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Teacher's Guide for FOOTSTEPS: Malcom X
March 2006
Teacher's Guide prepared by Hope Harrod, a teacher with the District of Columbia Public Schools. Harrod received a M.Ed. in Education from BostonCollege.
Objectives:
To develop and appreciation of the contributions made by Malcolm X to the Civil Rights Movement - To understand the challenges and obstacles that Malcolm X faced order to achieve his life goals
- To understand the historical framework in which Malcolm X fits
- To read to understand, practice the comprehension skills cause and effect, sequence of events, using a text to make judgements and inferences and to draw conclusions, extracting main ideas and individual facts from a text, compare and contrast ideas
- To work collaboratively and effectively in learning groups in order to complete comprehensive project
"Chronology of Changes" The following lesson is meant to be taught of as part of a thematic study of Malcolm X. Students will need to have read the entire magazine and the activity will challenge them use all of the information they have learned about Malcolm X thus far.
Discussion:
a) Engage the students in a conversation about how this issue of FOOTSTEPS is all about Malcolm X and how each article is designed to give as much information as possible so that the reader can have a more complete understanding of his life. Have the students talk about how many of the articles in the issue focused mostly on his readily changing and expanding views of the world and how they drove the decisions that he made that affected his life and changed the course of American history.
b) Have the students examine the timeline on page 1. Explain to students that when studying history, timelines are used in order to help give a greater understanding of sequence of events. That they are also key in conceptualizing the "big picture." It is important that students understand that the accomplishments do not just happen over night, that people devote their lives to attempt to reach their goals or to find the answers to their big questions. Using a timeline as a learning tool allows one to see how time plays a significant role in the development of history. Timelines also demonstrate how events do not happen in isolation. Major historical events are often caused by or affect other major or minor events that happen during that time.
c) Review with the students with the concept of cause and effect relationships. Make sure that they understand that cause and effect shows the relationship between two things when one thing makes the other thing happen. Students should be able to provide examples from the text when one event caused another.
Activity: Tell the students that they will be making a timeline also, however their timeline will be a chronology of the pivotal events in Malcolm X's life that caused him to make life changing decisions. a) Students will work in collaborative groups to choose and examine the articles on pages 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 17, and 20. From each of these articles the students can find one or two cause and effect relationships that lead to pivotal events in the life of Malcolm X.
Students should consider the following guiding questions as they organize their ideas: What was the event that altered the Malcolm X's life? - What was the cause?
- What was the effect? How did this event change either Malcolm X's actions or philosophy?
- When did this event occur?
Students can complete a graphic organizer like the one below to help them organize their ideas:
Cause -----------> Event ---------> Effect b) Student's final work can be plotted on a large strip of butcher paper. Students may have to do a bit of detective work to find some of the exact dates that these events occurred. They can use the timeline on page 1 to help them. They should also plot the relevant events from the timeline on page 1 to help broaden the historical framework of their timeline. c) Though much of the work should be in written text, students should feel free to draw illustrations to enhance the overall visual presentation.
"Conversation with Dr. King"
Explain that we have read so much about Malcolm X and his life that we need to try to find ways to combine and organize the information so that it can fit more comfortably in our understanding.
For "Dr. King Wants the Same Thing I Want-Freedom" (pages 24-27)
Activity: Tell the students to imagine a conversation what would happen if Malcolm X and Dr. King sat down and had a conversation. Have them toss out their ideas of what that conversation would be. a) Students will work in pairs to write a short conversation between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. In order to organize their ideas, students can complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the philosophies of Malcolm X.
Students should consider the following guiding questions as they complete the graphic organizer and create this dialogue:
What were Martin Luther King's views about the state of race in the United States? What were Malcolm X's? What was their vision for African Americans? How did their tactics for bring about change different? How were they the same? What do you think they believed about the others philosophies and methods? If the two had a conversation, what would they talk about? Would each try to persuade the other to change their beliefs? If so, what would they have said? If not, why not?
b) Remind students that though they will be using the facts from the article to help them gain a better understanding of the two ideologies, they will have to create the actual conversation themselves. They should use their imaginations in creating a circumstance under which the two would meet and in choosing the words that the two men would use when speaking to each other. Students will prepare the dialogue as a skit that is to be performed for their classmates.
Extention: Students can use the article "Power Never Takes a Step Back" (page 30-31) for more information about Malcolm X's philosophies. Students can also search the internet for speeches given by both if they are interested in using direct quotes.
Other Discussion Topics:
Here are some questions that can be explored in a number of ways. (whole group, small group, journal writing)
What are the characteristics of a leader? What are other examples of leaders from the Civil Right Movement besides Malcolm X and Martin Luther King? Do they all share the same characteristics? Who are leaders in our world today? How powerful are words? Why are words so important? (page 8) What changes would you like to see in our world today? How can you work effectively to make your vision a reality? What is your plan for creating change?
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