Evaluating a Civil Rights Curriculum Unit With Saylor Model

Introduction

One of the distinguishing features of the Saylor, Alexander, and Lewis (1981) model of curriculum evaluation is that it requires a curriculum unit to have merit for society as well as for the individual classroom or school. This model is therefore a particularly appropriate framework for evaluating a unit on civil rights. The curriculum unit chosen for evaluation — designed as a series of exercises for students of American government and history — is specifically titled "Civil Rights Movement Beginnings in the 20th Century" (Marsh, 2005).

The lesson plan made a strong commitment to reforming the social good of the larger context of society, as well as preparing children for the challenges of a society where African-American contributions, past and present, have not always been recognized. The authorship component of the unit also gave students a sense of empowerment — the ability to rewrite history to include forgotten figures. In doing so, society benefits as well, since important, overlooked periods of African-American history can be recovered and infused into current civic discourse.

Curriculum Unit and Evaluation of Instruction

Saylor, Alexander, and Lewis evaluate each lesson plan according to the lesson's goals, subgoals, and objectives; the program of education in its totality as well as its specificity in relation to certain skills; and the instruction and evaluation process. The model analyzes the success of the lesson in relation to the groups being served — students and society — as well as the lesson plan's designers, that is, teachers. The comprehensive and multimedia nature of the lesson on "Civil Rights Beginnings in the 20th Century" involves students in the learning process in a hands-on fashion that is superior in accomplishing the stated factual and technical goals of the unit. It also includes modification elements for special circumstances, such as older students or special education students. There is no specific critique to offer here, only suggestions to introduce further components that could enhance an already strong unit.

The curriculum unit was designed for students in a parochial school in an inner-city district of Chicago. It draws upon student ingenuity and community needs simultaneously. It encourages students to sharpen their skills and draw upon research resources they may not have known they possessed, while also providing a historical and civic education. The instructor makes admirable and confident use of independent learning and student participation, allowing students — and parents, if consulted as resources at home — to help shape the lesson alongside the teacher. This is significant, as the lesson is civic in nature and designed to create better citizens in a democracy who understand their rights and recognize when those rights may be violated by others, or even by the state.

According to Illinois state standards, the curriculum unit was intended to convey historical information about the civil rights movement, as well as help students understand the concept of "unalienable rights" within the context of American civic culture, specifically as it relates to minority rights. The lesson segments address both the struggle for civil rights and, to a lesser extent, the legal definition of civil rights, through the use of biographies of movement figures. The unit also enhances students' analytical and critical thinking skills throughout.

Evaluation of Specific Segments

The first curriculum component (Marsh, 2005) involves the creation of a Children's Encyclopedia of the Civil Rights Movement and is designed for grades 5–8. The creation of a biographical encyclopedia on the subject is designed with the goal of highlighting forgotten figures of the movement and creating a contrast in the students' minds between an ordinary encyclopedia — with its more limited scope of cultural literacy — and the new, student-authored vision of history they are striving to construct. Biography is also an excellent, specific, and accessible way of communicating history to younger children who may find abstract conceptions of rights more difficult to grasp.

The first component therefore begins with a discovery project: the creation of a collaborative work that requires students to sharpen and develop their research skills, while gaining the sense that history is not complete but must be uncovered through their own efforts. This gives students a sense of authorship, civic duty, and community responsibility. It also enhances students' ability to question assumptions with evidence they uncover in research. Citation and fact-checking of entries are also part of the assignment, adding a formal expressive language arts component that will serve students in future research projects.

Suggested modifications by the instructor include creating a computer database of biographies for older students. The unit concludes with discussion questions designed to stimulate student motivation around topics such as racism, the causes of the civil rights movement, and the legal status of Black Americans during this period of history. An additional artistic and civic component involves student discussion of the use of symbols — from the American flag to the Star of David to the symbols of the civil rights movement. Ultimately, this component of the unit culminates in the development and presentation of an encyclopedic classroom resource that all students may consult for later research, a unique classroom-generated product that chronicles both prominent figures and those who, though worthy of recognition, have largely been forgotten.

The goals of student self-efficacy are thus met. The civic needs of society are met through the education of critical thinkers about American history and the struggle for civil rights. The classroom-specific objectives — enabling students to work together as a community, to make use of current research and citation skills while further developing those skills, and ultimately to create a work that stands as a legacy of the civil rights movement — are also achieved.

The second part of the unit centers on an evaluation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, an excellent way to incorporate a language arts analysis of rhetorical devices alongside the civic content of the lesson. The segment asks whether King would still have a dream today, and evaluates students based on their ability to understand King's speech, his mission, and its applicability to the present. The goal of student-specific knowledge is met, as King's speech is a classic and one of the most formative moments of the civil rights movement. The lesson also meets students' need to develop their own critical thinking about what the speech means in their current societal and cultural context. The teacher's objectives regarding the specific critical content surrounding this juncture of the movement are met as well, as is the need to incorporate a language arts element into the unit.

Conclusion

Overall, the scope of the lesson is both ambitious and creative. To keep the debate ongoing, the teacher could maintain a civil rights board where students post newspaper articles from the present that refer to the past, or that relate to issues of community concern, rights-based violations, and forward progress. This approach might also clarify students' understanding of the rights they possess in America — an abstract concept that may be best addressed as a continuing dialogue rather than confined to a single, historically bounded lesson.