This is the second in my series on inspiring Civil Rights Leaders. Today we are going to focus on Thurgood Marshall, but make sure you check out my previous post on John Lewis. It’s one of my best sellers for a reason – John Lewis was such an inspiring Civil Rights Leader!
Thurgood Marshall is often overlooked in the history books, but students who are passionate about justice and about solving problems democratically really resonate with Thurgood Marshall. His persistent approach of arguing for equal rights for all eventually earned him a seat as the first Black Supreme Court Justice. That story of persistence and determination is a great one to share with students.
And if you need even more inspiring biographies, be sure to check out this bundle of 12 biographies about Civil Rights Leaders. Each biography is short – just one page – and focuses on comprehension and vocabulary skills so you can meet your standards AND inspire kids! Win win!
Read on to learn more about this biography resource about Thurgood Marshall and how to use it in your classroom.
Table of Contents
Why Teach About Thurgood Marshall?
Thurgood Marshall had a passionate, lifelong committment to justice that many fifth and sixth graders find relevant. One year I taught this passage to my fifth graders, and I will never forget one girl’s response. Cute as a button, and knee high to a grasshopper, people often underestimated her intelligence and her committment. When she read the passage about Thurgood, she felt such a kinship with him that she went on to read more biographies and do more research about his life. When I asked her what made him so special to her, I will never forget her response. She said, “He’s just like me, Ms. Cotton. Because he was Black, people didn’t think he could do things, or be things. But he could. And he makes me know that I can too.” This student is White and has the blondest hair I’ve ever seen, but she felt a real connection.
And that’s why I continue to teach about Thurgood Marshall.
Ideas for Teaching About Thurgood Marshall
I like to introduce Thurgood by first introducing the key vocabulary term, segregation. I usually introduce the term with M&M’s. In the morning, I give each student either a yellow M&M or a red M&M. I also give each student a colored dot that matches the color of their M&M because they will almost immediately eat the candy! Then, I tell them the rules for the day. No yellow M&M kid can talk to, sit with, play with, or interact in any way with a red M&M kid. We move the desks to opposite sides of the room, and begin our day.
At first, the kids think it’s funny. Then, I pass out the math papers. Oops! Somehow I only have enough copies for the kids on the yellow side of the room. No worries! I give the red candy kids a piece of paper, and tell them to copy the work from the document camera. See? Everything is the same. Everything is equal. Everyone gets to do the same math assignment.
The day continues, and I deliberately favor the yellow candy kids in any way I can. They are usually sitting on the side of the room with the drinking fountain, and if a red candy kid wants a drink, they can’t cross into that territory. Too bad, no drink for you! And so it goes.
At the end of the day, I give each kid a red and a yellow candy, and we have a talk about segregation. How did it feel to the red candy kids? How did it feel to be a yellow candy kid? And what would happen if it continued for many, many years? And then finally, I show the image of Thurgood Marshall, and ask, “How would you feel if this man came to say segregation was wrong, and everything had to change?”
We finish up the introduction by biting the red and yellow candies in half, and talking about the differences on the outside, and the similarities on the inside. And then we complete the vocabulary practice page about segregation, and I promise that the students wil learn more about Thurgood the next day.
I’ve written a lot about the importance of teaching vocabulary. If you need a resource to help you teach the vocabulary in this biography, and in the other biographies about Civil Rights Leaders, be sure to check out this Civil Rights Word Wall! It is low prep, and makes a great teaching bulletin board in minutes!
And check out these other blog posts for more ideas.
This resource includes Google Slides, Google Forms, and PDF Printables so that you have the maximum amount of flexibility. Personally, I prefer to have my students work on the vocabulary as a printable. This allows them to add the pages to their Word Work notebook, and makes it easy for them to find and use the words later. But, I prefer the Google Slides text and Google Form comprehension questions practice. There are two reasons.
Reading online text is an important skill and students need practice. This resource is formatted so that students read a paragraph, and take notes right on the Google Slide. The slides also include highlighting bars so that the students can easily highlight important information.
Google Forms are so easy to grade, and that saves me time! Want to know more? Check out this video where I walk through my process of grading a Google Form, and you will see how easy it is! The Google Form in the video is from my John Lewis resource, but follows the same format as the Google Form in the FREE Thurgood Marshall resource.
What Do Teachers Say About this Resource?
This resource will inspire your students, and help you meet goals in reading, comprehension and vocabulary. Plus, it’s versatile and easy to use! But don’t take my word for it. Here is what other teachers are saying!
“Students loved the lesson. I will be using this resource again in my next school year.”
-Yvette P.
“Great Resource! Helpful to students. Well made. Thank you!”
-Brittney V.
Next Steps
This resource will help you inspire your students as they learn about this amazing Civil Rights Leader. Ready to download this FREE biography resource about Thurgood Marshall?
If you want to dive into Civil Rights more deeply, you will want to check out these resources that make a perfect companion to this resource.
This Civil Rights Activists resource includes the Thurgood Marshall resource featured in this blog post AND features biographies about 11 other Civil Rights Activists, including John Lewis, working for equality for women, blacks, hispanics, farm workers…. This resource is perfect for introducing students to many Civil Rights Leaders across time and a great jumping off place for a research project. Click the image to grab it now!
Future blog posts will go into greater detail about each of these resources. Check back soon!
And this Civil Rights Word Wall makes teaching important vocabulary terms easy and fun! Click the image and grab it today!
I hope these resources help you inspire students to be leaders as well as learners. And I hope they help make your teaching life easier.
Let’s Connect!
You can find Ms. Cotton’s Corner in various corners of the Internet – TPT, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube. See you there!
Check these places to ensure that you don’t miss a thing!
Update: This Giveaway has passed, but you can still grab this resource on TPT. Missed the FREEBIE? Be sure to follow this blog, and follow MsCottonsCorner on Instagram and TPT so you never miss a FREEBIE again!
And if you need a similar resource, that is always FREE, be sure to check out this blog post about Thurgood Marshall and download the FREE resource today!
Today’s featured FREE Resource is a biography of John Lewis. This inspiring Civil Rights activist worked for social justice from the 1960’s until his death in 2020. This biography is simple to teach and includes everything you need to help your students grow their vocabulary and increase their comprehension of non-fiction while learning about this amazing leader.
This one-page biography features John Lewis, a long-time Civil Rights activist. His leadership began as a Freedom Rider, and took him to the United States Congress as a Representative. Your students will be fascinated by this true life story. You will love how easy this resource is to use – just print and teach!
This is part of my 12 Days of Giveaways in December. Want to get more freebies? Follow me so you don’t miss a single one! Just click the black button to the right, and the blog posts will be delivered to your inbox. Or, find Ms. Cotton’s Corner on Instagram – the daily freebies will be posted in both locations!
Do your teacher friends like free resources? Be sure to forward this to them – they deserve free resources too!
What is Included in this Biography?
The one-page text is leveled for 5th and 6th grade, and includes comprehension and vocabulary activities. As students read, they take notes on an included notetaking sheet, and there are additional online resources for helping students do more research if they want to. The resource also includes text dependent questions and Frayer diagrams to help students learn the key vocabulary – discrimination, segregated, and nonviolent. And of course, there are answer sheets to support you!
This short biography about this amazing Civil Rights Activist won’t take much time, but it is time well spent. Students will be inspired, and you’ll love watching their eyes light up as they explore the life of this amazing civil rights leader.
Why Teach about Civil Rights activists like John Lewis?
Across the US, only an average of 10% of the day is spent on Social Studies in elementary classes. I have been an elementary teacher since the mid-1990’s, and I have seen the decrease in focus during my time in the classroom. But, one area of strong consensus across party lines is the need for more civics education in our schools. (See this article by the American Bar Association for more about that.) Integration is one strategy that can help teachers bridge the gap. This biography will help you teach your students about civil rights and leadership, and also help them grow as readers.
Not only will integrating content and literacy help students directly, it also helps them build background knowledge, which results in stronger comprehension in the long run. The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler is a marvelous book that explains that the Knowledge Gap and the Achievement Gap are the same thing. If American schools spent more time teaching students about science and history content, their reading comprehension would soar. This resource gives students basic background knowledge about John Lewis, and the additional resources set them off on a journey of exploration, fueled by their curiosity!
What do Other Teachers Say About this Civil Rights Resource?
“My students loved using this resource! It was very engaging and convenient to use! I will definitely use this again in the future.”
Hollye O.
“My students enjoyed the challenge of this activity. It was engaging and allowed students to show what they know.”
Corinna H.
“I used this with our week of learning on activists and our focus on the Selma march. I was looking for a resource to support my students’ ability to read more about John Lewis on their level. This was so helpful, thank you!”
Lindsay D.
Love this Biography? Check out these Civil Rights activists, and more!
This John Lewis biography is part of a bundle of 12 biographies about Civil Rights activists. Grab it today and you will have all the resources you need to teach about leadership across American history! The leaders feature little known activists like Jeanette Rankin (A US Congresswoman BEFORE women had the right to vote!) and famouse activists like Harry Belafonte. He is well known for his music and film career, but this biography focuses on his civil rights work, something that was part of his life for over 60 years.
The bundle includes the same format for each biography, plus BONUS Student Sheets!!!
Double Venn Diagram
Word Search with the key vocabulary about civil rights
Triple Venn Diagram
Somebody Wanted But So Then Summary Sheet
The BONUS file has the ENTIRE LINKED unit in it so that you can print easily without opening multiple files. OR, get the resource from the individual files. Do what works best for you!
Make sure you don’t miss a single FREEBIE this December! Follow this blog by clicking the black button to the right, and follow me on Instagram and TPT too! While you’re at it, forward this post to your teacher friends and share the love. Everyone deserves free resources this December!
I hope this biography about this amazing Civil Rights Activist, and the 11 other free resources I’m giving away in December help you have a wonderful holiday season, and your students too. Grab it today!
Let’s Connect!
You can find Ms. Cotton’s Corner in various corners of the Internet – TPT, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube. See you there!
Check these places to ensure that you don’t miss a thing!
Fifteen years ago, my dad told me that personalization was going to be the name of the game in education. As usual, he was right. What he calls personalization, we call differentiation. And it’s hard to do well. One of the things that I’ve struggled with is making differentiation easy for the teacher but not blatant to the student. We all know those students that shut down when they realize they are not at the same level as the others. That’s why I’ve started writing resources that look the same, but are at different Lexile levels. As Fountas and Pinnell have said repeatedly, a level is a teacher’s tool, not a child’s label. Read their blog post for more on that. https://fpblog.fountasandpinnell.com/a-level-is-a-teacher-s-tool-not-a-child-s-label
My goal with these resources is that you will easily be able to teach essential and/or interesting content while simultaneously differentiating the reading level for your students. And, they will be practicing on-grade level comprehension standards at the same time. Give them a try, and let me know what you think. Also, what other topics would you like to see? I’m working on one about the Northwest Native Americans right now, and have a couple of other ideas, but I’d love to hear from you about what you need!
Click here to go to my TPT store where you can buy leveled texts. If you follow me on TPT, I will email you whenever I post freebies on my blog! In the meantime, please enjoy this freebie Biography about Neil Armstrong (only available here – on TPT, you have to pay!). There are three Lexile levels – 800, 900 and 1,000. In the Common Core State Standards grade bands, 800 is about the middle of fourth grade, 900 is about the middle of fifth grade and 1,000 is about the middle of sixth grade. I hope this helps you teach essential and interesting content and differentiate at the same time!
