Title of Unit: Speak Now Against The Day- The New South Unit                                                                                               

Authors: Thomas Panter               

Email Addresses: thomas.panter@cobbk12.org   

School: Durham Middle School                  Grade(s): 8th              Date: July 14^th, 2009

A. Standards:   

     1.  Academic Standards:  Knowledge / Skills:  (give identifying information)

Social Studies:

SS8H7 The student will evaluate key political, social, and economic changes that occurred in Georgia between 1877 and 1918.

                        a. Evaluate the impact the Bourbon Triumvirate, Henry Grady, International Cotton Exposition, Tom Watson and the Populists, Rebecca Latimer Felton, the 1906 Atlanta Riot, the Leo Frank Case, and the county unit system had on Georgia during this period.

                        b. Analyze how rights were denied to African-Americans through Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, disenfranchisement, and racial violence.

                        c. Explain the roles of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, John and Lugenia Burns Hope, and Alonzo Herndon.

Language Arts:

     2.  Character Traits Addressed:  (from Core Ethical Values and other sources)

            (Respect, Responsibility, Caring, Honesty, Resiliency,)

Responsibility - Something for which one is responsible; a duty, obligation, or burden.

     3.  Arts Standards Addressed:  (from http://www.glc.k12.ga.us/qcc-5-8-2008/QCC-Curriculum-in-PDF-format/Fine%20Arts/K5FineArts.pdf or http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teach/standards/standards_912.cfm)

Achievement Standard:

• Students analyze descriptions, dialogue, and actions to discover, articulate, and justify character motivation and invent character behaviors based on the observation of interactions, ethical choices, and emotional responses of people
• Students demonstrate acting skills (such as sensory recall, concentration, breath control, diction, body alignment, control of isolated body parts) to develop characterizations that suggest artistic choices
• Students in an ensemble, interact as the invented characters

Achievement Standard:

• Students apply research from print and nonprint sources to script writing, acting, design, and directing choices

Achievement Standard:

• Students describe and analyze the effect of publicity, study guides, programs, and physical environments on audience response and appreciation of dramatic performances
• Students articulate and support the meanings constructed from their and others' dramatic performances
• Students use articulated criteria to describe, analyze, and constructively evaluate the perceived effectiveness of artistic choices found in dramatic performances
• Students describe and evaluate the perceived effectiveness of students' contributions to the collaborative process of developing improvised and scripted scenes

[SOURCE]

Achievement Standard:

• Students develop criteria for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of music performances and compositions and apply the criteria in their personal listening and performing
• Students evaluate the quality and effectiveness of their own and others' performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvisations by applying specific criteria appropriate for the style of the music and offer constructive suggestions for improvement

[SOURCE]

Achievement Standard:

• Students compare in two or more arts how the characteristic materials of each art (that is, sound in music, visual stimuli in visual arts, movement in dance, human interrelationships in theatre) can be used to transform similar events, scenes, emotions, or ideas into works of art
• Students describe ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with those of music (e.g., language arts: issues to be considered in setting texts to music; mathematics: frequency ratios of intervals; sciences: the human hearing process and hazards to hearing; social studies: historical and social events and movements chronicled in or influenced by musical works)

[SOURCE]

Achievement Standard:

• Students describe distinguishing characteristics of representative music genres and styles from a variety of cultures
• Students classify by genre and style (and, if applicable, by historical period, composer, and title) a varied body of exemplary (that is, high-quality and characteristic) musical works and explain the characteristics that cause each work to be considered exemplary
• Students compare, in several cultures of the world, functions music serves, roles of musicians (e.g., lead guitarist in a rock band, composer of jingles for commercials, singer in Peking opera), and conditions under which music is typically performed

Achievement Standard:

• Students differentiate among a variety of historical and cultural contexts in terms of characteristics and purposes of works of art
• Students describe the function and explore the meaning of specific art objects within varied cultures, times, and places
• Students analyze relationships of works of art to one another in terms of history, aesthetics, and culture, justifying conclusions made in the analysis and using such conclusions to inform their own art making

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

• Students analyze and interpret artworks for relationships among form, context, purposes, and critical models, showing understanding of the work of critics, historians, aestheticians, and artists
• Students analyze common characteristics of visual arts evident across time and among cultural/ethnic groups to formulate analyses, evaluations, and interpretations of meaning

Achievement Standard:

• Students identify intentions of those creating artworks, explore the implications of various purposes, and justify their analyses of purposes in particular works
• Students describe meanings of artworks by analyzing how specific works are created and how they relate to historical and cultural contexts
• Students reflect analytically on various interpretations as a means for understanding and evaluating works of visual art

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

• Students correlate responses to works of visual art with various techniques for communicating meanings, ideas, attitudes, views, and intentions

Achievement Standard:

• Students compare the materials, technologies, media, and processes of the visual arts with those of other arts disciplines as they are used in creation and types of analysis
• Students compare characteristics of visual arts within a particular historical period or style with ideas, issues, or themes in the humanities or sciences

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

Students synthesize the creative and analytical principles and techniques of the visual arts and selected other arts disciplines, the humanities, or the sciences

B. Significant Question & Deepening Questions:

Significant Questions:

1. What is change?

2. Who is responsible for change?

3. Is change always easy?

4. Is change always for the best?

Deepening Questions:

1. How does political change affect society?

2. How do artistic elements (Music, literature, drama, speech) influence change in society?

3. How did people instigate and/or persuade the change in the South after reconstruction?

4. Is majority always right?

5. In what ways can change bring about conflict?

C. Concept: Consider Universal / Interdisciplinary Concepts –

       (Systems, Relationships, Balance/Equity, Patterns, Change, Structure, etc)

Change –

• The act, process, or result of altering or modifying.
• A transformation or transition from one state, condition, or phase to another.

D. Masterwork & How it is introduced and Experienced(1):  

William Faulkner, a Nobel Peace Prize winning author, gave a speech in 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee to the Southern Historical Association meeting. In this speech, Faulkner discussed the need for people to speak out against a wrong when they know it to be so. “Speak now against the day” became a well-known model for Faulkner’s position on the South’s lack of willingness to change. (Egerton, John. Speak now against the day. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.) 

1. After analyzing the quote in Language Arts class, the teacher will review what was learned in Language Arts about the speech and its meaning. The words will be placed on the Smartboard and the teacher will allow the students the chance to share their meaning of the quote.

2. Students will then be broken up into groups to brainstorm moments from history where people spoke out against what they felt was wrong. (Women’s movement, 2009 Tea Parties, Montgomery Bus Boycott, or any student generate idea from the present.)

3. Using their laptop, the students will research about one of the events they chose and answer the following significant questions in their own Smartboard lesson:

a. What did they speak out against?

b. Who is responsible for the change?

c. Was the change easy?

d. Do you feel the change was for the best?

e. How did it affect society?

f. Did this bring about conflict?

4. Students will present their lesson to the class.

“We speak now against the day when our Southern people who will resist to the last these inevitable changes in social relations, when they have been forced to accept what they at one time might have accepted with dignity and good will, say, “Why didn’t someone tell us this before? Tell us this in time!”

Faulkner was speaking at a meeting of the Southern Historical Association in Memphis, at a dinner where Benjamin Mays was also a featured speaker. It was the year after the Supreme Court decision pointed a clear way toward the end of segregation. The South had almost unanimously rejected that decision ; most leaders from every segment of that society spoke against the decision and spent creative energy devising ways to avoid its implementation. With assurance that the execution of the Court order was impossible, that it would never be effected, the South dug in for long-term resistance. This meeting was called to discuss both the decision and the resistance. In that context Faulkner warned against the repetition of mistakes of the past: “We accept insult and contumely and the risk of violence because we will not sit quietly by and see our native land, the South, not just Mississippi but all the South, wreck and ruin itself twice in less than a hundred years over the Negro question.” Then he went on to call for “speaking against the day.”

If resistance continued Faulkner knew that the day would come when people of the South would realize the 1954 decision had provided them an opportunity to reconstruct their society; they would recognize the error of resistance and would then look to their neighbors with the question, “Why didn’t someone tell us this before?”

1. Students will research about those individuals who “spoke out against the day” during the time period in Georgia following reconstruction.

2. The research will allow students the chance to participate a night at the museum and the creation of their own newspaper.

E. Engagement / Arts Based Strategies / Accommodations

Students will have the choice of creation of arts based products.  

1. Students will investigate the murder of Mary Phagan and the conviction and lynching of the Jewish factory manager, Leo Frank. Each investigation team will rewrite the lyrics to the famous song on the case by “Fiddling” John Carson, “The Ballad of Mary Phagan”. The new and more accurate lyrics will be featured in their newspaper.

2. After investigating the murder of Mary Phagan, the students will create a movement piece to tell the story of the case against Leo Frank. The piece will be similar in style of “Peter and the Wolf” as each character will have its own movement and song. The students will use the characters they think are important to the case and must choose a dance concept that best fits their character in the story (Percussive, suspended, sustained, swinging, vibratory).

F. Focus Statement:  (What is to be learned so deeply so as to last forever?)   

As a citizen it is our responsibility to stand up when we know there is a wrong and try our best to make it right.

G. Original Creation(3) – (for entire Unit)

1. A Night at the Museum – Students will research those who initiated change during the period in Georgia immediately following reconstruction and present in character to the class. Each student will create a brochure on their character and will be interviewed by the other students.

2. Students will take the information gathered in the Night at Museum and through research to create their very own newspaper. We will work with Language Arts to create a New South Newspaper from the time period and important characters that spoke out for what they knew to be right. The newspaper will feature interviews, feature article on the trial of Leo Frank, political cartoon, an editorial, and advertisement.

3. Students will investigate the murder of Mary Phagan and the conviction and lynching of the Jewish factory manager, Leo Frank. Each investigation team will then submit their findings in their newspaper and rewrite the lyrics to the famous song on the case by “Fiddling” John Carson, “The Ballad of Mary Phagan”. The new and more accurate lyrics will be featured in their newspaper.

H. Reflection(4) / Assessment:

Students will be asked to answer the following:

I.  Inquiry(2) Centers – (show the Deepening Question, Activities, Original Creation,

      Accommodations & the nature of the Reflection, for each Inquiry Center)   

1.  Inquiry Center #1 – Civil Rights Leaders

A. Students will use their laptops to research on the internet the similarities and differences between WEB Dubois, Booker T. Washington and Henry Grady

B. Students will use the following handouts and web sites for their research:

1. Booker T. Washington - Atlanta Compromise Speech

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/btwashington/a/bio_btw.htm

2. W.E.B. Dubois – Niagara Movement Speech

http://www.duboislc.org/html/DuBoisBio.html

3. Henry Grady – New South Speech

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2451

C. Once the research is complete; each student will use the character analysis web provided to show the similarities and differences between Civil Rights Leaders WEB Dubois and Booker T. Washington:

D. Students will then write an editorial for the newspaper they will create in Language Arts on which Civil Rights leader had the best idea to achieve equality for African Americans.

2. Inquiry Center #2 – Atlanta Race Riot of 1906

A. Students will read the summary of the riot from the book, Negrophobia: a race riot in Atlanta, 1906 (Encounter Books, 2001) by Mark Bauerlien.

Students will answer the following questions:

1. What role did Tom Watson have in the Race Riots?

2. How did media bias and prejudice impact race relations in Atlanta?

3. How did Civil Rights leaders react in the face of conflict?

4. How did Georgia’s political leaders react to the riot?

5. If you were alive then, what are some things you would have done to “Speak now against the day” to help stop the impending race riot?  

 3. Inquiry Center #3 – Alonzo Herndon

A. Students will research about the amazing life of Alonzo Herndon on the internet at the following web site:

 http://www.herndonhome.org/

1. Using the information, students will use Smartboard software to create a timeline of Herndon’s journey to success.

2. Students will create an advertisement for Herndon’s Barber Shop to be included in the newspaper being made in Language Arts or to be put on the outside of his barbershop.

a. The advertisement must contain an image of his barbershop/insurance business.

b. It should provide a description of the service being provided.

c. Explain why the customer may need this service

d. Create a catchy slogan.

4. Inquiry Center #4 – Media Bias in the Leo Frank Case

A. The students will read the article, “The Press and the Leo Frank Case”, by Steve Oney

B. The students then answer the following questions from their reading:

1. Provide examples of how the news media made up stories or parts of stories to “sensationalize” the case.

2. What are some of the examples of bias in the newspapers during the case of Leo Frank?

3. What type of bias seemed to be the most common in this case?

4. How do you think the newspaper bias impacted the decision by the jurors?

5. How was the bias of the newspapers a reflection on society?

6. Students can either watch CNN and Fox News and write about any bias or prejudice or bring in two present day newspaper of magazine articles and discuss any prejudice or bias.

5. Inquiry Center #5 – Investigation of the Murder of Mary Phagan

A. The teacher will give a brief summary of the Murder of Mary Phagan.

B. The students will break up into their own detective agency. Each group of four will read through the summary sheet of the case to get a better idea of the original findings of police detectives.

C. Each detective agency will investigation the case involving Leo Frank’s conviction of the murder of Mary Phagan in 1913. The room will be set-up into stations for investigators to look through including the following:

1. Crime scene with police reports. (this includes outline of body, murder notes, blank stationary, rope, fake blood, hat, bloody handkerchief, and pencil shavings found in the mouth)

2. Evidence by Leo Frank’s office with police report. (this includes fake metal club, dark hair sample, small fake blood drop, etc.)

3. Witness Testimony #1 – Includes statements by workers at the National Pencil Factory.

4. Witness Testimony #2 – Includes statements by police detectives, doctors, and friends or people with knowledge of the case.

5. Leo Frank Testimony and background (Many feel he was convicted because of his Jewish religion)

6. Jim Conley Testimony and background (His testimony is credited with convicting Frank)

7. Strange facts about the case that make no sense.

8. Autopsy report on the body of Mary Phagan.

D. Students will produce their own findings in a report. This report is what is commonly seen in real CSI investigations and must include the following:

D – Who had the desire to commit the crime?

O – Who had the opportunity to commit the crime?

P – Who had the personality?

E – Who does the evidence point to?  

6. Inquiry Center #6 – Editorial

With the investigation complete, students will write an editorial for the newspaper being created in Language Arts on how bias/prejudice played a part in the Leo Frank case.

7. Inquiry Center #7 – Featured story in New South newspaper

With the investigation complete, students will reproduce their findings as the headline story in the newspaper. The story should contain important quotes and evidence to persuade the reader.

8. Inquiry Center #8 - With the investigation complete, students will rewrite the lyrics to the famous song, “The Ballad of Mary Phagan.”

Students will investigate the murder of Mary Phagan and the conviction and lynching of the Jewish factory manager, Leo Frank. Each investigation team will rewrite the lyrics to the famous song on the case by “Fiddling” John Carson, “The Ballad of Mary Phagan”. The new and more accurate lyrics will be featured in their newspaper. Some may volunteer to present to the class.

9. Inquiry Center #9 - A Night at the Museum (Extension Activity)

Students will research those who initiated change during the period in Georgia immediately following reconstruction and present in character to the class. Each student will create a brochure in Microsoft Publisher on their character and will be interviewed by the other students.

Reflection:

What was the most important thing learned from this unit?

How did I learn it?

What important standards did I master? 

How might I apply what I learned to something very important?

How would I teach this, better, to others? 

How did character play a role in the events from the New South?

If you could go back in time to the New South period and say something, what would you say and to whom would you say it?

J.  Arts Partner Role/Contribution: 

Speaker from the local newspaper

Journalism student from local schools

Speaker from the Anti-defamation league

K.  Relationship to the System/School Improvement Plans

A. Students will improve writing skills.

1. Students will write in all content areas using the school-wide rubric at regular intervals.

2. Students will utilize a variety of content specific resources to support their writing.

3. Students will use a variety of sentences to write clearly and effectively.

4. Students will write using correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization in

all content areas.

L.  Academic Service Learning

1. The students will benefit from the teaching from other students at local schools. 

2. The students will benefit from teaching to other students within their own building.

3. The student-generated newspapers will be sent to the Anti-defamation league at the William Breman Jewish Center in Atlanta for display or use.

Resources & Materials Needed:

Egerton, John. Speak now against the day. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.     

“The Ballad of Mary Phagan”- lyrics by “Fiddling” John Carson.

“The Press and the Leo Frank Case” – Article by Steve Oney

Atlanta Compromise Speech – By Booker T. Washington

The Niagara Movement Speech – By W.E.B. Dubois

The New South Speech – By Henry Grady

The Leo Frank Case Revisited – The Breman Jewish Heritage &Holocaust Museum

Computers for research

The Ballad of Mary Phagan
by “Fiddlin”John Carson
(from The Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXXI (1918), 264 -66)

Note: This ballad was sung at rallies in support of carrying out the execution of Leo Frank. 
"Fiddling John" Carson popularized this song at demonstrations in Georgia in 1915.

Little Mary Phagan
She left her home one day;
She went to the pencil-factory
To see the big parade.

She left her home at eleven,
She kissed her mother good-by;
Not one time did the poor child think
That she was a-going to die.
 
Leo Frank he met her
With a brutish heart, we know;
He smiled, and said, "Little Mary,
You won't go home no more."
 
Sneaked along behind her
Till she reached the metal-room;
He laughed, and said, "Little Mary,
You have met your fatal doom."
 
Down upon her knees
To Leo Frank she plead;
He taken a stick from the trash-pile
And struck her across the head.
 
Tears flow down her rosy cheeks
While the blood flows down her back;
Remembered telling her mother
What time she would be back.
 
You killed little Mary Phagan,
It was on one holiday;
Called for old Jim Conley
To carry her body away.
 
He taken her to the basement,
She was bound both hand and feet;
Down in the basement
Little Mary she did sleep.
 
Newtley was the watchman
Who went to wind his key;
Down in the basement
Little Mary he did see.
 
Went in and called the officers
Whose names I do not know;
Come to the pencil-factory,
Said, "Newtley, you must go."
 
Taken him to the jail-house,
They locked him in a cell;
Poor old innocent negro
Knew nothing for to tell.
 
Have a notion in my head,
When Frank he comes to die,
Stand examination
In a court-house in the sky.
 
Come, all you jolly people,
Wherever you may be,
Suppose little Mary Phagan
Belonged to you or me.
 
Now little Mary's mother
She weeps and mourns all day,
Praying to meet little Mary
In a better world some day.
 
Now little Mary's in Heaven,
 Leo Frank's in jail,
Waiting for the day to come
When he can tell his tale.
 
Frank will be astonished
When the angels come to say,
"You killed little Mary Phagan;
It was on one holiday."
 
Judge he passed the sentence,
Then he reared back;
If he hang Leo Frank,
It won't bring little Mary back.
 
Frank he's got little children,
And they will want for bread;
Look up at their papa's picture,
Say, "Now my papa's dead."
 
Judge he passed the sentence
He reared back in his chair;
He will hang Leo Frank,
And give the negro a year.
 
Next time he passed the sentence,
You bet, he passed it well;
Well, Solister H. M.
Sent Leo Frank to hell.

The Ballad of Mary Phagan Questions

1. Why do you think the song became so popular among the population of Atlanta during the Leo Frank trial?

2. Identify words of bias in the song by finding adjectives used to describe Mary Phagan.

3. What type of feelings or response was the writer trying to get from the use of these words?

4. Identify words of bias in the song by finding adjectives used to describe Leo Frank.

5. What type of feelings or response was the writer trying to get from the use of these words?

6. Based on your research and investigation, what events in the song are imagined about Leo Frank?

7. Based on your research and investigation, what events in the song are imagined about the actual murder?

Based on your research and investigation, your group should make new lyrics for the song, “The Murder of Mary Phagan”. The song must include music, lyrics that present the facts, include an explanation on the parts you changed from the original version and what evidence caused you to make the change, and present the song to the class using the computer program, Photostory. The Photostory must include at least 10 images to help explain the meaning of your song, the lyrics and music).

Ballad of Mary Phagan Rubric

Name: ________________________

Group Members: __________________________________

Grading Points:

0=Student is missing the assignment

1=Instructions not followed or very poor quality work.

2= Missing a portion of the assignment or instructions followed with below average work. 

3=Instructions followed with average work (You did the minimum).

4=Instructions followed with above average work (Neat with all the requirements met.

5=Instructions followed with outstanding work (Neat with all the requirements met, as well as additional material and content that makes the project exceptional)

10 images in Photostory

                       1         2          3        4       5    (x 2)                        _______

A detailed explanation on your new lyrics during the presentation

                                   1         2          3        4        5    (x 5)           _______

A detailed summary of the case during the song

                                   1         2          3        4        5    (x 5)           _______

Photostory presentation lyrics

                   1         2          3          4       5   (x 2)  ______

Lyrics represent facts learned in investigation

                           1         2         3        4           5   (x 3)         ______

Overall presentation quality

                   1        2         3        4         5    (x 3)   ______

Overall Points ____________ out of 100  

Comments: _____________________________________________

______________________________________________________

Tom Watson

Leo Frank

A Night at the Museum Rubric

Name: ________________________

Character the spoke out against the day: __________________________________

Grading Points:

0=Student is missing the assignment

1=Instructions not followed or very poor quality work.

2= Missing a portion of the assignment or instructions followed with below average work. 

3=Instructions followed with average work (You did the minimum).

4=Instructions followed with above average work (Neat with all the requirements met.

5=Instructions followed with outstanding work (Neat with all the requirements met, as well as additional material and content that makes the project exceptional)

Five props

                       1         2          3        4       5    (x 2)                        _______

A detailed explanation on your character during the presentation

                                   1         2          3        4        5    (x 5)           _______

A detailed summary on your character in your brochure

                                   1         2          3        4        5    (x 5)           _______

Brochure was neat (Typed) and grammatically correct

                   1         2          3          4       5   (x 2)  ______

Five quiz questions and answers/Graded

                           1         2         3        4           5   (x 3)         ______

Realism and character dialogue during the museum!

                   1        2         3        4         5    (x 3)   ______

Overall Points ____________ out of 100  

Comments: _____________________________________________

______________________________________________________

Tom Watson

Frederick Douglass

Key Deeds of a Person

Key Deeds of a Person

Key Words Describing Person

Key Words Describing Person

Name of Person

Key Actions of Person

Key Problem to Overcome

CHARACTER ANALYSIS WEB