LESSON PLAN
Minerva Daniel
Subject Area: English
Date: April 14, 2008
Grade Level: 9th-
Overview This is a supplemental lesson plan to the Nelson Mandela Unit
Topic:
Mandela The Man
Lesson’s Purpose: To give students a frame to develop descriptive sentences to use in
writing an essay on Mandela.
Key Concepts:
1. Social Justice
2. Personal Sacrifice
3. Personal Attributes
Cohesiveness/Continuity: Lesson is used in collaboration with readings of Mandela’s
life and the dismantling of Apartheid.
Multicultural/Social Justice Purpose:
1. Students will be able to reflect on the injustice of the Apartheid system.
Vocabulary: Robben Island, Racism, Activism, Protest, Apartheid
Adaptation of Content: This lesson plan builds upon the previous Latin Studies Unit.
Supplementary Materials: Document Camera, Chart Paper,
Standards and Objectives
Standards:
1.0 Writing Strategies
Students write coherent and focused essays that convey a well-defined perspective and
tightly reasoned argument. The writing demonstrates students' awareness of the audience
and purpose. Students progress through the stages of the writing process as needed.
Organization and Focus
1.1 Establish a controlling impression or coherent thesis that conveys a clear and
distinctive perspective on the subject and maintain a consistent tone and focus throughout
the piece of writing.
1.2 Use precise language, action verbs, sensory details, appropriate modifiers, and the
active rather than the passive voice.
Multicultural Ethics MCE Standards:
1. Personal Choice concerning social pressures, ethnic/cultural beliefs and understanding
of human rights
2. Families serve basic needs, such as family presence in mental and emotional
relationships that influence perseverance.
Language Objectives:
1. Students will follow a model of a graphic organizer shown on document camera to
develop sentence frames using descriptive and action related vocabulary
2. Students will utilize vocabulary in describing Mandela.
Multicultural/Social Justice Objectives:
1. Reflect on a system based on racism and how that affects a person’s actions.
Social/Affective Objectives:
1. Students will be aware of the influences that government has over everyday
privileges and rights (or lack thereof).
2. Students will be exposed to the thought of personal responsibility to speak out
against injustice and understand activism.
Critical Thinking Objectives:
1. What is a hero?
2. What influences a person to stand up for justice?
3. Is it right for a government to tell people where they can live?
Assessment


Formative Assessment(s)
Reflection Questions
Class discussions
Summative Assessment(s)
.

Paper: Awriting on Nelson Mandela.
Lesson Introduction
Duration: 1 day
Strategies:
 Modeling
 Class Work
 Warm-up: Review of vocabulary, concepts
 Think Aloud: Questioning, Evaluating, Synthesizing, Interpreting
ELL adaptations:
 Use visual (Document Camera) to introduce lesson and assess students learning
from previous class.
 Have them read a one page bio on Martin Luther King, Jr.
 Review key vocabulary
 I will go around to each group to give them an opportunity to ask questions or clarify
any misunderstandings.
 Use the graphic drawing (Document Camera) of a man’s figure for students to copy
Description:
 I will tie the student’s prior learning in the following activities:
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
1. Teacher discusses the vocabulary words of Racism, Activism, Protest, and checks for
understanding. Show the words by placing a word sheet on the document camera as
they are reviewed.
2. Pass out one page bio of Martin Luther King, Jr.
3. Show transparency of MLK’s bio on document camera.
 Prompt: As I read the bio of MLK, I want you to think about the attributes of
MLK and what he did in life. In other words, what kind of person he was.
4. Read bio. This can be teacher read
Or this can be read with students sharing the
reading.
5. Once bio is read show on document camera a man’s figure and tell the class that
class sentences on MLK will be built using a strategy to cover attributes.
Lets start with thinking about the five senses that human possess. Can somebody tell
me what they are?
Students will offer: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Smell
Ok, We’ll start with that – Draw eyes, mouth, nose, ears and a little more detailed on the
hands.
Now, Help me with coming up with words that go with each sense, these words should
be verbs. (ask for clarification what a verb is – action word)
Point to the eyes, What verbs comes to mind with eyes? Guide students with words like:
saw, see, cried, etc
Point to ears What verbs can we use with the sense of hearing? Words: heard, hear
Do the same with nose, mouth, touch, BUT switch the sense of mouth to more action
words like speak, sing,
Touch – felt, worked,
6. Tell class, “There is still more we can cover with MLK. What else do people do
beside besides smelling, hearing, etc? Lets look at the body, (point to the legs) What do
people do with their legs? Guide students towards verbs of: walk, run, march, (Come up
with as many verbs that can be used in sentences)
7. Do the same with pointing to the head ( think, thought, visualize, imagined, dreamed,
etc)
8. Do the same with pointing to the heart (felt, hurt, love, etc)
9. Do the same with knees, ( knelt, bend, prayed)
10. At this point, with each sense, write comments that can be taken from the bio of
Martin Luther King and other readings. For example, by the drawing of hand, write,
Dr. King wrote a response to the clergymen in an open letter title, “Letter from
Birmingham” in which he wrote that, “"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.”
Other examples:
Head: He dreamed that one day little black boys and black girls would join hands with
little white boys and white girls as sister and brothers
Ears – He also heard many stories of injustice inflicted on those who were not white.
During his time, the hanging of black man, lynchings, were very common.
This is continued with the students finding information from the readings or knowledge
that students have made a connection with in order to stimulate connection with MLK.
For example, a student may note that injustice made Dr. King sad, hence, writing next to
the heart: Martin felt sad in his heart with the segregation laws that were unfair to his
people.
This is moved from Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela in the same fashion from any
reading that students have on Mandela, follow the same lessons and then write a letter
using the descriptive senses.

Last Activity, have the students use their descriptive sentences to compose a
letter to a friend telling them about what they are learning in school about
Nelson Mandela.
Example: Bio of Martin Luther King used in lesson plan
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta on January, 15, 1929 and was the eldest son of
Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta William King. Martin Luther King Sr. was the pastor of Ebenezer
Baptist Church. His mother, Alberta King, had been a former school teacher.
Martin Luther King Jr. grew up in Atlanta. He saw that he and his friends could not drink from the
same water fountain and use the same restroom. His best friend as a child was a white boy. They lived in
the same neighborhood, but Martin’s friend would go to a school for “whites only” and he was sent to a
school for “black” children. After the first day of school Martin Luther King Jr. and his friend were never
allowed to play together again. As Martin was growing up, he grew to understand that there were different
laws for those who had black skin and those who had white skin. He also heard many stories of injustice
inflicted on those who were not white. During his time, the hanging of black man, lynchings, were very
common.
After going high school Martin Luther King Jr. enrolled in Morehouse College. He studied the
teaching of Mahatma Gandhi and graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in sociology. In1953,
he married Coretta Scott. They had four children: Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott,
and Bernice Albertine.
In February of 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. became assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in
Atlanta. From the beginning, he believed and preached that all men were created equal. When Rosa Parks
decided to obey the law by refusing to move to the back of a bus to make room for a “white” woman, he
felt he had to answer the call to protest against segregation laws. In the eleven-year period between 1968,
Martin Luther King Jr. traveled over six million miles and over twenty-five hundred times. In these years,
he led a missive protest in Birmingham, Alabama against segregation. At one point, when he in the
Birmingham jail, several clergymen published a letter stating that he should be patient for the laws of
segregation to change and that his non-violent protests were unsafe for the community. He had become the
undisputed leader of the civil right movement and many people looked to him for guidance. Dr. King wrote
a response to the clergymen in an open letter title, “Letter from Birmingham” in which he wrote that,
“"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
On August, 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a famous speech. It was called “I have a
Dream.” In his speech he spoke about how he dreamed that one day little black boys and black girls would
join hands with little white boys and white girls as sister and brothers. As a pastor, Martin prayed for the
country and for equal rights for all people. After ten years of protest, the laws makers in Washington voted
to end segregation.
On April, 4, 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. went to help garbage collectors who were on strike. He
was to lead a march in sympathy with striking workers of Memphis, Tennessee. Here in this city he was
assassinated. In 1986, January 15th was voted by Congress to be recognized as an official holiday honoring
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On this day, people throughout the United States honor the memory and the
convictions of this special man, who believed that people should be judged by their character and not by the
color of their skin.