Collection

Choices in Little Rock

Get resources for teaching a unit on the efforts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, explored through the lens of civic choices.

Published: December 10, 2020

Last Updated: May 26, 2022

Collection

Language

English — US

Subject

History
Social Studies

Grade

6–8

Duration

Multiple weeks

Human & Civil Rights
Racism

Overview

Efforts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock resulted in a crisis that historian Taylor Branch describes as "the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War." Our resources on Little Rock ask students to examine these events through the question, “How much power do ordinary people have to change the world?”

The resources in this collection provide multiple instructional-pathways for teaching this history, as well as student materials available in both English and Spanish.

How much power do ordinary people have to change the world?

This collection includes:

Choices in Little Rock original resource
Unit Outline with a 5-week pathway for teaching our original resource
Student Guide, available in English and Spanish
Common Core writing supplement
Guide to the memoir of one of the Little Rock Nine
3 videos and 1 reading to supplement your teaching

Inside this Collection

Book

This unit investigates the choices made by the Little Rock Nine and others in the Little Rock community during the civil rights movement during efforts to desegregate Central High School in 1957.

Guide

This unit outline includes an instructional pathway for teaching the original Choices in Little Rock unit.

Guide

This student guide contains all print materials students will need throughout the Choices in Little Rock unit.

A student writes on a piece of paper with a pencil while holding a handout in their other hand.

Guide

This Spanish language student guide contains all print materials students will need throughout the Choices in Little Rock unit.

Guide

This blank journal provides a space for thoughtful reflection and intellectual and emotional engagement with the materials.

Book

This resource provides writing prompts and strategies that align our Choices in Little Rock unit with the expectations of the Common Core State Standards.

Book

Use this guide to Melba Pattillo Beals' memoir about the desegregation of Little Rock High School to develop literacy skills and teach about the civil rights movement.

Video

Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the Little Rock Nine, speaks about growing up in a segregated society and what still needs to be done to combat racism and discrimination today.

Video

Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the Little Rock Nine, speaks about the importance of understanding the history of segregation and civil rights to combat racism and discrimination today.

Video

Reporters and media professionals discuss the functions and importance of a free press in a democracy.

Reading

Learn about the voter registration drives in the South during the civil rights movement through a volunteer’s first hand account.

A group of Freedom Riders from Tennessee stands at the door of a Greyhound bus in Birmingham.

Collection

Explore classroom resources for making connections between current events and your curriculum, including activities and discussion strategies for high school and middle school students.

A student speaks while another listens attentively.

Lesson

Students learn about the violent responses to the transformation of US democracy that occurred as a result of Radical Reconstruction.

Black and white photo of the house committee

Lesson

Students examine the factors that led many northerners to turn against federal policies passed during the Reconstruction era that protected freedpeople.

A drawn picture of people crowding into the Fourth National Bank

Lesson

Students learn about the period of violence in the South from 1873-1876 and examine its role in influencing elections and ending Republican control of Southern state governments.

A picture of one hand holding down another hand on top of a gun and a pile of papers

Lesson

Students explore the legacies of the Reconstruction era today, reflect on the idea of democracy as a continuous process, and consider how they can best participate in the ongoing work of strengthening our democracy.

Demonstrators march down Pennsylvania Avenue with signs for Black Lives Matter

Lesson

Students explore the strategies, risks, and historical significance of the 1963 Chicago school boycott, while also considering bigger-picture questions about social progress.

Crowd fills LaSalle Street between City Hall and building housing Board of Education as hundreds of demonstrators marched in Chicago on Oct. 22, 1963 following a one-day boycott of public schools.

Assessment

Students culminate their arc of inquiry into the US founding by completing a C3-aligned Summative Performance Task and Taking Informed Action.

Collection

Explore resources that meet the California History–Social Science Framework standards.

Four students sit in a circle in conversation. The student in the center speaks with their hands raised.

Collection

Explore resources that meet the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework.

Students working in groups in a classroom

Activity

Students explore the supporting question "What does the Declaration of Independence state about the nation’s founding ideals?"

United States Declaration of Independence

Activity

Students explore the supporting question "What contradictions existed between the ideals and the reality of the founding of the United States?"

Photo shows a group of African American slaves posed around a horse-drawn cart, with a building in the background, at the Cassina Point plantation of James Hopkinson on Edisto Island, South Carolina.

Lesson

Students learn about the aftermath of the Civil War and examine primary source documents that provide insight into the difficult task of reuniting the nation.

The ruins of Mills House and nearby buildings, Charleston, South Carolina, at end of American Civil War.

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Choices in Little Rock