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First Grade

Bridging the Gap for Equality

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Students will be able to understand what equality means, how Ruby Bridges showed courage and the contributions that she made to society.

Essential Questions:

Who is Ruby Bridges?

How did Ruby Bridges show courage and determination?

How did Ruby Bridges show empathy toward the people who mistreated her?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Students will be able to understand

what equality means, how Ruby Bridges showed courage and the contributions that she made to society.

Vocabulary:

Courage

Segregation

Integration

Determination

Compassion

Empathy

Bravery

Separate

Equal/Equality

Tolerance

Contributions

Society

*Students will need the 3-2-1- summarizer sheet that you should create on the computer.

TEACHER SUPPLIES:

*Construction paper to create the paper heart that will be used as the hook to your lesson

*Index cards (have the words already written on each card. The words are listed below)

1. Empathy

2. Courage

3. Compassion

4. Determination

5. Tolerance

6. Bravery

On the board or by some other visual means, write the six words listed below as well as a simple definition of each word. Review the definitions with the students prior to beginning the activity. The teacher should place the following words each on a separate index card.

Word Cards:

1. Empathy: Awareness of the feelings and emotions of other people.

2. Courage:The ability to do something difficult even when there is risk.

3. Compassion:We care about others and treat them with kindness. We also feel a strong desire to help those in need.

4. Determination:A quality that makes you continue trying to do or achieve something that is difficult

5.Tolerance:When you accept others who is different in their race, culture,habits,and even beliefs.

6.Bravery:The experience of being afraid but believing that something else is more important than your fear.

** Divide your students into groups of three- four students (You will need to make 6 index cards for each group.)**

Set the timer for 8 minutes. Explain the assignment to the students prior to them beginning the lesson. Let them know that they will be ranking the words in the order of most importance to least importance. The catch with this lesson is that students cannot talk as they take turns ordering (moving the cards.) When time is called, the goal is for the students to agree with the order of the words. **It will be extremely hard for the students to not discuss why they selected the order of the words. Allow the students to talk for 3 additional minutes in order to justify their thinking. Allow each group to share their answers.

Please be aware that you may have some students within each group who don't agree. Even-though they had to come to some sort of consensus- this is a nice way to extend the conversation as a class. allow the conversations to flow authentically.

*The teacher should walk around and write down the final order of words that each group had constructed in order to compare the cards at the end of the lesson when they visit this again. Students will cycle back to these words in the end. This activity will facilitate lots of conversations between the students and the words will be important for them to reflect upon as you read the story.

Write the following quote on the board. This quote is taken from the last page in the book at the end of the story.

“Please, God, try to forgive those people.

Because even if they say those bad things,

They don’t know what they are doing.

So, you could forgive them,

Just like you did those folks a long time ago

When they said terrible things about you.”

Ask the students to analyze the quote so that they can create meaning from it.

Questions to help guide the conversation:

Why do you think Ruby Bridges says these words?
What people is she referring to?
Why do you think she is saying this?
Why are people saying bad things to her?
Ask students if they notice compassion, empathy, bravery, determination, tolerance or empathy in the words that Ruby has said. If students are able to identify any of these words, tell students to elaborate by giving examples.

Display this picture under the document camera or in a way that all students can see it.

Students will analyze the illustration and identify ...

1. What they See

2. What they think

3. What they wonder about the picture

*Allow the students to share their thoughts out loud. The goal of this activity is for the students to carefully think about what they notice as they examine the picture thoroughly. Ask the students if they see any evidence of compassion, empathy, determination, tolerance, bravery, and courage.

Begin reading the book The Story of Ruby Bridges. As you read, circle back to the vocabulary words that the students had to sort at the beginning of the lesson. Discuss with the students along the way evidence of these words displayed in the story.

After you have finished reading the book:

Place students back into their original groups of four again. Take the index cards out and allow the students to sort the cards once more. The students should work on this assignment with their table groups. The idea behind this thinking- now that they have more background knowledge, you should see the cards sorted differently. Students should think about each word differently as it relates to the story.

Allow the students 5 minutes to sort again. When time is up allow the groups to share. The teacher should share with the students, before they present, how they originally ordered their first set of cards. Compare the changes that have been made. Allow the students to explain if/why they sorted differently.

Summarization Strategy:

Using pictures or words, students will complete a 3-2-1 summarizer. The steps to conducting the 3-2-1 summarizer include:

Explain to the students that they can write or draw about …

3- things that they have learned

2- things that they have found interesting

1- question they would ask Ruby Bridges

Differentiation: If students are unable to complete the 3-2-1 you may change it to 2-1-1.

Display the original picture of Ruby Bridges for the students to see at the end of the lesson while playing a song that has been written for her. The link is below.

Great Song about Ruby Bridges: https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/ruby-bridges/