Democracy+Unit


 * "Democracy" for an 11th grade US History course **[Jimmy B, Tom T, Zack V, Jason S, Rikki R, Katelyn F]**
 * Enlightenment- Each individual is rational and able to make their own choices
 * For my portfolio artifact I did a pop culture analysis for teaching democracy: [[file:POP CULTURE RESOURCE ANALYSIS.docx]]
 * Direct Democracy in Greece
 * Madison analogy of direct democracy: He basically said that it would not make a difference if every person voting in the room was Socrates, the individual would be overwhelmed by the mob
 * The French Revolution:
 * Universal Rights of all "men"
 * Direct Democracy
 * Representative Democracy
 * Direct elections vs. Indirect elections - using the Electoral College in the U.S.
 * http://www.lessonplanet.com/lesson-plans/democracy
 * Jacksonian Democracy and "Universal White Male Suffrage"
 * A cool little video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn8Fp1jyok
 * A cool little video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn8Fp1jyok

Democracy Unit


 * Essential Questions:
 * How has the idea of democracy shaped the United States?
 * Does democracy work?
 * Enduring Understandings:
 * Students should understand how democracy works through class, peoples’ movements, and imperialism.
 * Students should understand the origins of the idea of democracy from the Founding Fathers.
 * Students should understand that there are different meanings and implications of democracy.
 * Standards Addressed:
 * Performance Tasks
 * Debate
 * Analyze documents
 * Write persuasive essay
 * Learning Activities
 * Debate “does democracy work” in the beginning of the unit and at the end, write a persuasive essay.
 * Analyze the Declaration of Independence and the preamble of the Constitution
 * Is the Declaration of Independence illegal? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15345511?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
 * Representative democracy activity: groups elect an elector and that elector votes on classroom issues
 * Write a persuasive essay about whether the U.S. should have been involved in Vietnam.
 * An argumentative essay about whether democracy works in the United States.
 * Having students take the Jim Crow voting literacy test.
 * Lesson Ideas
 * http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/
 * media type="youtube" key="QwSk2vW1po0" height="315" width="420"

At the beginning of the unit: debate "Does democracy work?"

Week 1 ("All men are created equal"?):
 * The Constitution - how it was framed and what the influences were
 * The Declaration of Independence
 * Analyze the preamble
 * "All men are created equal" ??
 * Changes during Jacksonian period
 * The Gilded Age: How does money impact democracy?
 * Current events: Occupy Wall Street and economic inequality today

Week 2 (Social movements):
 * Suffrage Movements
 * 14th amendment
 * Jim Crow (use the voting literacy test)
 * Possible field trip: Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State
 * 1960s Civil Rights Movement and Civil Rights Acts

Lesson on literacy tests: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/us/july-dec08/constitution_day.html The fifteenth amendment: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=015/llsl015.db&recNum=379 The Civil Rights Act of 1964: http://library.clerk.house.gov/reference-files/PPL_CivilRightsAct_1964.pdf The Voting Rights Act of 1965: http://ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=100 Emory Douglas's posters for the Black Panther Party: http://www.moca.org/emorydouglas/

Week 3 ("Spreading Democracy"):
 * Cold War
 * McCarthyism
 * Containment & the Domino Effect
 * Vietnam War and anti-war protest
 * Compare and contrast Vietnam and the war in Iraq
 * "Democracy" in the Middle East

Assessments: First Friday: a quiz Second Friday: quiz Third Friday: present final debate projects ("Does Democracy work?) Paper due the Monday after the final project is due

Exemplars for Democracy Concept Attainment

 * 1) Bill and his four friends can't decide which movie to see, so they vote. The majority chooses to see //The Dark Knight Rises// so the five friends see that movie.
 * 2) In Mr. Helmsing's class, the students work together to come up with class rules of when it is appropriate to use the restroom.
 * 3) Lola's class will vote to decide who will be on the student council. Every student gets one vote. The students with the most votes will be members of the student council.
 * 4) The citizens of a city vote on decisions regarding city management. The citizens vote on whether they want a Wal-Mart in their town.
 * 5) In the United States, every citizen, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality has the right to vote.
 * 6) Obama was elected president in 2008.
 * 7) In the 2000 presidential election, although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush won the election because he had more electoral votes.


 * Democracy Unit Plan:**


 * Week 1 Lessons 1-2:**


 * Week 2 Lessons 3-4:**

Hook (10 mins): Break students into small groups and have them look at a handout with quotes from the two men and have them try to figure out which one said which.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.” —King, 1967 “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” —King, 1967 "There is a magnificent new militancy within the Negro community all across this nation. And I welcome this as a marvelous development. The Negro of America is saying he's determined to be free and he is militant enough to stand up." —King, 1963 ”[D]on't let anybody frighten you. We are not afraid of what we are doing... We, the disinherited of this land, we who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity.” —King, 1955 “Black men have slammed the door shut on a past of deadening passivity.” —King, 1968 Malcolm X quotes “You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” —Malcolm X, 1965 “We can never get civil rights in America until our human rights are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens until we are first recognized as humans.” —Malcolm X, 1964 “I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.” —Malcolm X, 1965 “It is a disgrace for Negro leaders not to be able to submerge our “minor” differences in order to seek a common solution to a common problem posed by a common enemy.” —Malcolm X, 1963 “I have been convinced that some American whites do want to help cure the rampant racism which is on the path to destroying this country.” —Malcolm X, 1964

Teacher (30 mins): Lecture to the students about the differences and styles of the two men. How they approached reaching their goals.

Talk about their backgrounds King had come from a middle class well educated family Malcolm X had grown up in an underprivileged environment that was often time hostile and with little schooling.

Tactics King was a strong follower of the Christian faith and believed in a firm non-violent stance. Even though he was being attacked he would never react with violence. Malcolm X was a Muslim and one of his famous lines was “By any Means Necessary.” He would fight for freedoms no matter what even if that meant he had to be physical or not.

The Dream King’s march on Washington was an astounding feat. He had spoken about how he wanted to integrate the races in equality and wanted to stop the violence. To Malcolm X this was a nightmare. He wanted the blacks to have a race self-respect first not to blend.

Talk about how the men had gone for the equal rights in the Democratic society. How they just went down different paths would be the main theme of the lecture. Assignment: Read the pages x-x from [| The Unfinished Dialogue of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X]

Day 2

(10 mins) Today have the students work in groups to see what the men had actually expressed to one another. By reading their words. The students will read [|__Malcolm X’s letter to King__] and [|__King’s statement following Malcolm’s death__] while they will answer these questions

What most surprised you about what you read in these documents? Why? How does this information affect your original perception of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.? List three ways in which you see the ideas of Dr. King and Malcolm X converging.

(35 mins) After they are done with that the students are going to take a look at autobiographies. They are going to investigate what the men were trying to change. The main question the students have to think about is “Are all men created equal?” So while reading the autobiographies take note on how they fought to change barriers in politics, religion, and education. Write a 2-3 paragraph on your findings.

(5 mins) have students share their thoughts and findings.

[|democracy lesson plan1.doc]  Week 3 Lessons 5-6:  