Lesson by Vaughan O. Danvers
Essay by Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University
Grade Level: 3–5
Number of Class Periods: 1
About This Lesson Plan Unit
This lesson explores the rights and responsibilities of citizenship by engaging students’ interpretive and critical thinking skills. You will assess their understanding through class discussions and their work analyzing photographs and matching them to primary source documents.
Lesson Plan Author: Vaughn O. Danvers
Historical Background Essay by: Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University
Additional Information About This Unit
Common Core State Standards
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY. RI.4.7: Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY. W.4.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
What does it mean to be a responsible citizen?
What is the Constitution of the United States of America and why is it important?
Documents
Documents
US Constitution, engrossed copy, 1787, National Archives, archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution
Photograph of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington DC, August 28, 1963, by Warren K. Leffler, Library of Congress, loc.gov/item/2003654393/
Photograph of a demonstration for reduction in the voting age, Seattle, 1969, MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 1986.5.50631, photograph by Tom Barlet
Photograph of Tuskegee Airmen, Tuskegee, Alabama, ca. 1941–1945, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC09645.115
Engraving of Andrew Hamilton defending John Peter Zenger in court, 1734–1735, in Martha J. Lamb, History of the City of New York, vol. 1, New York, 1877, p. 552, Library of Congress, loc.gov/item/2006687175/
“Am I not a man and a brother?” illustration for J. G. Whittier, “Our Countrymen in Chains” broadside, published by the American Anti Slavery Society, New York, 1837, Library of Congress, loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661312/
Photograph of The First Picket Line – College Day in the Picket Line, Washington DC, February 1917, from the National Woman’s Party records, Library of Congress, loc.gov/item/97500299/
Engraving of “The First Vote” by A. R. Waud in Harper’s Weekly, November 16, 1867 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01733.09, p721)