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Town Meeting Lesson Plan

Aligned to grade 7 GLEs

Targeted Length: Two 90-Minute class periods

|Objectives (History) |

|Students will examine the state of Seattle Public Schools in the 1960’s |

|Students will learn how events of the past can be interpreted from multiple points of view |

|Objectives (Civics/Leadership) |

|Students will discuss the possible boycott from a variety of perspectives and determine if it was an effective citizen-action to take to |

|desegregate Seattle schools. |

|Students will discover the strategies of planning a boycott. |

|EALRs |

|History 4.3: Understands that there are multiple perspectives and interpretations |

|of historical events |

|History 4.4: Uses history to understand the present and plan for the future |

|Social Studies Skills 5.1: Uses critical reasoning skills to analyze and evaluate positions |

|Social Studies Skills 5.2: Uses inquiry-based research |

|Social Studies Skills 5.3: Creates a product that uses social studies content to support a thesis and presents the product in an appropriate |

|manner to a meaningful audience |

|Grade 7 GLEs |

|History 4.4.1 Analyzes how an event in Washington State or world history helps us to understand a current issue |

|History 4.3.1 Analyzes and interprets historical materials from a variety of perspectives in Washington State or world history |

|Social Studies Skills 5.1.2 Evaluates the breadth of evidence supporting positions on an issue or event |

|Social Studies Skills 5.2.2 Evaluates the breadth of primary and secondary sources and analyzes notes to determine the need for additional |

|information while researching an issue or event |

|Social Studies Skills 5.4.1 Analyzes multiple factors, makes generalizations, and interprets primary sources to formulate a thesis in a paper |

|or presentation. |

|Materials Needed |

|Several documents have been selected for preparing students for the town meeting. They are: |

|Student Handout: Preparation for Town Meeting |

|Brown vs. Board documents |

|An excerpt from Quintard Taylor’s article The Civil Rights Movement in the American West: Black Protest in Seattle, 1960-1970, p. 8-9. |

|“Seattle Civil Rights Groups Feel that Boycott is the Only Way to End Segregation:” CACCR flyer |

|“Fact Sheet on the Schools,” CACCR flyer |

|Data Tables on School Segregation in Seattle |

|The remaining documents should be used during the town meeting. |

|Student Handout: Conducting the Town Meeting |

|Handout with additional information about the Seattle School Boycott of 1966 |

|Powerpoint Slide show of housing segregation in Seattle –OR-- printouts of census maps of Seattle showing areas African-American population |

|concentration. |

|Introduction for teachers: |

| This town meeting is designed to expose students to the community debate that occurred in Seattle over segregation in public schools during |

|the 1950s and 1960s. The lesson uses the basic town meeting format to help students better understand the complexity of the issue of |

|segregation in schools and one form of protest local civil rights groups took to create change in their community 12 years after the Brown vs.|

|Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Also, the lesson is designed to expose students to the various dimensions involved in one |

|particular form of protest, a boycott. The point of the exercise is not the vote that takes place at the end, but the critical thinking and |

|communication that happen along the way. |

|This lesson can be an opportunity for students to conduct research; it depends on the time allotted for the lesson. All students should have |

|the chance to at least visit the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project Website: |

|() and explore the primary documents (such as letters from students about integration, |

|letters from parents to the School Board, pamphlets distributed by the NAACP and CACRC, and newspaper articles) and the research report on the|

|Seattle School Boycott of 1966 to gather information to support their assigned viewpoints. If students do not have access to computers, the |

|teacher can photocopy documents that may be useful for different groups. |

|It is most important to make sure there is a balance among the collective points of view so that one group isn't arguing against the rest of |

|the class. Try to achieve this balance by designating a few groups solidly for the issue, a few solidly against, and a few in the middle who |

|could go either way. This provides the best opportunity for exploring the issue in question productively. |

Preparation for the Meeting

1. In class the day before, or for homework, pass out the background information documents. Have students answer the questions on the “Preparation for Town Meeting” worksheet.

2. Introduce students to the segregated conditions that existed in Seattle prior to the school boycott by showing the slide show, or by handing out the census maps. Ask students to speculate on the effects this situation would have on Seattle Public schools.

Next, introduce students to the basic status of the Seattle Public Schools in the 1950s and1960s by passing out the school segregation data tables. Highlight the location of the public schools with the highest concentration of students of color. If you’ve passed out the maps, rather than using the slide show, have students mark down the location of the schools on the most recent map.

3. Pass out the “Conducting the Town Meeting” handout. Present the town meeting strategy to students. Students will work in groups of three to represent various assigned interest groups at a town meeting. Each team will represent one point of view. The interest groups are: members of the Seattle School Board, students of various ages and ethnic groups that support the boycott, students of various ages and ethnic groups that do not support the boycott, White parents who support the desegregation of schools, White parents who do not support the desegregation of schools, Black parents who have reservations about the desegregation of schools, members of CACCR and CORE including Black parents and community members that support desegregation of schools, journalists from the Seattle Times, journalists from The Facts, and local elementary and high school teachers of various ethnic groups.

4. Give each team a description of the point of view they are to represent and what they think about the issue. There is flexibility within most of the descriptions so that students can bring their own thoughts and ideas to their work. However, they may not contradict the basic “facts” that they are given and that they have learned about in the background readings.

5. Give students time to conduct additional research, either online at , or using the data that you have printed off from the site.

6. Have each team prepare an opening statement, no more than a minute long that summarizes their point of view on the question, “Is a boycott the only way to end segregation in Seattle Public Schools?” One member of each group will make the opening statement for his or her group.

Conducting the Meeting

1. In advance, the teacher should make name cards and place them on the desks so students know where to sit when they come in the room. The teacher plays the moderator during the meeting. Remind students that the reason for the meeting is for various groups to discuss and debate this important, complex question about the potential boycott against school desegregation. They will then vote on whether to support this or to reject it. Remind students that they will represent the point of view they have been assigned, even though it might not be their own personal position. Tell them that their ability to faithfully represent their assigned roles will allow the group to understand the many sides of the issue.

2. At the start of the meeting, each group presents its opening statement (about 1-2 minutes) without any discussion or response to it. Go around the entire circle. After all of the opening statements are made, anyone at the meeting can speak. Depending on the amount of information students have gathered on the topic and time constraints, the length of the discussion can vary from 15-30 minutes.

3. Statements or questions may be addressed to particular individuals in the class in response to either their opening statements or comments made during discussion (Example: “You said that you are in favor of the boycott, but what about...”). It is acceptable to disagree with ideas expressed but it is not acceptable to attack the person who makes the statement or expresses the idea.

4. As moderator, notice if some groups are talking more than others. It is important to hear from every group to make sure the class members are considering all relevant information as they prepare for the to final decision. Encourage those who have not entered the conversation to do so. As the meeting comes to a close, ask for overlooked points and final thoughts, and then give thirty seconds or so for the students to consider how they will vote, still representing their assigned point of view. Remind students that their positions may shift if there was enough information presented by other groups during the meeting to support their decision.

5. Take the vote on the question: Is the boycott the only way to end segregation in Seattle Public Schools? The teacher will facilitate the vote. Students who agree that the boycott is the only way to end segregation in Seattle Public Schools should raise their hands first. Students who do not agree that the boycott is the only way to end segregation in the Seattle Public Schools should raise their hands second. The majority of the votes will determine the decision.

6. After the vote is taken, begin a discussion about the process of the meeting (students are again themselves, no longer playing their roles). Have them focus on the following questions:

a. What were the strongest arguments they heard in the town meeting? What were the most compelling or effective reasons for voting one way or another?

b. Which arguments made them reconsider their own positions (not the one they were representing, but their own positions)? What did they hear that made them question it?

c. How would they represent their assigned position differently if they were to approach the exercise again?

d. What is their current understanding of the issue now that you have gone through this exercise? What questions do they still have? What do they want to know more about, and how might they go about finding this information?

V. Conclusion/ Evaluation

Students will write an editorial to The Seattle Times or The Facts newspapers, or another ethnic newspaper of their choice, such as a Filipino American or Chinese American newspaper. The editorial will express their position on the boycott. The students may or may not take the view of their assigned stakeholder. In their essays, students need to use specific evidence from the resources they were provided with and/or found on their own. Students should also include why they chose to write to the newspaper they selected.

Follow-Up Activities:

• Have students research the current enrollment data of high schools in the Seattle Public Schools by race and ethnicity (American Indian, African American, Asian American, Latino American, European American, and English Language Learners). Direct students to the district website and the annual reports produced by each school for the data. They should include the following high schools: Ballard, Cleveland, Franklin, Garfield, Ingraham, Lincoln, Queen Anne, Rainier Beach, Roosevelt, Sealth, and West Seattle. In small groups, have students create a graph or data table to present their data.

• Have students discuss, in small groups or in a whole class discussion, their opinions regarding the success of desegregation of public schools in Seattle. Points that should be discussed include:

a. In your opinion, what factors led to the success or lack of success of the desegregation plans in the 1960s?

b. If you believe schools have successfully been desegregated, what needs to happen to make sure schools stay so?

c. If you believe schools have not been successfully desegregated, what courses of action should be taken to do so?

d. Is it important for you to go to the school of your choice? Why or why not?

e. What course of action should the community take today regarding “school choice”?

References

Clark, B. (2005). University of Washington, Seattle, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History

Project. The Seattle School Boycott of 1966. Retrieved September 2005, from



Fact sheet on Seattle schools prepared by Central Area Committee for Civil Rights. Retrieved from

“No Other Choice” leaflet distributed by the Central Area Committee for Civil Rights. Retrieved from

Supreme Court Trials-Brown vs. Board of Education:

Taylor, Q. (1995). The Civil Rights Movement in the American west: Black protest in Seattle,

1970. The Journal of Negro History, 80 (1), 1-15.

Additional Helpful Resources:

Pieroth, D.H. (1979). Desegregating the public schools, Seattle, Washington, 1954-1968.

Doctoral dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle.

Pieroth, D.H. (1982). With all deliberate caution: School integration in Seattle, 1954-1968.

Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 73 (2), 50-61.

Orians, Carlyn. (1989). School desegregation and residential segregation: The Seattle

metropolitan experience. Doctoral dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle.

Siqueland, A.L. (1981). Without a court order: The desegregation of Seattle’s schools. Seattle:

Madrona Publishers.

Taylor, Q. (1994). The Forging of a Black Community. Seattle: The University of Washington

Press.

Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project website:



History Link website:



Black Oral History Collection at Washington State University website:



Statistics of Public Schools that include racial composition, teacher experience, free and reduced lunch, test scores and more.





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