This is an example of lessons I’m creating for our county curriculum database. Thoughts?

Government: Plato & Martin Luther King, Jr

World History – 9^th Grade

Resources:

Excerpt from Plato’s The Republic:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/plato-republic-philosopherking.asp

Martin Luther King, Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/letter_birmingham_jail.pdf

Materials:

ReadingQuest.org’s strategy of Selective Underlining: http://www.readingquest.org/strat/underline.html

ReadingQuest.org’s Opinion-Proof chart: http://www.readingquest.org/pdf/thesis_b.pdf

Common Core State Standards:

RH.9-10.6 Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

RH.9-10.9 Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

WHST.9-10.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Essential Question(s):

Who should govern or rule a society? Why?

Before the lesson:

Discuss the types of government in Ancient Greece and Rome. Examine what the requirements were for citizenship in Athens, Sparta, the Roman Empire, the present-day United States, etc.

Teach students the strategy of selective underlining (explained under Materials). The next steps are what the students should do.

The Common Core lesson featured in the previous instructional guide is a great way to set up this lesson because students will have already considered the essential question: Are people generally good or evil? Why? How do you know? This may give them greater insight to brainstorming the essential question featured in this lesson.

Step 1

Brainstorm your answer to the essential question: who should govern or rule society? Why?

Step 2

Carefully read the excerpt from Plato’s The Republic about philosopher-kings.

As you read, underline only the parts of the documents that help answer the essential question.

How would Plato answer the essential question? Use textual evidence to support your answer.

Step 3 

Carefully read paragraphs 5-10 (starting with, “You deplore the demonstrations…”) from Martin Luther King, Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

As you read, underline only the parts of the documents that help answer the essential question.

What does Martin Luther King, Jr think you should do when the people who govern are wrong? Use textual evidence to support your answer.

How would Martin Luther King, Jr answer the essential question? Use textual evidence to support your answer.

Step 4

Discuss with a partner:

Do you think Plato and Martin Luther King, Jr would agree or disagree with each other about who should govern or rule society? Why?

Finally, revisit your answers to the essential question. Fill in the Thesis-Proof chart with textual evidence supporting and refuting their answers based on the two sources. Then, write a conclusion based on your findings.

Remediation

Frontloading some of the more difficult vocabulary may help struggling students. You could write the definitions to the vocabulary in a column beside where students will encounter that word in the reading.

Extension

Higher-level students could take the Thesis-Proof chart and turn it into an essay. The introductory paragraph should outline their thesis. The body paragraphs should examine their thesis using evidence supporting it and answer claims from any evidence refuting it. Finally, they should expand their conclusion for the last paragraph.

Students could also do some research and find their own document with a differing opinion on who should govern society.