Democracy and Inequality: Challenges and Possible Solutions

Teaching Strategies

This unit is designed to be taught intermittently throughout the school year, but teachers can choose to teach in consecutive weeks and/or only Part 1 or Part 2 before Part 3. My curriculum unit have three main foci.

Part 1 (3 lessons) in the Fall (September): Students will be introduced to our Founding Fathers’ ideas about democracy to challenge students’ own ideas about current social issues. Students will recite and celebrate the Preamble of the Constitution on September 15^th (International Day of Democracy) and/or September 17^th (Constitution Day). Students will close read landmark court cases such as Brown v Board of Education. Possible field trips to the National Constitution Center and Independence Hall will be arranged. Part 1 of this unit will also align with the content of my ELA curricula from Module 3 of Wit and Wisdom titled: The Red Coats Are Coming! The essential question is: “Why is it important to understand all sides of a story?”

Part 2 (3 lessons) in the Winter (November): Students will address segregation by researching and analyzing at data and statistics with an emphasis on map-reading, map-making, and graphing x and y coordinates. With interactive platforms like Google Suites and the Racial Dot Map, students can map the city based on race and income; these online activities will integrate geography, math concepts, social behaviors, and public policies for student exploration.

Part 3 (a set of cumulative activities) in Spring (April to June): Students will create possible solutions as part of their service-learning project, plan and execute action steps, and present their findings to classrooms within and outside their school districts. I will align my students’ service-learning project with a Philadelphia-based program called Need in Deed. Below is a list of nine teaching strategies (TS1 to TS9) for the unit:

TS1) Set up a Quotation Station as an ELA Center for independent work: Before the 1st day of school, collect quotes with the term: democracy and/or inequality and place them in a folder or a container. Teachers can print out and cut the quotes to be distributed. According to a 1995 study (almost 3 decades ago) from the University of Kansas, children from wealthy families hear as many as 45 million words, and children whose parents are on welfare, may hear 13 million, a difference of over 30 million words. This disparity is known as the “30-million-word gap.”⁶⁶

Above is a sample chart that include instructions for each quotation using the Bloom’s Taxonomy and sentence starters.

TS2) Set up a Map and Geography Centers (based on Math standards). Before the 1st Day of school, collect different types of maps of the United States such as physical, political, income, race, segregation maps. Sample Maps #1: “3 maps that show school segregation in the U.S.” in Vox.com or Urban Institute, August 28, 2014. Sample Maps #2: “Philly: Color-Coded: Racial and ethnic makeup of Philadelphia by ZIP code,” in Phillyvoice.com, March 12, 2015.

TS3) Icebreakers with primary sources Collect photos and political cartoons on school segregation on Google Slides. Show each photo or political cartoon and use one of the following graphic organizers or strategies with sample student answers:

Notice and Wonder strategy for the 1904 caricature of “White” and “Jim Crow” rail cars by John T. McCucheon. https://usscmorals.weebly.com/plessy-v-ferguson.html. Sample #1 Q&A: “What three things you notice and what 3 things you wonder about in this photo? I noticed two cars. I wonder why one of the cars is called Jim Crow.”

Wonder Six-Word Caption strategy for the photograph: Mrs. Nettie Hunt, sitting on steps of the Supreme Court, holding a newspaper, explaining to her daughter Nikie the meaning of the decision banning school segregation, 1954. https://www.loc.gov/item/00652489/. Sample #2 Q&A: “Can you use only 6 words to sum up this photo? Mother, daughter on steps of Justice.”

Would You Rather strategy for the political cartoon “U.S. Kids Not So Good at Math:” at www.Otherwords.org. Sample #3 Student Q&A: “Would you rather go to the WORST school with all of your friends OR to go to the BEST school with strangers? I would rather go to the WORST school with all of my friends because…”

TS4) Read aloud anchored texts: Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence by Gretchen Woelfie and Todos Iguales (All Equal) by Christy Hale. Discuss themes about inequality. Example: No human being is equal if they are owned by another human being. Below is an example using the 4-layered HRL equity framework from the book Cultivating Genius by Gholdy Muhammad to address the Pursuit of: Identity, Skills, Intellect, and Criticality.⁶⁷  This lesson is based on the book Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence and the Preamble the Declaration of Independence.

Identity: Students will be able to (SWBAT) use the Preamble of Declaration of Independence to define how the word “equal” include and/or exclude people?

Skills: ELA: SWBAT discuss the main ideas and details to write a summary (RL.2). Math: SWBAT use the definition of an acre to estimate areas of public spaces on a map (MD.A.1). Science: SWBAT explain the science of dough and how baking works (5-PS-3: Matter). Social Studies: SWBAT recite the Preamble of the DOI and interpret the phrase: “Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness” in their own words (5.1.3.C).

Intellect: SWBAT will discuss why the DOI did not include the rights of slaves, women, children, Native Americans, immigrants, white male adults who do not own land, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized groups.

Criticality: SWBAT write a collective DOI for the classroom, the school or the community based on survey, consensus, and coalition. Challenge the class to write it with less than 35 words.

TS5) Close Reading of written documents, court decisions and petitions. 1^st reading asks: “What are three words that resonate with or puzzle or surprise you?” 2^nd reading asks: what do you think the phrase/sentence/paragraph/passage mean? What is the author’s purpose? Who wrote this? For Whom?  3^rd reading asks: What is the message (theme)? Do you agree or disagree with the author? If you can reread or add a sentence to the text, what would it be and why?

TS6) Mock Trial Procedures for Harvard Admissions case: Read overview of the facts of the actual case from Content Objective. Conduct a brief discussion of the SCOTUS decision. Ask students to take a stand “for” or “against” the court decision. Divided into 3 groups: Petitioners, Respondents, and Supreme Court Justices (9 people). The 2 opposing groups prepare their arguments to be used in front of the 9 Justices. Before the testimony, the 9 Justices will discuss pros and cons of their decisions. Optional: Have students to create own baseball cards with facts for each Justice. Dress like a Judge with a black t-shirt or robe. With support from the “Supreme Court Lessons,” in the Rendell Center for Civics and Civic Engagement, teachers can request lawyers and judges to be work virtually with your school to reenact the simulation.

TS7) Maps and data collection: With interactive platforms like Google Maps and Google Earth, students can map the city based on data on race and income; these online activities will integrate math concepts, social behaviors, public policies, grassroots movement like Black Lives Matter, and other related topics to paint a big picture about democracy and inequality.

TS8) Games (online or hands-on activities): use an existing version or create your own sets of rules. Play Divide the Dollar using paper, pencils and two-color-sided coins (or dimes and quarters). Discuss concepts such as two-three rule/majority rule, median voter model and coalition building. The median voter model basically says in a major rule system of an issue, the candidate most preferred by the median voters will be elected. This is why candidates often position themselves at the center of an issue to meet the need of the median voters. Have students brainstorm a list of causes and effects on school segregation. Through voting and coalition building, have students iron out the top 10 problems. With the list of problems, make a survey such as a Google Form that allows students to rate these problems in a spectrum from 0 to 10 of importance. 0 is the least important and 10 is the most important.

Play an online or hand-on game based on the Shelling Model of Segregation: Parable of Polygons website, Harvard computer science Professor Frank McCown’s website at stanford.edu (2014), OR watch one of the following videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAzkHC5sUsk, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhsPjluWH2Y, or www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EglV9K_iXs.

TS9) Service-Learning Project, Interview Guest Speaker(s), and Community Outreach: Students will research possible solutions for a group selected problem, and plan action steps for a spring celebration. Some possible actions include: letter writing, voting registration campaign, public testimony, educational video, etc. Guiding questions:1) Do you favor or oppose the busing of Black students from one school district to another? 2) How strongly do you agree or disagree with the statement: White people have a right to keep Blacks out of their neighborhoods if they want to, and Blacks should respect that right? 3) Which laws would you vote for or against? Examples of laws: A homeowner can decide whom to sell to, even if they prefer not to sell to Black people. A homeowner cannot refuse to sell to someone because of their race or color.