the United States: A Documentary History (Primary Documents in American History and Contemporary Issues). New York: Greenwood Press, 2003. This resource was incredibly important to this project. It contains many of the primary source documents used and discussed in this unit. Many of these documents would be valuable in the classroom for use by students.

Gays and Lesbians in the Military: Issues, Concerns, and Contrasts (Social Problems and Social Issues). New York: Aldine Transaction, 1994. This volume is a good overview of the debate and provided me with some interesting statistics about the soldier's perspective.