Activities: Instructions to Teachers
The Beautiful Mind Lecture Series (All Systems)
I’m not a mathematician, but I have a great appreciation for chalk and their boards. If you ever watched films such as “Good Will Hunting,” “The Beautiful Mind” and/or “The Theory of Everything,” you will have an appreciation for the communicative skills that these relatively primitive boards possess. First, you must distribute a handout of 25-30 historical terms, concepts and/or events. Students will have to make their own notes about each. Then, you’ll put those same terms on the chalkboard and explain their significance. Be sure to make connections to different events and show how they’re connected to the overarching ideas. You can differentiate instruction by allowing students that are beyond proficiency to present the lecture to students that are proficient and approaching proficiency. This presents an opportunity for you to work with individual students who may be on the lower-end of approaching proficiency. At the end of each lecture, you will stamp students’ completed sheets for a participation grade and review major points as an entire group. They will use these guided notes and make notecards for a homework grade, which will serve as their study guide and will be checked while they are taking their unit assessment.
Dissecting the Declaration of Independence and Constitution (Founding Fathers)
Assign students to work in groups of four. Instruct them to read an abridged version of The Declaration of Independence. Each student in the group has a role: recorder, presenter, editor, and translator.
Roles:
Recorder- takes notes and creates a PowerPoint Presentation
Presenter- presents the material to the class
Editor- leads the analysis of the Primary Sources, looking for inconsistencies, hypocritical statements
Translator- helps the group to create a new Declaration of Independence and Constitution that is translated to explain what the Founding Fathers actually meant (Example: “we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal”… Translation- We don’t believe in truth so don’t ask about it. All highborn white men are created equal. Everyone else must be subservient to them.)
Black Wallstreet: The Building Permit (Economic System)
Instruct students to build a Black Wallstreet. Each person in class creates a business they feel is essential to a community. They must give their business a name and create a blueprint on how their business will thrive. As they present, ask students to explain why it is important to have such a business in their community and how it will benefit the overall welfare of all people and all stakeholders.
The Unit Soundtrack and This is America Track (All Systems)
Ask students to identify metaphors, mental/visual pictures and make a claim to what the overarching ideas are surrounding each of the following songs. Instruct them to write a reflection paragraph on each video. Ask them to make connections to the unit and show how the videos, messages, lyrics, and images connect to the systems we’ve discussed in class.
Common- Letter to the Free
Marvin Gay- What’s Going On
Trick Daddy- Amerika
Jay Z- The Story of O.J.
Jay-Z- The War on Drugs
NAS- Not for the Radio
Common- Letter for Free
“This is America” Project (All Systems)
Ask students to make their own adaptation of “This is America,” using what we learned from the lectures, films and musical scores. Each student should be able to write fifteen “bars” (lines) that have ten historical references that provide a verbal illustration of the history of oppression in America through the systems.
The American Pie (All Systems)
Note: If you question your level of classroom management skills, you may elect to skip this step.
Purchase a Domino’s or Pizza Hut Pizza. Once you have your pizza, explain to your students that this pizza represents the American Dream. Start handing out slices to two thirds of the class but tell them not to eat the crust. Place the remaining third’s slices on plates but give it to those who have already eaten saying, “does anyone want seconds?” Next, explain to the class that this example represents the minority plight within the American society and it is a result of the systems we’ve talked about. Tell the students that are eating to put their crust on a plate. Lift up the plate and tell them that this is what’s left for that third of society that has been neglected. Now ask the entire class to write a response (100 words) about what they saw and how it made them feel. Their response should explain how the lesson serves as a metaphor for access to the American Dream and how that one-third should feel. While the students are writing, go across the hall and get the pizza you’ve stashed for those who haven’t eaten. In Mr. Means’ class, everybody eats!
Make America Great Again vs. Make America Better (All Systems)
Part A: Students are making a New Constitutional Convention. Instruct them to write a short narrative that reflects what America looks like based on the guidelines and opinions of the Founding Fathers. Their reaction should explain what would immediately change in our society and who would benefit from those changes.
Part B: Students are given the task to make America better.
A Restorative Circle
Work with the local police departments where everyone feels heard and respected. These can be just in a classroom or done by grade level. It’s important to make sure that the students are prepared on how a positive restorative circle is managed so that everyone will be heard and the group can begin to find solutions to common problems and miscommunications.
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