Vietnam Protest Lesson

Name: Nick Rossi Class/Subject: Modern U.S. History (12th Grade) Date: 11/8/12 Student Objectives/Student Outcomes: 1. Students will demonstrate an ability to interpret events through their own historical lens and relate a historical viewpoint to students and instructors. 2. Students will work collaborative to interpret the feelings, characters and viewpoints of historical actors through the analysis of a primary document. 3. Students will utilize historical evidence to build historical argument techniques and think critically about historical events. Content Standards: 14.D.5. Interpret a variety of public policies and issues from the perspectives of different individuals and groups. 16.A.5a. Analyze historical and contemporary developments using methods of historical inquiry (pose questions, collect and analyze data, make and support inferences with evidence, report findings). 16.B.5b (US). Analyze how United States political history has been influenced by the nation's economic, social and environmental history. Materials/Resources/Technology: Computer Projector Smartboard Internet access Roles Handouts Teachers Goals: 1. Teacher will provide students with foundational knowledge on the violent protests that were sparked in the late 1960s, especially dealing with economic disparity, Civil Rights conflicts and anti-Vietnam sentiment. 2. Teacher will facilitate group and class activities that help give clarity to historical events and perspectives as well as allow for a certain amount of creativity in interpreting the motivations and perspectives of historical actors. 3. Teacher will encourage students to build their own personal relationships with historical events by utilizing technology and primary visual sources to make history vivid and tangible. Time

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Start of Class: Open up class by having a quick write about any social/political/economic issues discussed/addressed/mentioned in recent periods as well as if there were any social reactions to these issues by the public. Have students share examples. Highlight the example of the Vietnam War being a major detriment to Johnsons administration and sparked many student protests across the country, even in Illinois. Show Chicago Convention The Whole World is Watching from Youtube and ask students to take notes on what they see during the video to be turned in as a formative assessment.

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Introduction of Lesson: Using the primary source video as a starting point, give a short lecture on the origins of the violence seen in the video. Basic outline for the lecture would mention the growing discontent with Johnsons Vietnam policies, Humphreys connection with those policies, the Chicago 8 involvement in protests, role of Chicago police as well as the influence of Mayor Richard Daley on the event. Introduce an activity in which students are divided into groups to represent one of the following groups in a discussion about the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago: Mayor Daley Chicago police Protestors and demonstrators Humphrey and the Democratic Party Citizens of the City of Chicago Lesson Instruction: Have students number off 1-5 in order to break them into groups and have them sit in certain areas of the classroom Once assembled, hand out Role sheets to each group with a short list of speaking points on the protests that they will use to build their side of the discussion Explain to all groups that they are tasked with using the sheets to build a definitive character for the group they are representing Have them write down specific notes about their perspective, how they think they would have reacted to/spoken about the Convention and the surrounding turmoil as well as choose one representative to voice the opinion of the group.

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Assessments/Checks for Understanding: Once groups have had time to collect their thoughts and come up with their embodiment of their side of the issue based on the video, information sheet and prior knowledge, have them present their perspective in character for the class. When all groups have presented their perspective, come together as a full class again. Discuss the following questions: What are the dangers of a single story in history? Which group/person seem most right and why not? Were the riots anyones fault in particular, or just a complete mash of all factors? Do you know of any examples similar to these demonstrations happening in the present day? This discussion will serve as an informal formative assessment as it will give insight into whether students have developed a personal knowledge of the subject/concept.

Nick Rossi 11/6/12 CI 403 Lesson Plan Reflection Vietnam Protest Lesson The inspiration for this lesson came from an artifact that I had found last semester for my methods course and had yet to honestly use in the classroom. Since the artifact had to do with teaching diverse students and my rationale for choosing this artifact revolved around the idea of strengthening my teaching strategies and classroom management skills through presenting and controlling classroom discussion of controversial issues. Although I initially chose this artifact before ever having read the article for our class about teaching controversial issues, I found the article encouraging towards attempting to teach these types of topics and events in the classroom because they can add life and spark to the atmosphere that brings history to life. I felt that teaching about violent protest, especially involving police officers and being in an area so close to where we are teaching, might become controversial because some students might be decidedly anti-authority while others might have family or belief systems that support law enforcement and, thus, there would be strong reactions to the video of the riots and physical conflict between police and civilians at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Since we learned that it is important to always remain objective as the instructor when teaching controversial issues, I chose to put the issue in the hands of the students themselves as well as, most importantly, breaking the issue up to have several perspectives instead of just a binary divide. I felt this would help diffuse any real two

sided issues that may arise since there would be a third perspective to counteract both in most cases. Lastly, my lesson differentiated instruction in order to play on the strengths of a variety of students in the classroom. By incorporating an individual think-write, a primary source that played into the strengths of visual and auditory learners, presenting foundational information in lecture style, allowing for collaboration and creation elaborating on the original content, I hoped to build understanding of the social and historical significance of this and other examples of violent protest as well as begin to develop a historical lens through which history becomes relevant and tangible for students. While the lesson was tweaked and perfected before being given, there were inevitably modifications during and after the first delivery. Primarily, I greatly underestimated the time it would take to develop the short presentations and overestimated the amount of time the presentations would actually take. Once people got in groups and started discussing what they saw in the video and how their particular role had reacted or would react based on the lecture and video, the students would become sidetracked on a tangent quickly and often. Since I was only one person, I could not monitor all groups at once and spent most of the period in constant rotation between groups. While most groups put some effort into their role, I felt that on the whole I did not exactly do a great job of creating a smooth lesson on a controversial issue. Although I had anticipated discussion and debate on the underlying issues seen in the video, I thought they would be more manageable and less amorphous than the vague discussions that developed around the concepts of protest, police, violence and Vietnam that arose in groups. My cooperating teacher suggested possibly having less groups if the lesson was

done in the future or possibly constructing a chart or a script of some sort as a whole class. While I did really like the idea of five different skits or presentations, I do agree that in the future some sort of modification in delivery or set-up would have to be made in order for groups and individual students to stay focused and get meet the objectives. I plan on keeping in contact with my cooperating teacher and asking her for tips on improving group lessons in the future since it seems as though she has perspective on working with high school classrooms, especially senior classrooms, with group work activities. On the other hand, I did find that students were engaged with the content in general and found the video particularly visceral and moving. In reaction to the positive reaction I received in response to the clip, I might try to incorporate more primary sources, especially videos and audio clips, from the era and topic in the future. While researching for our previous lesson on Lyndon Johnsons Great Society, I found some great footage of the Newark, Detriot and Watts riots that might have made that lesson or this lesson more tangible for students. In addition, I could tweak this lesson to be more broad and include the violent reaction in various urban centers after the assassination of Martin Luther King. This particular instance of violent protest was chosen for its proximity, but maybe these other events would resonate even further with particular students. Finally, I think I would modify the lesson in the future to have time to verbally respond to the video instead of simply having them right down there responses. They had some insightful comments and I would have liked to have heard them during class to see if other students connected.