Social Studies Lesson ED 629 Martin Luther King Jr. By: Abby Nussbaum

 Unit: Martin Luther King Jr.  Grade level: 5 th  Lesson: The biography of Martin Luther King Jr. used to reinforce understanding of fact and opinion

Objectives  After reading a brief biography of Martin Luther King Jr., students will be able correctly answer 8 out of the 10 questions on a fact and opinion worksheet.

Materials Needed  Brief biography of Martin Luther King Jr.  Martin Luther King fact and opinion worksheet TM/WS_MLK_248a.shtml TM/WS_MLK_248a.shtml  Overhead projector

Activity 1  Explain to students that fact is something real or true, and can be proved. Explain to them that an opinion is a belief or judgment that cannot be proved, and may or may not be true.  Ask students to remember the story of The Three Little Pigs.

 Write their statements on the overhead projector.  Demonstrate how to make a T-chart with fact on one side and opinion on the other, then have the students, in groups of 4, make their own charts.  Then, go through each of the statements that were made by the class, and ask them to determine which is fact and which is opinion.  Place each in the appropriate column on the chart (encourage students to do the same).

 Tell the children that this understanding of fact and opinion will be applied to the article of the life of Martin Luther King Jr.  Hand out copies of the brief biography of Martin Luther King to each group of students.  Read the piece aloud with the students.  Hand each group the fact and opinion worksheet and have them fill it out in their groups.

 Unit: Martin Luther King Jr.  Grade Level: 5 th  Lesson: Use a variety of sources to discover different places that were important in the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

Objectives  After reading two different sources about Martin Luther King Jr., students will be able to identify 3 different places that were important in the life of Martin Luther King and why.

Materials Needed  Two different sources of information on Martin Luther King tml tml tml tml  A blank U.S. map  Computer access

Activity 2  Hand out the two biographies about Martin Luther King to each student.  Read through one of them together as a class.  Have the students read the other article in pairs.  As a class, go over the important places that affected Martin Luther King’s life.

 Have students research Martin Luther King online (in pairs) and see if they can find other places important in his life.  Have students place a star sticker on each state that was of importance and label the city.  Have them fill out a separate key to the map, telling why each place was important to him.

 Have each pair of students tell the class why each place they found was of importance in Dr. King’s life.  Assessment will be given in the form of a test in which the students must match a place name with the importance it had in Martin Luther King’s life.

 Unit: Martin Luther King Jr.  Grade Level: 5 th  Lesson: Students will use the famous “I Have Dream” speech to create their own speech about their dreams in the future.

Objectives  After reading and listening to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, students will be able to list 3 of his wishes, and write their own “I Have a Dream” speech (including at least 3 of their own wishes).

Materials Needed  Recording of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech mlk_i_have_a_dream mlk_i_have_a_dream  Copies of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech  Copies of the “I Have a Dream Too!” worksheet library.thinkquest.org/10320/Starter.htm library.thinkquest.org/10320/Starter.htm

Activity 3  Explain to students that they are about to learn Martin Luther King’s dream for his future and tell them to begin thinking about their own dreams for the future.  Pass out copies of the printed “I Have a Dream” speech to each student and have them follow along as you play the audio version.

 Discuss with the class what kind of dreams MLK had for the future, and why many people consider this a great speech.  Tell the students to think about their own dreams, pass out the “I Have a Dream Too” worksheets and have the students complete them.

 Unit: Martin Luther King Jr.  Grade Level: 5 th  Lesson: Students will put events in the life of MLK in chronological order

Objectives  Students will be able to identify and put in a timeline, at least 5 important events in the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

Materials Needed  Access to a computer with internet  Clothespins and Clothesline (or rope)  Index cards  Textbooks

Activity 4  Have students research individually, dates that were important in the life of MLK, and record each of these dates and why they were important on separate index cards (include their name as well).  Have students get in groups of 3 and discuss the events they each found.

 In their groups, have students organize the events in chronological order  Get the class back together as a whole and tell them King’s birthday was on January 15 th  Ask each group if they had an event that happened in that year and collect the cards accordingly.

 Once you have collected all of the index cards, hand one out to each student and have them draw a picture to show that point in MLK’s life.  Attach the index card to each drawing and hang them on the clothesline in chronological order to display their work!

 Unit: Martin Luther King Jr.  Grade Level: 5 th  Lesson: Students will be able to correctly use a checklist to evaluate web resources for bias.

Objectives  After reading two different sources, students will be able to identify 3 bias’ in the life of MLK.  After reading two different sources, students will be able to correctly use a checklist to evaluate the Web content for bias

Materials Needed  Computers with internet access  Copies of checklist for evaluating web resources chguides/webevaluating.html chguides/webevaluating.html

Activity 5  In pairs, have students find two sources online and evaluate the web content for bias.  Have students use the checklist to help them in evaluating the web content.  In order to assess, you may want to have students fill out an their own individual bias evaluation sheets as well.

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