Before:
Step 1: Engagement/Motivation Activity: The teacher will show the Norman Rockwell image on the interactive whiteboard. The teacher will ask the students to look at the painting and to write their immediate feelings and reactions to the painting in less than five words. (You may want to remind the students to refrain from using offensive language as one of their words or feelings.) The teacher will allow the students to share their reactions. The teacher will ask the students to predict what is happening in the painting.
During:
Step 2: The teacher will accept responses and will tell the students that he/she will be reading a book that gives an example of the early integration of public schools in the 1960s. The teacher will show the students the key idea through the use of a linoit page with the word "desegregation" on a digital sticky note. The teacher will begin to read aloud the biography of Ruby Bridges by Robert Cole. The teacher will project the illustrations using the document camera. After reading, the teacher will inform the students to create a digital sticky note on her linoit URL that describes the key idea and any feelings that they may have about the story. The teacher may read the stickies aloud to the class as the students post their feelings and definitions of the word "desegregation".
Step 3: The teacher will place four trait posters in four corners of the room. The teacher will inform the students that those words (Courageous, Determined, Confident, Proud) are all words that might describe Ruby. The students will walk around the room on a silent gallery walk for two minutes. The students must choose the word that best describes Ruby and the character trait that demonstrates why she should be considered an important icon in the modern Civil Rights Movement. The teacher will give the students a mic and they will have an open discussion allowing each person to express the reason why they chose that word to best describe Ruby Bridges. The teacher will facilitate this discussion and will keep students on task.
Step 4 (Assessment): The students will watch the video of Ruby Bridges and President Obama.
The students will also watch Ruby's explanation of her school experience.
After:
After watching, the students will create a 5W poem from the viewpoint of Ruby: Students may choose to write the poem from the 1960s viewpoint or the present-day viewpoint. Students must use factual evidence in their poems and may want to search the internet for additional information about that event in history.
