Pete Seeger: One Man's Journey Through the Decades

Popular name: Pete Seeger, SS
Grade Level of Lesson: 11th
Discipline: Social Studies

Standards and Performance Indicators Context

SOCIAL STUDIES

Standard #1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Key Idea #2: Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires probing and clarifying questions, interpreting information in one's own words, applying from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly, concisely, and comprehensibly.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

Standard #1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Key Idea #2: Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires probing and clarifying questions, interpreting information in one's own words, applying from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly, concisely, and comprehensibly.

Learning Objectives (which will become the dimensions/elements of the rubric)

• Students will collect information from the Pete Seeger website in order to do a presentation in front of the class that demonstrates understanding of one social movement of the 20th Century and its impact on the culture.
• Students will demonstrate a sense of comfort in front of an audience in association with the presentations.
• Students will create either a visual aid or a musical performance to enhance their presentation.

EXPLORATORY PHASE

The Angry Exploratory

Step One: The teacher acts like something is bothering him/her when students arrive.

Step Two: Teacher asks students to take out journals or a piece of paper and list off five things that they're angry about.

Step Three: Students record things that make them angry on the chalkboard or on chart paper

Step Four: Teacher asks students what could be done about these things.

Step Five: Relate these things to certain events and protests in the past.

Step Six: Mention people such as Pete Seeger, and what their reactions were to certain events that had angered them and forced them to react and to protest.

The Witch Hunt Exploratory

The teacher claims that someone has taken something from his/her desk and asks five students to accuse someone. He/she interviews each student and sends some of them into the corner, or hall. The teacher asks the students why they think that some of them were sent. There shouldn't be an obvious reason. The lack of logic will parallel that of the McCarthy hearings. Point out that it makes no sense for people to be sent out on speculation alone, then introduce the McCarthy hearings.

DISCOVERY PHASE

1. Jigsaw: Students divide into groups, with each group studying a different era of Pete Seeger's influence on society with help from the website. New groups are then formed, each containing one representative from each of the original groups, so that each student will share the information with the new group. This allows for a chance for each student to grasp the knowledge by teaching it, and learn more by listening to their peers do the same. At the end of this step, all students will have a basic knowledge of each of the eras.

2. The students will then do research with a partner in a library or media center with access to computers and print materials in order to discover the impact of the movement on society.

3. The whole class will then pool their information on a graphic organizer. They will also work together to create the details of a performance of the task which would meet the expectations for a successful presentation. These specifications will then be expressed on a rubric. (Model for this rubric attached.)

4. Each pair of students will present their material/work in front of the class. These presentations will include such creations as their own version of a Pete Seeger song or a piece of artwork such as a poster.