American Civil Rights Leaders: Martin Luther

King Jr. &

Cesar Chavez

An Integrated Lesson including:

Social Studies, Written Language, and Technology.

Students can participate in all or a few of the following activities.(Approximate Timeline: 1 month utilizing language arts, social studies and technology blocks.)

Internet search. Compare and contrast with Venn

Diagram. Written 5 paragraph essay. Oral presentation, (optional use of

power point.)

Standards Addressed Written language Oral Language

Written language standards. Students write with a command of

standard English conventions that is appropriate to fourth grade (i.e., sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, editing, and penmanship).  

Oral Language Standards Speaking:Speaking Process and Strategies

Students speak in a manner that guides and informs the listener's understanding of key ideas using appropriate phrasing.

Speaking Applications: Students deliver brief recitations and oral presentations about familiar experiences or interests that are organized around a coherent topic statement.

Written Language Standard Students write clear and coherent sentences

and paragraphs that develop a central idea.  Their writing considers audience and purpose.  Students successfully use the stages of the writing process (i.e., pre-writing, drafting, and revising successive versions) •    Focus and Organization of Ideas •    Revising Strategies •    Research Strategies and Technology  

Written Language Standards 1.1 Demonstrate control of grammar, diction,

and paragraph and sentence structure and as understanding of English usage.

1.2 Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling, punctuation and capitalization.

1.3 Reflect appropriate manuscript requirements in writing.

Instructional Objectives Students will write, edit, and revise a five

paragraph essay with appropriate content, organization, syntax grammar and spelling.

Students will utilize the internet to gather biographical data and incorporate that information into the content of their essay.

Students will use a venn diagram to compare and contrast the information gleaned from their research.

Instructional Objectives:cont.

Students will convert the visual information from the venn diagram to a "synthesis" format, analyzing and generalizing, common factors, influences and outcomes, This will be one paragraph of their essay. 

Students will create an oral presentation, may use power-point, for their class, emphasizing the main points of their synthesis essay.

Instructional Objectives: cont. Students will write a bibliography with

appropriate citations for internet sources.

Students will "surf" the web, noting related topics and web sites, these will be an addendum to their report.

Internet integration Resources for teacher

5 paragraph essay information Venn diagram information

Resources for student Internet sites for biographical

information. 5 paragraph essay information Venn diagram information

Implementation Can be used in a classroom or

home school setting.

Student Performance on Venn Diagram:10 students grades 4 and 5, scale of 0 – 12.

A=10-12, B=7-9, C=4-6.

1 student score……6 3 students score….8 1 student score….10 1 student score….11 4 students score..12

Summary and Observations Students have completed traditional skill

activities: 5 – paragraph essay, and venn diagram, with non-traditional support: internet access for instruction, references, guidelines, and materials.

This non-standard format of instruction was motivating and fun for students yet challenging. Direct instructional support via classroom, home-school, or e-mail and telephone is necessary for a positive learning experience.