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Lesson Plan

Chapter 7 Lesson Plan: The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963

Grade Level:

Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Subject:

Literacy and Language Arts,Math,Social Studies

Lesson Duration:

90 Minutes

Essential Question

How has evolving telephone technology impacted the ways we stay in touch?

Objective

In this activity, students will learn about the challenges of staying in touch with long-distance friends and family. They will also compare the benefits and drawbacks of twentieth and twenty-first century ways of talking by phone.

Background

At the end of Chapter 7, Momma and Dad are on a long-distance telephone call with
Grandma Sands, “All the way in Alabama!” (p. 73). Local phone calls had become
common by the early 1960s (four out of five households had phones), but “long-
distance” calls were still a significant event. They were expensive, and the
technology was still developing. In this activity, students will learn about the
challenges of staying in touch with long-distance friends and family. They will also
compare the benefits and drawbacks of twentieth and twenty-first century ways of
talking by phone.

Preparation

Gather materials:

• Smartboard or overhead projector
• Images from the 1963 Birmingham White Pages (provided)
• Advertisement for Bell Systems (provided)
• Blindfolds for each student*
• Timer
• 1964 Picturephone advertisement (provided)

Materials

Download 1962 Birmingham White Pages Long Distance Call Instructions

Download 1963 Birmingham White Pages Long Distance Call Instructions

Download Evening Star March 1, 1959

Download Evening Star March 15, 1959

Download 1964 Picture Phone Advertisement

Download 1963 Birmingham White Pages Long Distance Call Rates

Procedure

• Do Now: Do you have a friend or family member who has moved away? How do you stay in touch?
•  Display 1959 Bell Systems advertisement encouraging families to call on Sunday, to save money. Since most businesses were closed on Sundays, telephone circuits were less busy. In order to incentivize personal telephone calls during this weekly lull, telephone companies offered (and advertised) special discounted rates.
• Display image from 1963 Birmingham White Pages showing long-distance rates for calling Detroit, Michigan. Lead the class through a math exercise to determine the cost of making a two-minute weekday station-to-station phone call. Using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm), calculate the equivalent cost in today’s dollars.
• Divide the class into pairs and provide each student with a blindfold or ask
  them to sit with their backs facing each other. Explain they will have only two
  minutes to respond to a conversation prompt.
• Give the students a compelling conversational prompt. For instance, “Plan a
  road trip together. Where would you go? Who else would you invite? What
  would you bring?” Start the two-minute timer, notifying them periodically on
  how much time has elapsed.
• After the role-play conversations, lead a class discussion of students’
  experiences. How does paying for every second change how you experienced the call? How does not being able to show the other person anything you’re discussing change the conversation?

To shorten this activity: Limit the class discussion to one or two questions, assigning
the remaining questions as homework.

To extend this activity: Ask students to guess when video calls were invented. Listen
to a handful of responses before displaying the 1964 Picturephone advertisement. Tell
students that while video phones were introduced as early as 1964, they were low-
quality and incredibly expensive. Video calling became ubiquitous only in the early
2000s, with the introduction internet communication services like Skype (and later,
WhatsApp), and then smartphones, combined with excellent broadband, high-quality
inexpensive cameras, and open-source software.

Time permitting, invite someone to class to share memories of their earlier
relationships with phones. Some topics to consider include:

• Party lines
• Memorizing phone numbers
• Eavesdropping on siblings
• Wanting a personal phone in the bedroom
• Being scared a parent will answer the phone when calling a friend
• Not having the right change for a payphone
• Corded phones
• Using a dial versus buttons
• Calling collect
• Speaker phone
• Caller ID
• Alternatives to expensive phone calls (letters, recording conversations and mailing a cassette tape, etc.)
• When the cost of a postage stamp surpassed the cost of a local payphone call
• First car phones, making people, practically speaking, always available in case of emergency.
• When phones transformed into computers

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