Author:
Connecticut Department of Education
Subject:
Arts and Humanities, U.S. History, World History
Material Type:
Syllabus
Level:
High School
Grade:
9, 10, 11, 12
Provider:
CT State Department of Education
Tags:
Language:
English
Media Formats:
Text/HTML

Education Standards

UNIT 5: At-A-Glance

UNIT 5: At-A-Glance

Overview

In this unit, students will:

• Identify tactics, mission, and accomplishments of major groups involved in the movement for equality

• Investigate the causes, consequences, and historical context of key events in this time period

• Evaluate how individuals, groups, and institutions in the United States have both promoted and hindered people’s struggle for freedom, equality, and social justice;

• Analyze the role of the federal government in supporting and inhibiting various 20th century civil rights movements;

• Analyze the role of women of color in the women’s rights movement.

Compelling Question: How successful have Black Americans’ movements for equality been in transforming the dreams, status, and rights of Black Americans in the United States?

Pre-Assessment: Student Identity: Imagine you are a student during the time period. Describe your school day in a one?page journal entry.

Relevant Content Standards and Related Supporting Standards

From Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Framework

Dimension 2 Applying disciplinary concepts and tools

HIST 9–12.4 Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives. (e.g., immigration, labor, the role of women).

HIST 9–12.6 Explain how the perspectives of people in the present shape interpretations of the past.

CIV 9–12.1 Analyze the role of citizens in the U.S. political system, and the theory and practice of democracy in America. CIV 9–12.2 Evaluate the effectiveness of citizens and institutions in solving social and political problems.

INQ 9–12.8 Identify evidence that draws information directly and substantively from multiple sources to detect inconsistencies in evidence in order to revise or strengthen claims.

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

9.4A.2 Evaluate the Warren Court’s reasoning in Brown v. Board of Education and its significance in advancing civil rights. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

9.4A.3 Explain the resistance to civil rights in the South between 1954 and 1965. [Identify issues and problems in the past]

From CT Core Standards for English Language Arts (i.e., Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.1.A Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

From CT English Language Proficiency (CELP) Standards (i.e., Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking and Language)

CELP.9-12.1. RI.7. Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account

CELP.9-12.2. A.W.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

From Social Justice Standards from “Learning for Justice”

Identity

5. Students will recognize traits of the dominant culture, their home culture and other cultures and understand how they negotiate their own identity in multiple spaces.

Justice

13. Students will analyze the harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.

Action

16. Students will express empathy when people are excluded or mistreated because of their identities and concern when they themselves experience bias. 

From Teaching Hard History A 6–12 FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHING AMERICAN SLAVERY

Key concept 9: Enslaved and freed people worked to maintain cultural traditions while building new ones that sustain communities and impact the larger world.

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE 19 Students will examine the ways that the federal government’s policies affected the lives of formerly enslaved people.

19.C By passing the 14th and 15th Amendments during Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction, the federal government made a commitment to protect the legal and political rights of African Americans. Federal troops enforced the civil and political rights of African Americans in the South during Congressional Reconstruction.

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE 22 Students will examine the ways that the legacies of slavery, white supremacy and settler colonialism continue to affect life in what is now the United States.

22.B Segregation and inequality persist in the United States. This is most evident in employment, housing and education but can also be seen in health care, workplaces, sports settings and churches.

Overarching Learning Objectives

L04 EXAMINE the scope and legacy of resistance that has been integral to African American, Puerto Rican and Latino histories.

LO5 ARTICULATE the integral role African American, Puerto Rican and Latino communities have played in shaping U.S. society, economy, and culture.

LO6 REIMAGINE new possibilities and more just futures for our country and our world drawn from the legacy of African American, Puerto Rican, Latino, and Indigenous experiences, intellectual thought, and culture.

LO8 EXAMINE examples of African American, Puerto Rican and Latino action in addressing issues impacting their communities.

Overarching Essential Questions

EQ4 FREEDOM, JUSTICE, RESISTANCE How have African American, Puerto Rican and Latino people fought for freedom and justice throughout history and today, and in what ways have their struggles been in solidarity with various other groups?

EQ5 SOCIETY, ECONOMY, AND CULTURE How and in what ways have African Americans, Puerto Rican and Latino people shaped American society, economy, and culture?

EQ6 RADICAL IMAGINATIONS What do African American, Puerto Rican and Latino history and culture teach us about radically reimagining new possibilities and more just futures?

EQ8 AGENCY AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT How can young people take informed action to address pressing issues in their own communities?

Theme/Content Specific Enduring Understandings

For this Unit of Study, students will know and be able to…

Knowledge:

• Gain understanding of the role African Americans played in shaping the U.S. society, economy, and culture.

• Gain understanding of how African Americans advocated for freedom and justice.

• Gain understanding of how Blacks and African Americans used the arts to perpetuate a theme of hope, persistence and resilience.

• Evaluate how individuals, groups, and institutions in the United States have both promoted and hindered people’s struggle for freedom, equality, and social justice.

• Analyze the role of the federal government in supporting and inhibiting various 20th century civil rights movements.

• Analyze the role of women of color in the women’s rights movement.

Skills:

• Investigate a variety of primary resources (including both the Black and the White press) to analyze social and political changes for Black Americans in this period and reactions to these changes.

• Evaluate the roles of music and literature in the study of history.

Theme/Content Specific Inquiry

For this Unit of Study, to support self-discovery, identity development, and civic preparedness/actions, students will explore...

  • What are human rights?
  • How and why did segregation in housing develop in Connecticut and does this segregation in housing still exist today?
  • How has Black popular culture impacted American culture and attitudes from the Harlem Renaissance to the present?
  • What has Black popular culture revealed about Black attitudes and beliefs in the 20th and 21st centuries?
  • How have socially unjust practices toward Blacks, African Americans, and African descendants been established in the law, upheld, and gradually abolished?

Evidence of Learning

Pre-Assessment/Common Misconceptions

Pre-Assessment: Imagine you are a student during the time period. Describe your school day in a one-page journal entry.

Common Misconceptions:

● Black Americans are a monolith (there were varying viewpoints on how to achieve equal rights)

● Nonviolent protest ensured a nonviolent response. (In reality, there was violence against peaceful protestors.)

Formative Assessments/Checks for Understanding

● Group discussions

● Critical Self-reflections

● Entry/Exit slips

● Turn-and-talks

● Critical analysis of various historical documents, media (pictures, music, letters, journal entries, book excerpts, videos etc.)

● Word splash

Performance Tasks and Criteria/Project?Based Applications (Aligned with Compelling Questions)

Students gather news articles, images, or online papers on period and then develop a claim and cite evidence to support argument using multiple sources in response to the following question: How successful have Black Americans’ movements for equality been in transforming the dreams, status, and rights of Black Americans in the United States?

Explain how the perspectives of people in the present shape interpretations. Course Projects: Radical Imagination Through the Arts and Be the Change Project