Unit: The Legacy of Emmett Till and Modern Day Race Relations

Whole Class Text: Mississippi Trial , 1955 by Chris Crowe ​ ​

Supplemental Texts and Background Information: Getting Away with Murder by Chris Crowe ​

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago­Magazine/January­2010/Eyewitness­Account­Emmett­Tills­cousi n­Simeon­Wright­seeks­to­set­the­record­straight/

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/us/fbi­discovers­trial­transcript­in­emmett­till­case.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/e_impact.html

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2015/aug/26/remembering­emmett­till­boy­who­changed­ameri ca/

http://time.com/4144655/international­human­rights­day­black­lives­matter/

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/18/463503838/civil­rights­activism­from­martin­luther­king­to­black­lives­m atter

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king­tamir­rice­modern­day­emmett­article­1.2479611

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/24/trayvons­death­echoes­of­emmett­till/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/filmmore/fd.html

Essential Questions: What are Civil Rights? What is the Civil Rights movement? How does the Civil Rights Movement compare to The Black Lives Matter Movement? What does it mean to be an upstander, a bystander, or a victim? What does it mean for an event to be pivotal in history? In your own life? What impact did the lynching of Emmett Till have on history? How can we still relate to the issues surrounding this pivotal event in history? Who are the individuals affected by the tensions still present in society? Big Idea

Students will not only learn the events and historical context surrounding the lynching of Emmett Till, but also how historical context shapes our own actions, and how our personal actions can shape history. Discovery of Emmett Till’s death, as catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, will foster discussion and exploration into current day race relations with emphasis on the victims of racially motivated crimes, oppression and our nation’s efforts to heal the wounds of racial tensions.

Standards Addressed Focus Standards ​ RL 9­10 1,2,3, RI 9­10 1,2,3, W9­10 1,2,4,7

Substandards RL 9­10 7 RI 9­10 4,5,6,7,8,9,10

Summative Assessment

Emmett Till: The First Black Life that Mattered

Mamie Till Mobley’s exposure of her son’s death created the “First Black Life that Mattered”. Sixty years later, we are still witness to many racially motivated tragedies. Unfortunately, as racial tensions continue to exist, many lost or affected lives go unheard of. Who are some of the victims of civil injustices in our world today?

Students will read http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2015/08/25/60­years­later­murder­emmett­till ​

Research Project: Students will conduct research on current day victims of crimes motivated by race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Students will then write biographies of these victims and compile images that of and related to individuals. Students will create an antimoto to present to the class combining images along with narration of written biographies.

animoto.com

Unit: Our Personal Diaspora

Full Definition of DIASPORA ​

1 capitalized a : the settling of scattered colonies of Jews ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile b : the area ​ ​ ​ ​ outside Palestine settled by Jews c : the Jews living outside ​ ​ ​ ​ Palestine or modern Israel 2a : the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away ​ ​ ​ from an established or ancestral homeland b : people settled far from their ancestral ​ ​ ​ ​ homelands c : the place where these people ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ live

Whole Class Text: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson ​ ​

Supplemental Sources and Texts: The Great Migration: An American Story By Jacob Lawrence ​ Going Home by Eve Bunting ​

https://mosaicmagazine.org/2011/07/06/the­warmth­of­other­suns/

http://www.phillipscollection.org/migration_series/

https://southernspaces.org/2010/goin­chicago­and­african­american­great­migrations

http://www.inmotionaame.org/migrations/landing.cfm;jsessionid=f83015622712909603887 79?migration=8&bhcp=1

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/mexican­immigrants­united­states

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david­maurice­smith/syrian­diaspora­part­one­syria_b_5307 107.html

Essential Questions Why do groups of people move? Where do they move to? Who stays and who goes back? Where does culture come from? Where are you from? What is “home”? How do we feel at home and where will make our home?

Big Idea This unit will focus on author’s purpose and the power or story. Chicago culture is grounded in the migrations of the city’s residents, now and of the past. Where is this culture present, and what are its origins? Students will discover different diasporas that have occurred throughout history ­ ending in Chicago and beyond. Through this discovery, we will work to determine author’s purpose in both fiction and nonfiction and create stories detailing our own family diaspora.

Summative Assessment

Our Personal Diaspora

Students will research their own family’s journey to Chicago. Where did they come from, how did they get there, and will they stay? Students will answer these questions by means of a digital timeline detailing their personal diasporas.

http://www.dipity.com/