Great Society Lesson

Name: Ben Rubin and Nick Rossi

Class/Subject: Ms. Early: Modern US History-2nd Period

Date: 11/6/12

Student Objectives/Student Outcomes: Students should be able to describe the different facets of LBJ’s Great Society

programs Students should be able to analyze sources and organize information effectively Students should be able to collaborate in a group and produce a presentation for

the rest of the class

Content Standards: 16.B.5b (US) Analyze how United States political history has been influenced by

the nation’s economic, social and environmental history. 16.D.5 (US) Analyze the relationship between an issue in United States social

history and the related aspects of political, economic and environmental history

Materials/Resources/Technology: Computer, SmartBoard, printer/copier, Great Society organizer, internet access1 Articles: 1. "The Big Federal Move into Education" TIME Magazine, April 30th

1965, 2. "Help for the Cities" TIME, 3. "Beauty, Beauty Everywhere" TIME, 4. "Main Programs of the War on Poverty", 5. "What We Know about Poverty (only Lampman section)"

Teacher’s Goals: To teach students the basic skill of document analysis effectively and how to

organize and process the information given to them To effectively facilitate group work within a class with multiple groups working

at the same time and also to facilitate engaging full class discussion To help relate material from the lesson to present day issues to make the content

more relevant to the students

Time 7-8 Minutes Start of Class: The instructor will take attendance as students enter the room and then

gather the attention of the class to start the lesson. The teacher will start with talkingabout election day, since that is when the lesson is being taught. The teacher will thenintroduce the purpose of the day’s lesson and transition into a political commercial forLyndon Johnson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dSIYNPB0uI). The teacher willthen facilitate discussion on students’ reactions to the video and try to see if they candraw parallels to present day election commercials, etc.

4-5 Minutes Introduction of Lesson: The teacher will have students number off from 1-6 and gatherin their groups. The teacher will then explain that the groups will be focusing on one ofthe three major tenets of LBJ’s Great Society plan. 1’s and 2’s are economic policy. 3’sand 4’s are education reform. 5’s and 6’s are urban renewal and land conservation. Eachgroup will be given a document to read and then they will answer 6 questions basedon their document. The groups with the same document/topic will come together,compare answers and then come up with a short way to present and analyze theirfindings. The groups will then give a brief presentation of roughly 3 minutes in frontof the class.

20 Minutes Lesson Instruction: The teacher will hand out the organizer to the different groups.The teacher will tell them to start reading their document. The teacher will stand at thefront of the class, answer questions if students have questions, and see if there are any classroom management issues to attend to.

After a few minutes, when everyone should have completed the reading, the teacher willwalk around, see if students are confused over any of the questions asked of them, andtry to engage students who may seem disinterested. Students should be finding answersin their group but if they need help, the instructor is there as an outlet to help them out.When they are done reading and answering their questions, the students are to let theinstructor know and sit quietly until the other group working on the same topic finishesreading and filling out the organizer. Once both groups of the same topic are done, theyare to congregate together and discuss the findings they will present to the class As thegroups discuss, the instructor will make sure that they have the correct answers to thequestions on the organizer and if they do not then the teacher will instruct them and givethem rationale for why the answer that the instructor has, is the one that is correct. Oncethe group is finished discussing, they are to sit in their seats quietly until it is time topresent. Once time is up, the instructor will tell the students to sit quietly while othergroups present. The student will fill out the parts of the organizer that pertain to the othergroups and this organizer will be collected at the end of class.

10 Minutes Assessments/Checks for Understanding: The students present in the following order:1. Economic Reform 2. Education Reform 3. Urban Renewal and Land Construction.The students will come up to the front of the class in their large group and present. The students are to be clear and make sure that the answers to the questions on theorganizer are given in their presentations, along with any reactions, comments, concernsthat they may have come across while doing the reading.

5 Minutes Closure/Wrap-Up/Review: The students will go back to their original seats and theteacher will ask the students whether they think LBJ’s Great Society reforms andpolicies worked. The teacher will ask them if they still see these some of these issuestoday. The teacher will focus the discussion around this year’s election and guide thestudents in finding parallels between then and now.Self-Assessment: Teachers will reflect by asking:1. How do we know that the students achieved our objectives for the lesson?2. How did we promote social justice and encourage social activism in this lesson?

3. What conditions contributed to the success or failure of this lesson?4. What can be done in the future to account for diversity in the classroom as well as

foster appreciation of diversity through content and activities?