Rationale
My unit, "For Colored Folks Only: The Rise and Fall of the Jim Crow Laws," is based on the fifth grade reading anthology theme, "Taking a Stand." Stories included in this thematic unit are: Goin' Someplace Special, Shiloh, Maya Lin, The Night of San Juan, and Sleds on Boston Commons. Each story, in this McGraw Hill anthology, has its own subtheme. The first story's subtheme is "Fighting Back." It is the story of an African American girl, in the 1940s, who walks across the town by herself for the first time encountering many Jim Crow signs. In this unit, I will strive to give my students a general understanding of what these racist laws were. My students will come to know some of the brave heroes responsible for "fighting back" and changing these laws. The sacrifices Ruby Bridges made in order to start the long, painful process of integration is bound to stir their emotions and interest. They will learn the progression of events that comprise what we now know as the Civil Rights Movement. Armed with this information they will start to understand what sacrifices a people make to raise their socio-economic level and regain their "inalienable rights!"
Most of my students come to the fifth grade knowing little about the struggles minorities have gone through for basic citizenship rights. They know the name Martin Luther King Jr., and that he had a dream of some sort for African Americans. They know who Caesar Chavez was, and that he helped Mexican Americans gain something, but they are usually not sure what. By exposing my students to African American struggles against injustice not only will they understand that week's reading story, but they will also be able to connect to the overall theme of "Taking a Stand." My students need to know how to stand up for what they believe, fight back, and understand what the risks and rewards can be. As an ancillary benefit, these lessons will help to build understanding between these two, often opposing, minority cultures.
Vocabulary development is the foundation for reading comprehension. There will be many new words, such as: slavery, Emancipation Proclamation, segregation, integration, and Jim Crow laws, which will need to be mastered in this unit. California Fifth Grade Reading Standard 1.0 states, "Students use their knowledge of word origins and word relationships, as well as historical and literary context clues, to determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and to understand the precise meaning of grade-level-appropriate words." Besides learning new vocabulary, fifth grade students in California need to be able to read and understand expository text.
By exploring the actual Jim Crow laws of several states, students will identify how the laws limited African American freedom in all areas of their lives. The students and I will chart the findings, giving them a clear understanding that Jim Crow refers to a whole group of city, county, and state laws. My students will be fulfilling California Reading Standard 2.0 when they are researching and reading excerpts about the everyday heroes and civil rights leaders. They will be able to read and understand grade-level-appropriate material, understanding the structural features of informational materials. Students will write a short biographical report and present it orally to the class. This part of the unit will fulfill California Writing Standard 1.0 and 2.3. These writing standards require that the student write clear, coherent and focused research essays with an awareness of audience and purpose. Essays contain a formal introduction, supporting evidence and a conclusion. They will also need to write and speak with a command of standard English conventions appropriate to this grade level as stated in California Written and Oral English Language Conventions 1.0. These lessons will meet California Listening and Speaking Standard 1, that states students deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly. Lastly, my unit will meet California Speaking Application Standard 2.0, delivering well-organized formal presentations employing traditional rhetorical strategies.
After completion of this unit, and throughout the year, my students will be reading Francisco Jimenez's The Circuit (as well as his other two books). In this series, Francisco Jimenez writes about his struggles growing up in Mexico, working in California as a farm worker, and eventually attending Santa Clara University where he is currently the Fay Boyle Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. My students will be able to synthesize the information from this unit and see the similarities and differences between the Hispanic struggle as compared to that of the African American struggle. Since my principal studied under Francisco Jimenez, I am hopeful that he will be able to convince Professor Jimenez to visit and speak at our school. Armed with this new knowledge about minority struggles, my students will be able to draft some intelligent questions to ask him. While this is not a direct goal of my unit, it most certainly contributes to the background knowledge needed for synthesis and critical thinking as defined in the Common Core Standards.
Comments: