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Microsoft Word file:
Publishing History
Lesson Plan
(includes Rubric & Resources
for Diverse Learners)
Adobe PDF file:
Publishing History
Lesson Plan
(includes Rubric & Resources
for Diverse Learners)
Lesson Summary:
Students work collaboratively researching, organizing, and creating a group magazine based on the societal and cultural issues of Americans, particularly Black Americans, and the Negro Leagues from 1860 to the present by exploring a variety of media during this time.
Key Features of Powerful Teaching and Learning:
(National Council for the Social Studies. “A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy.”
http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful/)
Meaningful: Students learn societal and cultural issues of America, Black America and the Negro Leagues.
Challenging: Student collaboration, research, and organizational skills are essential in creating the desired product.
Integrated: Students explore a variety of print media paying particular attention to layout and design.
Active: Student groups research and create their own magazine through technology use.
Purpose/Rationale/Introduction:
Students work collaboratively researching, organizing, and creating a group magazine based on the societal and cultural issues of Americans, particularly Black Americans and the Negro Leagues from 1860 to the present by exploring a variety of media during this time.
Objectives:
1. Students will familiarize themselves with parts of a magazine by looking at current and past magazine layouts.
2. Students will create magazines formatted similarly to the magazines of the times.
3. Students will utilize the internet, audio, video, textbooks, and other forms of media to learn about important American historical events, including Negro Leagues baseball, and what magazines or news articles looked like during this time period.
4. Students will create a graphic organizer detailing sections of their magazine.
5. Students will use Microsoft Publisher to create a group magazine reflecting important societal and cultural issues from designated years during 1860-1960.
Materials/Primary Resources:
Current magazines-students can bring some from home
Microsoft Publisher
Paper and colored pencils, crayons, markers, etc.
See online resources.
Procedures and Activities:
Day 1-2:
For this project, students will create an issue of a magazine. Students will work collaboratively to write articles for the magazine, design a cover and develop advertisements.
Hand out the assessment rubric and discuss the expectations for the magazine. One article in the magazine must be biographical; the others will describe social, political and/or cultural issues and events based on a selected time period. Education, employment, family life, income, technology, politics and arts/entertainment are areas that should/could be addressed. Advertisements should be based upon items or events of the time period. Have students explore the layout and design of current magazines (brought from home or borrowed from the library) as well as magazine layouts from the online resources section. Students should take notes about ideas and possible layouts they want to use. Students draw the layout of one page they would like to use for the magazine. Group students into groups of four, then student groups choose one time period to research together.
1. 1860-1880- Slavery, War, and the Growth of Baseball
2. 1880-1900- American Reconstruction and Early Black Professional Baseball
3. 1900-1920- America's Century and Independent Black Baseball
4. 1920-1945- The Birth of the Negro Leagues, its Rise and Fall
5. 1945-1960- Integration and the "Barrier Breakers"
6. 1960-Present- Negro Leagues Legacy and Civil Rights
Teachers should make sure each designated time period is covered by a student group. Each student in each group then selects one issue or event to “cover” from the time period selected. As students are researching their selected issue or event, they fill in headlines, headings, names, photographs, etc. on their page layout. Ensure students understand this is a very important step before they begin creating their magazine.
If needed, give students other ideas for possible pages, such as a letter from the editor, an editorial page, social events page, interviews, “Ask Abby” section, etc. Let students know they can include photographs, audio/video clips, hotlinks to important resources, etc.
Day 3-4:
Once students have completed their research and filled in their page layout, have them join together to create the magazine using all four students information. It would be a good idea to check each student’s page layout to ensure organization and content details are included before they begin creating their magazine. Students may want to assign specific roles for the magazine creation such as: layout and design, photographs/clipart, editor, technology specialist and assist with clip art, audio and video clips, artists can create drawings, etc.
Conclusion:
As a class, discuss the particular issues and events students used to design their magazine and why the issues or events had an impact on American history. Display each finished magazine in the school library, on the class webpage, and/or in the classroom.
Extension and Enrichment:
Students write a magazine/article review or critically analyze their own magazine or another group’s magazine.
Online Resources:
Current Online Magazine Layouts
http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/magazines.html
Current Online Magazine Links
http://magazine-directory.com/
A Listing of Magazine Titles Published from 1900-Current with Types of Content
http://www.isfdb.org/mag1900.html
Making of America (MOA)
(digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction)
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/
Be sure to select a magazine, not a journal, to view for this project.
1900 vs. Now
http://www.time.com/time/time100/timewarp/
timewarp.html
Historical Events indicating the Timeframe
http://www.alexanderstreet7.com/firp//orhi.toc.hist.asp
Negro Leagues Interviews http://www.alexanderstreet7.com/firp//
orhi.result.words.asp?word=Negro+Leagues
Online Books Page
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/serials.html
Stars and Stripes: The American Solders' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/
sashome.html
Disability History Museum
(
Links to documents and articles throughout the century related to disabilities- African-American is a keyword that will bring up related articles and photos.)
http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/
Emergence of Advertising in America
1850-1920’s
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/browse.html
Ads from 1911-1955
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/
Home Economics Journals from 1820-1979
http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/h/hearth/browse/
journals.html
America in the 1930’s
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/front.html
Assessment
Students create a group magazine through technology based upon the magazine rubric.
Alternative Assessment:
Student groups create a collage comparing and contrasting the importance of magazines and other media (web pages, email, IM’s) as a means of communicating important historical, economic, social, and cultural information from the 18th and 19th centuries compared to today. Students could use a hardcopy T-chart or a software program such as Word or PowerPoint to create the product.
Magazine Rubric
Please see link at top left to download.
Resources for Diverse Learners:
Most students will be able to participate in this lesson, although they may not be ready to complete the entire assignment. Therefore, you will need to make strategic decisions about the content for which they will be responsible.
Day 1-2:
1. Think about the individual skill levels of your students and assign them tasks that are closely tied to their strengths. Some students may design covers, some may create advertisements, and some may be better suited to research. Students with very low readiness levels may pick out things from current magazines they like in order to replicate the design.
2. If you have only a few students who will need this lesson modified, consider assigning them to a specific time period. Prepare a study guide for them to use as they conduct research. An example study guide is provided for this lesson plan. It is titled Research Tool. It was designed to lead students through one of the online resources listed in the lesson plan, and to help them gather items for their magazine page. Providing students with a website to explore and with specific information to find will help them learn to use the vast amounts of content that the internet offers.
Day 3-4:
3. When assigning students with diverse learning needs to groups, be aware of the role they will play in the cooperative experience. Now that they will have meaningful material to contribute, they have the opportunity to participate at their readiness level.
4. Apply the assessment rubric with the student’s readiness level in mind. In other words, given what you know about the student’s skills, assign a numeric value on the rubric accordingly.
Resources for Diverse Learners:
Research Tool for TimeWarp: 1990 vs. Now
http://www.time.com/time/time100/timewarp/
timewarp.html
Please see link at top left to download the checklist for use with this tool.