Choices in Little Rock is a teaching unit that focuses on efforts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957—efforts that resulted in a crisis that historian Taylor Branch once described as "the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War."
The unit explores civic choices—the decisions people make as citizens in a democracy. Those decisions, both then and now, reveal that democracy is not a product but a work in progress, a work that is shaped by the choices that we make about ourselves and others. Although those choices may not seem important at the time, little by little, they define an individual, delineate a community, and ultimately distinguish a nation. Those choices build on the work of earlier generations and leave legacies for those to come.
The Facing History and Ourselves Scope and Sequence
This unit is organized according to Facing History and Ourselves’ scope and sequence, which follows a specific progression of themes designed to promote students’ historical understanding, critical thinking, and social-emotional learning.
Each of the five parts in this unit corresponds with a stage of the Scope and Sequence:
● Part 1: Individual & Society represents the first stage of the scope and sequence. These lessons introduce concepts
central to the unit—identity, race, prejudice, racism, and choice. Students consider how identity can shape the choices
people make about themselves and others.
● Part 2: Segregation and Its Consequences explores issues of membership and belonging, the second stage of the Facing
History scope and sequence, by tracing the history of segregation in the United States and its social, legal, and political
consequences.
● Part 3: Choices in Little Rock begins the historical case study that constitutes the next stage of the scope and sequence by
examining the decisions that people in Little Rock and elsewhere made in response to Brown v. Board of Education during the 1957–1958 school year. Those decisions had consequences for the nation as well as the city of Little Rock and the state of Arkansas.
● Part 4: The “Lost Year” completes the case study by focusing on the 1958–1959 school year. That year, people in Little Rock had their first opportunity to vote on desegregation. In their first vote, they chose to close all public high schools in the city rather than allow integration. The schools remained closed until the fall of 1959 as voters considered and reconsidered earlier decisions.
● Part 5: Legacies completes Facing History scope and sequence by exploring issues of memory, legacy, and civic participation. These lessons explore the legacies of the Brown decision in Little Rock and elsewhere by examining the consequences of the choices made by people over 50 years ago. The culminating activity for the unit is an “informed action” that asks students to propose changes to their school communities using lessons learned from the historical case study.
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The Pedagogical Triangle and Taking Informed Action
To Facing History, pedagogy is not a set of teaching techniques that can be used to get across particular ideas or encourage effective practice of specified skills. It is an active process of engaging young people with challenging content through an approach that builds the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of deep civic learning.
Facing History created the Pedagogical Triangle for Historical and Civic Understanding to serve as a touchstone for balanced program and lesson planning. The arrows between intellectual rigor, emotional engagement, and ethical reflection are bidirectional, as these processes strengthen each other. At the center is the students’ civic agency, their belief that their choices and actions can play a positive role in their peer groups, schools, communities, and larger world.
Using This Resource
This outline guides you through a unit using readings, videos, and other resources from Choices in Little Rock and its Writing Prompts and Strategies supplement. As you prepare for and teach this five-week unit, it is important to refer to the Choices in Little Rock unit for context necessary to help guide students from lesson to lesson and answer their questions. Unless otherwise noted, all page numbers listed in the outline refer to the C hoices in Little Rock unit.
Pacing
Each row in the charts below corresponds roughly to a 50-minute class period, with 25 lessons in all. Since schedules, class period length, and the needs of individual classes and students vary, teachers will likely need to make adjustments to this plan to best suit their needs and circumstances. The teaching notes accompanying each lesson often provide suggestions for making adjustments to the lesson in order to abbreviate it or go deeper.
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segregation?
