Introduction to Unit
This unit is intended for first grade and will be taught during the third quarter of the school year. This unit will relate back to a year-long unit and class question. The class question will be referred to throughout the year as students expand their knowledge and understanding of what it means to be a great leader. Students will look at leaders at all different levels, like their school, community, state, country, and throughout American history. The essential question, or unit question, will focus on great leaders throughout American history, where students will learn about them and then examine them for their qualities of being a great leader. While the class questions will be ongoing, so will the unit question. Students will refer back to the unit question throughout the year as they learn about great American leaders.
Class question: What does it mean to be a great leader?
Unit Essential Question: Who are some great leaders throughout American history? (Students will learn about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt).
Sub-Unit Essential Question: Who was Martin Luther King Jr and how was he a great leader?
Enduring Understandings:
Class question: What does it mean to be a great leader?
Unit Essential Question: Who are some great leaders throughout American history? (Students will learn about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt).
Sub-Unit Essential Question: Who was Martin Luther King Jr and how was he a great leader?
Enduring Understandings:
- Martin Luther King Jr. believed in equal rights for those of color, as well as believed in economic justice for all people.
- Martin Luther King Jr. spoke up for the rights of other, even in the face of controversy or danger.
- Martin Luther King Jr. led peaceful protests, one of the most famous being his “I had a dream” speech, in front of 250,000 people, which described his vision for a better future.
- Martin Luther King Jr. was passionate about civil rights, traveling over 6 million miles, and speaking over 2500 times in order to help secure equal rights for not only blacks, but for all people.
- Students will understand vocabulary assiciated with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement (Southern, justice, equality, racism, civil rights, protest, segregation, Nobel Peace Prize, strike).