Building Support for the Farm Workers Movement: Supporting Question 4

About This Lesson

Students explore Supporting Question 4 through a series of activities that help them examine how the farm worker movement gained support from people across the country. Students will explore the strategies used by farm workers to build national support for the Delano grape strike, including gaining support from influential leaders, creating alliances with other groups, and eliciting public support through a consumer boycott of California grapes. Through this exploration, students will gain insight into how strategic organizing and coalition-building helped to transform a local struggle into a national movement for justice.

Supporting Question

How did the farm worker movement gain popular support from people across the country in the 1960s?

Formative Task

Students will write a paragraph reflection, supported with evidence, describing two strategies the movement used to build national support.

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Reflect on How to Build Community Support for Change 

Begin the lesson by asking students to think about one change they would like to see at their school or in their community. It could be something small, like improving the school’s recycling program, or something larger, like building a new health clinic in their neighborhood. Ask students to imagine that they are the one leading the push for this change and need to convince others to support their idea. Then ask students to reflect on the following questions in their journal: What is one change you would advocate for at your school or in your community? Who would you want to persuade or get on your side to see that the change becomes a reality? What actions, arguments, or strategies would you employ to gain support for this change? 

After students have had enough time to reflect, ask them to share with a partner in a Think-Pair-Share. Then facilitate a brief discussion by posing the following question:

• What challenges might you face if you were trying to convince others to support the change you want in your school or community? How might you overcome those challenges?

Explain to the class that after the first few months of the Delano grape strike, farm workers realized that they needed support from others if they were going to win the strike. While the alliance between the AWOC and NFWA held, growers had successfully replaced striking workers with workers from Mexico, Arizona, and as far as Texas. Explain that in this lesson, students will explore the strategies that the farm workers used to build a national movement and inspire the support of people across the country.

Activity 2: Explore How Farm Workers Built National Support

In this activity, students explore various sources using the Jigsaw teaching strategy. Please refer to Teaching Note 1: Preparing for the Jigsaw Activity for additional guidance. 

Explain to students that they will work in groups to examine how the farm worker movement gained national support and how outside communities contributed to its success. Preview the Jigsaw activity by explaining that after they work in “expert” groups, students will form new “teaching” groups with peers who were assigned a different reading and learn about each other’s sources. Arrange the class into “expert” groups consisting of four students each, and assign one of the following documents to each group. 

• Reading: Farm Workers Gain Support of Influential Leaders
• Reading: The 300-Mile March to Sacramento
• Reading: How Farm Workers Built Alliances to Sustain Collective Action
• Reading: The California Grape Boycott

Distribute the handout Analyzing How Farm Workers Built National Support and explain to students that they will work in groups to analyze their document using the handout. Ask students to read the directions for Step 1: Group Reading and Analysis, and then ask groups if they have clarifying questions. 

After the “expert” groups have analyzed their document sets, rearrange students into “teaching” groups and read aloud the handout instructions for Step 2: Jigsaw. Emphasize that after each student shares their reading, the group will discuss the following prompts:

• What strategies did farm workers use to involve others in their movement? 
• How did broader support help the movement?

Once students have finished discussing the prompts, regroup as a class and ask volunteers to share key takeaways from their discussion.

Activity 3: Reflect on Building Support for a Change in One’s Community

End the lesson by asking students to complete a Connect, Extend, Challenge reflection. 

Ask students to reread their warmup from the beginning of class. Then ask the class to reflect on how today’s lesson connects to, expands on, or challenges the ideas they had about building support for the change they want to make at their school. Instruct students to respond to the following prompts in their journal:

• Connect: How do the strategies used by the farm worker movement connect to your own thinking about building support for the school/community change you proposed at the beginning of class? 
• Extend: In what ways does what you’ve learned about the farm worker movement expand your understanding of what it means to build support for a cause? 
• Challenge: What new questions, if any, does today’s lesson raise for you?

Formative Task

Write a Reflection in Response to the Supporting Question

To answer the supporting question (“How did the farm worker movement gain popular support from people across the country?”), students will write a paragraph describing two strategies that farm workers used to gain national support for their movement. In their paragraph, students should:

• Briefly describe each strategy
• Explain how each strategy helped the movement gain support beyond California
• Use evidence from readings and class discussions to support their ideas

Make the readings from the lesson available for students to reference as they complete their formative task.

• Reading: Farm Workers Gain Support of Influential Leaders
• Reading: The 300-Mile March to Sacramento
• Reading: How Farm Workers Built Alliances to Sustain Collective Action
• Reading: The California Grape Boycott