Book

Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: Choices in Little Rock

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

Subject

Civics & Citizenship
History
Social Studies

Language

English — US

Updated

September 26, 2022

Racism

Save

Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: Choices in Little Rock

ISBN: 978-1-940457-13-0

Date of Publication: March 2014

This resource features a previous edition of the Choices in Little Rock unit. Switch to the latest version of the unit for updated, C3-aligned lessons and materials. Resources based on the previous version of the unit will remain accessible on our website through the 2025-2026 school year to allow educators time to transition.

This resource further aligns our Choices in Little Rock unit with the Common Core State Standards through an argumentative writing assignment.

Choices in Little Rock is a teaching unit that focuses on efforts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, and explores civic choices— the decisions people make as citizens in a democracy. This supplement includes specific writing prompts and teaching strategies that ask students to use evidence as they craft a formal argumentative essay. In addition, the resource features effective writing strategies for the social studies classroom.

Format: Print Book

Cost: $11.95

This book is available for purchase from most places you buy books, including major retailers and independent bookstores.

Purchase on Bookshop Purchase on Amazon

Log in to your Facing History account to download this resource for free. If you don't have an account, Sign Up today (it’s fast, easy, and free!).

Unlock Access

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.

Lesson

Students examine how identity and biases can impact how individuals interpret images and experience the challenge of selecting images to represent news events, particularly connected to sensitive issues.

People hold hands in prayer in the parking lot of convenience store that was looted and burned after Michael Brown was shot by police in Ferguson, Mo.

Lesson

Students establish a safe space for holding sensitive conversations, before introducing the events surrounding Ferguson, by acknowledging people's complicated feelings about race and creating a classroom contract.

Lesson

Students explore the role of social media in Ferguson, apply information verification strategies to social media posts, and develop strategies for becoming critical consumers and sharers of social media.

Peaceful demonstrators gather in Ferguson, Missouri, in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death.

Lesson

Students evaluate the differences among news accounts about Ferguson, develop strategies for verifying news and information, and understand the challenges facing journalists as they cover complex, fast-moving events.

Unit

Help students become informed and effective civic participants in today's digital landscape. This unit is designed to develop students' critical thinking, news literacy, civic engagement, and social-emotional skills and competencies.

Peaceful protestor speaks to police officer in Ferguson.

Lesson

Students review the First Amendment, understand the importance of a free press, and consider how that freedom can conflict with other societal needs through journalists’ experiences in Ferguson.

Newspaper front page featuring story about protests and police in Ferguson.

Lesson

Students identify the responsibilities of citizen watchdogs, summarize strategies for combatting confirmation bias and responsibly consuming and sharing news and information, and complete a culminating essay.

Lesson

Students define explicit, implicit, and confirmation bias, and examine why people sometimes maintain their beliefs in the face of contradictory information.

Lesson

Students review the US Department of Justice report, revisit how confirmation bias impacts our understanding of events, and consider how to bridge the gap in understanding that often surrounds events like Ferguson.

Darnell Taylor marches with his daughter, Lauren, 4, on his shoulders down Market Street to Kiener Plaza as part of a march against police violence downtown St. Louis, Mo., on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cristina Fletes-Boutte)

Lesson

Students experience the challenges to reporting objectively by writing a news piece and watching a video about how journalists counteract bias in the newsroom.

Lesson

Students explore the potential negative impact of images through the social media protest #IfTheyGunnedMeDown and develop a decision-making process for choosing imagery to represent controversial events.

National President of Black Lawyers for Justice, carries a picture of Michael Brown as he leads demonstrators on a march.

More Like This Teaching Resources Learning & Events

The resources I’m getting from my colleagues through Facing History have been just invaluable.

— Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

Search

Search

Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: Choices in Little Rock

Subject

Language

Updated

Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: Choices in Little Rock

Purchase this Resource

Download a PDF of This Free Book

You might also be interested in…

10 Questions for the Past: The 1963 Chicago Public Schools Boycott

The Power of Images

Preparing Students for Difficult Conversations

Social Media and Ferguson

Verifying Breaking News

Facing Ferguson: News Literacy in a Digital Age

The Importance of a Free Press

Citizen Watchdogs and the News

Confirmation and Other Biases

Hands Up, Don't Shoot!

How Journalists Minimize Bias

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown

Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: Choices in Little Rock

Subject

Language

Updated

Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: Choices in Little Rock

Purchase this Resource

Download a PDF of This Free Book

Find all of the readings, videos, and online tools referenced in our three Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies supplements.

You might also be interested in…

10 Questions for the Past: The 1963 Chicago Public Schools Boycott

The Power of Images

Preparing Students for Difficult Conversations

Social Media and Ferguson

Verifying Breaking News

Facing Ferguson: News Literacy in a Digital Age

The Importance of a Free Press

Citizen Watchdogs and the News

Confirmation and Other Biases

Hands Up, Don't Shoot!

How Journalists Minimize Bias

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown

Inspiration, insights, & ways to get involved