Lesson by Tim Bailey
Essay by James Spiller, SUNY Brockport
Grade Level: 7–12
Number of Class Periods: 4
Primary Era: 1945 to the Present
About This Lesson Plan Unit
In the four lessons in this unit students will explore fiction and non-fiction texts that set Americans’ expectations about travel to the Moon. They will then use their understanding of public expectations to illuminate the meaning of a journalist’s account of the actual Moon landing in 1969.
Lesson Plan Author: Tim Bailey
Historical Background Essay by: James Spiller, SUNY Brockport
Additional Information About This Unit
Common Core State Standards
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.6: Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.9: Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in order to address a question or solve a problem.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.1: Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
What expectations about travel to the Moon did fictional accounts create?
What was the context for President Kennedy’s commitment to landing on the Moon at the time he endorsed it?
What reason or reasons did President Kennedy provide to explain why traveling to the Moon was important?
How did American news reporting describe the Moon landing?
What expectations explain the tone of American news reporting about the Moon landing?
Documents
Documents
H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon (London: G. Newnes, 1901)
John F. Kennedy, Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort, September 12, 1962
“Men Walk on Moon” by John Noble Wilford, New York Times, July 21, 1969