Unsung Heroes Assignment

This lesson was adapted from a lesson from Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice, Volume 2.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/15_01/Hero151.shtml

Part I:
In class each student will receive one index card with a brief description of an "unsung hero" from the Abolitionist Movement through the post Civil Rights Era. Spend a few minutes acquainting yourself with your unsung hero.

Each student will also receive a handout with the following questions:
1. Find one person who stood up against slavery.
2. Find one person who resisted the unequal treatment of women and African Americans.
3. Find one person who used non-violent civil disobedience as a form of resistance.
4. Find one person who was willing to use force if necessary to achieve the goals of their cause.
5. Find one person who thought the best method of bringing about change was to change laws.
6. Find one person who thought the most effective way of bringing about change was to organize people at the grassroots level.
7. Find one female civil rights activist.
8. Find one person who fought to expand voting rights.
9. Find one person who played a key role in the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
10. Find one person who has held important leadership positions in civil rights organizations.

Once you have located all of these people and your handout is completely filled out, return to your desk.

We will conclude with a brief discussion of the activity and all of the individuals we learned about.

Part II:
Culminating Activity- Unsung Heroes Assignment
Working in groups of three or four, prepare and conduct a mock interview with your unsung hero. Interviews must be videotaped.

Your interview must include a minimum of six open-ended questions. Questions and answers must be historically accurate and "believable."

You may want to do a bit of research before you develop your questions and practice your mock interview. Watch a few episodes of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Watch some interviews on the cable news channels or morning news programs. "60 Minutes," and similar programs are also good sources of inspiration and ideas.

Before you videotape your interviews, I need to see a list of interview questions. Once I give you the go-ahead, you may begin taping your interviews. When you are finished and are satisfied with your final product, upload to YouTube.

As a class, we will view and score all "Unsung Hero" interviews. I will give everybody a rubric in class to assist in the scoring process.

The top scoring interview will be submitted to RVTV and all team members will receive a special prize!

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