Civil Rights Movement Research ELA 8 Personal Research

What is discrimination? What is equality? Weve looked at what discrimination and racial equality used to look like in everyday life in the United States. Think about the separate public services for African Americans and Caucasians at school, on buses, in movie theaters, at water fountains, in church, and at jobs.

American legal doctrine said that African Americans were to be treated as Separate, but equal. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in "one day liv[ing] in a nation where [African Americans] will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Do you think that racial separation was equality or discrimination? How did racial separation change? Who caused the change? Why?

Assignment: You will research the Civil Rights Movement to create a project which will inform, persuade or narrate (tell a story) about one important aspect of the movement. Your project must be based on accurate historical evidence that you have researched. Your research must be presented in an organized, informative and appealing way.

How to Research:
Steps to completing the assignment Good Research can be as simple as asking good questions and then seeking out the answers. This always involves sorting through information to find or create the best answer. But research is not just about the final answer its about the process. The research involves several steps to help us find the answers to our questions and then share the answers with others. Step 1: Do some pre-research to decide what your topic is. Step 2: Choose your topic Step 3: Narrow down your topic. Make it specific! Step 4: Choose how you will present your information. Step 5: Create a research plan. Step 6: Research Step 7: Use the information to write, design and create your project.

Steps to research:
Step 1: Getting Started! You will have a day in the computer lab to do pre-research. The goal is to explore several topics before choosing one that: A. Interests you! B. Has lots of available information. C. Is specific and focused. You may want to start your research by checking out these topics: People/Groups Events Themes Laws
Malcolm X Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Jackie Robinson Black Panther NAACP Freedom Riders Ku Klux Klan Jesse Jackson Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) James Chaney Eldridge Cleaver Medgar Evers Andrew Goodman Thursgood Marshall Rosa Parks A. Phillip Randolph Montgomery Bus Boycott Living through the Civil Rights Movement March on Washington I have a dream speech Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sit ins 16th Street Baptist Racial Segregation Prejudice Civil Disobedience Minority Groups Discrimination Equality Racial harmony The Civil War Amendments Segregation Laws Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka Jim Crow Laws Civil Rights Act of 1964 Voting Rights Act of 1965

Church bombing

Step 2: Choose one topic! What do you want to research about? Step 3: Narrow your topic down. Is it specific enough? Step 4: How do you want to present your research? What will best show what you have learnt? What will best show what interests you? Your final project may be in any of these formats: If you like learning about peoples lives and the impact that they had, than you might like writing a: Biography Fakebook Encyclopedia article Interview (fake) Job Application Obituary If you like persuading your audience to see an event, idea or person from a new perspective, than you might like writing and designing a: - Advice column - Advertisement - Brochure - Interview (fake) - Letter - Monologue - News Story - Wanted poster If you choose one of these formats, than you will focus on researching an idea, cause, organization or event. You will invite and persuade your audience to become involved in supporting or opposing the Civil Rights Movement. Why should I join this organization/event or follow this idea? What is it? How will it help me? If you like being dramatic and thoughtful by thinking about how someone else felt or thought, than you might like writing a: - Journal - Narrative - Letter - Monologue If you like representing (drawing, comic strip, poster) how a situation or idea affects you, than you might like creating a: - Comic Strip - Photo Essay - Drawing - Poster - Wanted Poster

If you choose one of these formats, than you will focus on informing your audience about someones life. You will include facts, dates, and beliefs about that person. You will also discuss his/her importance in the Civil Rights Movement. Tell the audience important facts about this person and explain why he/she is important!

If you choose one of these formats, than you will focus on researching about a person or event. You will use your research tell you what the 1950s-1960s were like. You will imagine how that person felt, and what that person saw, experienced, and thought in the Civil Rights Movement.

If you choose one of these formats, than you will focus on researching photos, videos, posters, and information about the Civil Rights Movement. You will artistically represent an important scene or image from the Civil Rights Movement based on what you learnt. You will include a caption What do you think saying what the image someone (a famous is, the date it occurred person or a fictional (real or fictional), and person in an how it represents the audience/march/boycott) Civil Rights Movement. experienced? How do you think the Civil Rights Movement looked?

Talk to me if you have other ideas.

Step 5: Create a research plan. Step 6: Research information about your topic! How much information do you need? Enough to accurately explain, argue, narrate or create to make your project. You might want to check two or three sources to make sure that you have correct dates, and descriptions of events or peoples lives. Step 7: Put it together! Choose information to include in your project that it is interesting, and important. Make the information your own by rewriting the research in your own words to focus on your topic! You will have time to work in the class room or the computer lab to put your project together.

Schedule (maybe. It is flexible)

Monday March 10 Pre-Research (computer lab) Tuesday March 11 Fact vs. Opinion: What information do I believe? How do I sort information? - Create Research Plan Wednesday March 12- Hoax vs. Fact: What is accurate information? Where do I find information? How do I know if information is fake? (computer lab) Thursday March 13 Research (computer lab) Friday March 14 Research/Putting it together (computer lab) WEEKEND Monday March 17 Putting it together (computer lab) Tuesday March 18 - Putting it together (computer lab) Wednesday March 19 Presentations Thursday March 20 Wrap up unit - Video response to What do I stand for? I think equality is I think discrimination is Friday March 21 NO SCHOOL