Central Question: How did the Civil Rights Movement evolve in the late 1960s?
In the later years of the Civil Rights Movement, many African American activists lost their interest in nonviolence after being frustrated by the government’s lack of enforcement of legislation for equality. A wave of inner city riots in black communities from 1964 through 1970 undercut support from the white community for the movement. Furthermore, the emergence of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party, which lasted from about 1966 to 1975, challenged the established black leadership for its cooperative attitude and its nonviolence, and instead demanded political and economic self-sufficiency.
For more background, read “The Civil Rights Movement” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required) and “27 Facts Everyone Should Know About the Black Panthers” on the Huffington Post website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Term:
Scholars understand the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s and can explain the “radicalization” of the movement.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (1 minute)
Read (8 minutes)
Discuss (4 minutes)
Watch (20 minutes)
Discuss (5 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: To what extent was the “Great Society” a success?
The “Great Society” was an ambitious series of policy initiatives, legislation and programs spearheaded by President Lyndon B. Johnson with the main goals of ending poverty, reducing crime, abolishing inequality, and improving the environment. In May 1964, President Johnson laid out his agenda for a Great Society during a speech at the University of Michigan. With his eye on reelection that year, Johnson set in motion his Great Society, the largest social reform since the New Deal. The Great Society sparked debates about what the role of government is in addressing the social needs of the people, and although some of the programs still exist today, this debate has continued.
For more background, read “Evaluating the Success of the Great Society” on the Washington Post website and “Reagan Blames Great Society for Economic Woes” on the New York Times website, and browse The Great Society Legislation overview on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars can apply their knowledge of U.S. history to interpret original sources and use these sources to outline clear and compelling claims in response to questions asked about the Great Society.
Launch — 5 minutes
Read and Write (8 minutes)
Discuss (10 minutes)
Give scholars 2 minutes to revise their main ideas or claims based on the discussion.
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: To what extent was the Great Society a success?
Scholars can plan and draft clear and compelling written arguments that answer a historical question with strong theses and evidence that supports or proves their theses.
Outline (15 minutes)
Draft (15 minutes)
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: To what extent was the Great Society a success?
Scholars revise their essays based on individualized teacher feedback to make their essays stronger and clearer and understand how to use their feedback to grow as writers.
Preparation
Homework
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: How did the decisions of the Warren Court affect American civil liberties?
The Warren Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States during the period when Earl Warren served as chief justice. In conjunction with the Great Society, the Warren Court expanded civil rights, civil liberties, judicial power, and federal power in dramatic ways. While the Court is most famously known for Brown v. Board of Education, ending segregation in American public schools, its other decisions paved the way for many of the civil liberties Americans enjoy today.
For more background, read “The Warren Court” on the Supreme Court history website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the major decisions of the Warren Court and can explain how those decisions increased the civil liberties of different groups of Americans.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (5 minutes)
Discuss (3 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: To what extent was the United States justified in its participation in the Vietnam War?
The Vietnam War was the longest war in United States history. Promises and commitments to the people and government of South Vietnam to keep Communist forces from overtaking them reached back to the Truman Administration. Eisenhower placed military advisers and CIA operatives in Vietnam, and John F. Kennedy sent American soldiers to Vietnam. However, following a North Vietnamese attack on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the first real American combat troops to fight in the war. This attack was later found to be false, and questions surrounding the United States’ motivations in joining the war remain.
For more background, read the “Battlefield Vietnam” on the PBS website, “Vietnam Part 1: Early Years and Escalation” on the Atlantic website, and “The Vietnam War: 5 Things You Might Not Know” on the CNN website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the factors involved in the United States’ entry into the Vietnam War and can explain the extent to which the motivations of the United States’ participation were justified.
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (3 minutes)
Watch (7 minutes)
Discuss (3 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: How did the Vietnam War affect both American soldiers and Vietnamese citizens?
The Vietnam War ended decades ago, but its impact on the Vietnamese people and American soldiers still remains. The heavy bombing, chemical warfare, and the mark of war on soldiers had lasting impacts. Potent chemicals, such as Agent Orange, caused lasting physical impairments on all people who came in contact with it; most notably, it caused a mutation in human genes that led to birth defects in generations of Vietnamese children following the war. The war also took its toll on American war veterans. Many veterans were not properly cared for when they returned home, and as a result faced poverty and homelessness. Veterans were also left with the psychological detriments of the horrors of this gruesome war, most notably PTSD.
For more background, read “Vietnam: War’s Lasting Legacy” on the Pulitzer Center website, and watch
Agent Orange on the History Channel website.
Scholars understand the atrocities of the Vietnam War and can explain how both American soldiers and Vietnamese citizens experienced the war through their recollections.
Launch (2 minutes)
Read (5 minutes)
Discuss (3 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: Why did many Americans oppose the Vietnam War?
When the war in Vietnam began, many Americans believed that defending South Vietnam from Communist aggression was in the national interest, as Communism was threatening free governments across the globe. As the war dragged on, more and more Americans grew weary of mounting casualties and escalating costs. The small anti-war movement grew into an unstoppable force, pressuring American leaders to reconsider their commitment. For the first time, war was televised on national TV, putting many Americans face-to-face with the horrors and violence of the war. Peace activists opposed the war on moral and economic grounds. The North Vietnamese, they argued, were fighting a patriotic war to rid themselves of foreign aggressors. Innocent Vietnamese peasants were being killed in the crossfire, and innocent American boys were being drafted and killed.
For more background, read “Anti-War Protests of the 1960s and 1970s” on the White House history website and “Vietnam War Protests” on the History Channel website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand why many Americans opposed the Vietnam War and can explain the various perspectives of different protest movements.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (6 minutes)
Discuss (2 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: Why did protest movements gain momentum in the 1960s?
Five major movements during the 1960s were feminism, gay rights, hippie counterculture, the Olympics boycott, and the takeover of Alcatraz by Native Americans. The hippies, embodying a spirit of peace and love, rebelled against the war and mainstream culture, in search of true “consciousness,” often with the help of hallucinogenic drugs. At the same time, many women, frustrated by the repressive lifestyle of the 1950s, formed a women’s liberation movement, transforming how Americans perceived gender roles. The gay and lesbian community also began to fight back against their own stigmas. Sparked by the Stonewall Riots, the gay movement took off and transformed American culture. Black athletes during the 1968 Olympics created what was called the “Revolt of the Black Athlete” and although they didn’t end up boycotting the Olympics, they created “Olympic Project for Human Rights” badges, wore them, and the symbolic fist in the air on the medal podium was the result. In 1969, 90 Native Americans took and held Alcatraz Island and demanded the government give them land for a cultural complex and university, in a protest that lasted two years. Meanwhile, in the western United States, Cesar Chavez was leading a migrant workers boycott of California grape growers.
For more background, read “Native American Activists Occupy Alcatraz Island” on the History Channel website, “Fists of Freedom: An Olympic Story Not Taught in Schools” on the Zinn Project website, “The Flowering of the Hippies” and “An Amazing 1969 Account of the Stonewall Uprising” on the Atlantic website, “Feminism Has a Bra-Burning Myth Problem” on the Time magazine website, and “The 1965– 1970 Delano Grape Strike and Boycott” on the United Farm Workers website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the nature of the protest movements of the 1960s, can explain how these movements grew into national forces by the end of the decade, and can articulate the ideas of their group topic in a presentation to their peers.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (1 minute)
Discuss (2 minutes)
Teacher Model (5 minutes)
Investigate (15 minutes)
Planning (15 minutes)
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: Why did protest movements gain momentum in the 1960s?
Scholars organize, reread, and revise their presentations and prepare to present them to the class.
Homework
Central Question: Why did protest movements gain momentum in the 1960s?
Scholars finalize their presentations and present them to the class.
Preparation
Homework
Central Question: Why was 1968 a turning point in U.S. history?
The year 1968 is considered to be one of the worst years in American history. North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive against American and South Vietnamese troops, leading to massive anti-war protests. In April, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, causing unrest, mourning, and chaos in many African American communities. A few months later, Robert F. Kennedy, a Democratic rival of President Johnson and a popular, charismatic leader running for president, was also assassinated. A culture of chaos and upheaval took over the nation. Capitalizing on this unrest, Richard Nixon promised to restore “law and order,” and spoke directly to the “silent majority” of Americans who quietly supported the war and opposed counterculture. As a result, Nixon was elected president, and the era of protest came to a close.
For more background, read “Turning Back to an American Turning Point, 1968” on the New York Times website, “1968: A Spiral of Chaos and Death” on the U.S. News and World Report website, and “The Election of 1968” on the PBS website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Term:
Scholars understand the chaos of 1968 and can evaluate how that chaos helped Richard Nixon win the presidential election.
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (3 minutes)
Discuss (5 minutes)
*To access all articles on the Newsela website, you must create a free account.
Prompts: Scholars may choose one of the following prompts about Big Ideas in American history.
Project Menu: Scholars may then choose to respond to the prompt chosen above with one of the formats outlined below.
resources
Access a wide array of articles, webinars, and more, designed to help you help children reach their potential.
Unbe-leaf-able Organisms: Plant and Animal Needs Grade K
Educator
Curriculum
Elementary School
K
Science
Sound: Engineering a Concert Grade 1
Educator
Curriculum
Elementary School
1st
Science
Underwater World: Sustainable Ecosystems Grade 2
Educator
Curriculum
Elementary School
2nd
Science
Forces and Motion: The Racetrack Challenge Grade 3
Educator
Curriculum
Elementary School
3rd
Science
NEWSLETTER
"*" indicates required fields