Length of Lesson: Two 50-minute class periods.

Focus/Summary: The purpose of this lesson is for my students to compare/contrast events of both the African-American Civil Rights Movement to that of the Mexican-American struggle. My goal is to give students 2 or 3 pairings, one event from the African-American Movement and one event from the Mexican-American Movement, and to have them, in a Venn diagram, compare/contrast the pairs of events. After completing this, students will then have to justify how similar or dissimilar the two periods are and support their reasoning with accurate historical information.

Vital Theme and Narrative: Comparative history of major developments.

Habit of Mind: Perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present?mindedness.

Objectives: At the completion of this lesson, students should be able to do the following:

1. Identify similarities/differences between the African-American and Mexican-American Reform Movements in a Venn-diagram.

2. Evaluate both reform movements and determine if the movements were more similar or dissimilar and support your reasoning with accurate historical information.

Procedures or Activities:

1. Take attendance.

2. After attendance, have students participate in the following role?play with a partner: Imagine you or your partner has in his/her possession the most valuable diamond in all of the world. This diamond, as a matter of fact, happens to be in your hand or your partner's hand (Only one person/group pretends to have the diamond). The person who has the diamond needs to now pretend that the diamond is in his/her hand and close his/her hand as tightly as possible around the diamond. The other person now has 15 seconds to get the diamond in his or her possession in that time. GO

3. As this "struggle" is going on, watch how students attempt to get the diamond. Most attempt to take it away from the vice-like grip their partner has.

4. After the time has expired, ask students to comment on whether or not they got the diamond and what they did or did not do so well to get the diamond. Responses will vary.

5. Ask those students who did not get the diamond from their partner, what they might try next time if they had the opportunity to get it. After a few options are tossed around, ask students why they did not ask their partner in the first place if they could have the diamond. (Many kids will be shocked when this option is pointed out to them).

6. Explain to students that this was a story that Gandhi told to his followers of how to practice non?violence or civil disobedience. This was one strategy a person or group sometimes chose when trying to make social change.

7. Write the following pairings on the board to have students compare/contrast on a separate sheet of paper:

1.Martin Luther King, Jr.
Vs.
Cesar Chavez

2. Central High School (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Vs.
Roosevelt High School (East Los Angeles, California)

3. March on Washington
Vs.
March on Sacramento

Sources:

8. For pairings, students will be using a variety of sources:
Pairing One- King Speech (Eyes on the Prize Video Series) and Chavez
Speech (Excerpt from, The Fight in the Fields). (I am not sure what speech I will use from this book yet).
Pairing Two- Little Rock Video Clip (Eyes on the Prize Video Series) and
Roosevelt H.S. Reading (Excerpt from, Chicano pages 184-194).
Pairing Three- March on Washington (Eyes on the Prize Video Clip) and
March on Sacramento (Excerpt from, Chicano pages 138-151).

Idea for Assessment of Student Learning:

9. Students should be compiling all necessary information into their Venndiagrams. Once all pertinent information is compiled, students will then need to examine their diagrams and come to a conclusion of whether of not the two reform movements are more similar or dissimilar and explain why they believe so in a paragraph of at least 75 words justifying their reasoning.