Cynthia Watson

Lesson Plan
Name: Minorities During the 1950s
Class/Subject: 11th Grade American Studies
Date: April 6, 2011- April 7, 2011

Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:

1. Students will understand how minorities were underrepresented in media during the 1950s.

2. Students will interpret the ways in which minorities were underrepresented in the media
during the 1950s.

Content Standards:
16.A.5a Analyze historical and contemporary developments using methods of historical inquiry
(pose questions, collect and analyze data, make and support inferences with evidence, report
findings).

Material/Resources/Technology:

- Overhead Projector

- Transparency

- Readings about minorities

- Writing Utensils

- Chart for taking notes

Teacher’s Goals:
-To show students how minorities were underrepresented in the media during the 1950s.

-To allow students to interpret their understanding of how minorities were underrepresented in
the media during the 1950s by allowing them to create television shows representing minorities.
Start of Class: 5 minutes
- Students will be asked to write down the learning goals for this lesson and I will inform them of
what the lesson will consist of.

Introduction of Lesson: 5-10 minutes

- Students will be asked if they feel as though any groups of people are underrepresented today
in the media. Then students will be asked to recall any prior information they know about the
past in which groups of people were underrepresented and what could have been the probable
cause for this underrepresentation.
Lesson Instruction: 45 minutes
Students will be assigned to groups of five. Each group will then receive a reading about a
minority group that was underrepresented in the media during the 1950s. Students will then read
the reading for their group and discuss what they read amongst their group members. Students
will then create a television episode representing minorities during the 1950s based on the
information they read about their minority group.

Assessment/Checks for Understanding: 40-50 minutes

Students will present their television episodes to the class. They can use props, costumes, or
whatever they would like to use when presenting their televisions episodes. As each group is
presenting, all students not presenting will be required to take notes on a chart provided to them
for taking notes.

Closure/Wrap-Up: 10-20 minutes

Students will be asked a series of discussion questions about the television shows presented in
order to wrap up the lesson. Students will also write a 4-5 sentence summary explaining how a
minority group other their own was underrepresented in the media during the 1950s and how the
group presenting the minority group represented them in the media during their television
episode.

Self-Assessment:

I will see if the students finish their episodes in one period. If they don’t, we will just use extra
time the next day and push the presentations back.