Lesson Plan - Sitting Down to Take a Stand

Learning Objective

Students will learn how Ayanna Najuma and other kid activists fought segregation in 1958.

Content-Area Connections

U.S. History, Civics

Standards Correlations

CCSS: R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.5, R.7, R.8, R.10

NCSS: Civic Ideals and Practices

TEKS: Social Studies 5.18, 6.12

Text Structure

Cause and Effect

1. Preparing to Read

Watch the Video
Play the video “How Kids Changed the World.” Use the “Pause and Discuss” questions throughout the video to gauge understanding. Ask: How did these kids’ actions help change the course of American history?

Preview Words to Know
Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.

  • integrated
  • activist


Set a Purpose for Reading
As students read, have them think about qualities that kids need to help bring about change.

2. Close-Reading Questions

1. What details from the article support the idea that life in the 1950s was different for Black people in the North than it was in the South?
Several details in the article support the idea that life in the 1950s was different for Black people in the North than it was in the South. For example, the North had none of the “Whites Only” signs the kids were used to seeing in the South. In addition, “in the North, Black people and White people ate at the same restaurants and stayed at the same hotels,” while in the South, “Black people weren’t allowed to attend the same schools, get treated in the same hospitals, or even use the same drinking fountains as White people.”
R.2 Main Idea and Key Details

2. How did the second day of the sit-in at the Katz Drug Store differ from the first day?
The second day of the sit-in at the Katz Drug Store differed from the first day in that the scene grew more tense. The article explains that on the second day, “some White customers yelled at [the kids], and others poured ketchup on them.”
R.5 Comparison

3. What is the purpose of the sidebar, “The Greensboro Four”?
The purpose of the sidebar, “The Greensboro Four,” is to describe another famous sit-in from that era—when Black college students staged a sit-in at the lunch counter at a store called Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina.
R.7 Text Features

3. Skill Building

Featured Skill: Determine Meaning
Use the skill builder “In Her Own Words” to help students analyze two quotes from Ayanna Najuma about her civil rights work.
R.1 Determine Meaning

Text-to-Speech