Motivation:
Read the poem “What Is Wrong?”
to the students.
Draw three columns on chart paper and label the first
column POEM and the second one FAVORITE SONG.
Ask the students how the poem makes them feel and record
their responses in the first column.
Ask the students to close their eyes and think of a
favorite song. Ask them how the song makes them feel
and record their answers below the FAVORITE SONG label.
You will use the chart again later in the lesson.
Day One
Objective: Students will use primary and secondary sources
to deepen their understanding of why Freedom Songs were
used during the summer of 1964.
- On a map of the United States, point out Mississippi.
Tell the students that the class will be learning
about the civil rights movement and events that took
place during the summer of 1964. Hand out Freedom
Summer 1964 Sheet (with the bottom folded to the line
below the first paragraph). Either have students read
the first paragraph or read it to them.
- Point to Ohio on the map and explain that approximately
1,000 young people from all over the United States
went there to be trained to go to Mississippi during
the summer of 1964. Ask the students to list on the
blank folded section of the paper three things that
civil rights workers could have done for African American
people in Mississippi. Make a web on chart paper and
write CIVIL RIGHTS WORKERS in the center. Ask students
to use their lists to answer the question. Record
the answers and highlight responses that include registering
people to vote; training people to become politicians;
and setting up schools, clinics, and legal services.
- Unfold the paper and read the second paragraph.
Ask the students to comment on the pictures.
- Select one song from the jukebox in this issue
of HISTORY NOW and play it for the students. Or if
an Internet connection is not available in the classroom,
first listen to the songs at home so that you can
sing them to students in the classroom. (The printable
song lyrics are available online.)
- Go back to the chart labeled POEM and FAVORITE SONG
and label the third column FREEDOM SONG. Ask the students
how the freedom song or songs that they just heard
made them feel. Record their answers in the third
column on the chart from the motivation excercise.
Discuss the feelings recorded on the chart and how
they relate to students’ feelings about the
poem and about the songs they labeled as their favorites.
Day Two:
Objective: Students will analyze and write
their own verses for the freedom songs.
Replay or repeat the singing of freedom songs the
students heard during Day One or choose new freedom
songs to play or sing.
- Have the students work in pairs or small groups.
Hand out a copy of a freedom song to each group. Ask
the students to read the song to one another and figure
out what it is about. Have students tell the whole
group about each song.
- Ask the students what they notice about the songs.
Elicit that each song features repetition and ask
the students why they think so many of the words and
phrases are repeated. Remind them that these songs
were originally sung by groups of people who might
not have had access to the printed words that went
with the music.
- Ask each pair or group of students to write its
own verse for the song that the pair or group is studying.
Lead the class in the song.
Application:
Ask the students to consider which form of expression
-- music, film, TV, radio broadcast, newspaper and magazine
articles, ads, or posters -- is most effective way to
communicate feelings and ask them to explain why. Then
ask: Why did the leaders of the civil rights movement
rely so heavily on music?
Extensions:
Have the students write letters to their families as
if they were civil rights workers during the summer
of 1964. Samples of real letters can be found at
http://learntoquestion.com/seevak/groups/2001/sites/ moses/archives/letters.htm
Ask students to select images about Freedom Summer
on the http://www.crmvet.org/
website and have them write journal entries as if they
were a person in one of the pictures.
Teach the students the songs from the interactive feature
on the www.historynow.org website and organize a sing-along
or an assembly performance that features the songs.
This is a great way to celebrate Martin Luther King’s
birthday in January or Black History Month in February.
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