Last updated: March 18, 2020
Lesson Plan
Discover the Jackie Robinson Ballpark: A Lightning Lesson from Teaching with Historic Places
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 6-8.RH.1, 6-8.RH.2, 6-8.RH.4, 6-8.RH.5, 6-8.RH.6, 6-8.RH.7, 6-8.RH.9, 6-8.RH.10
- Additional Standards:
- Relevant United States History Standards from the UCLA National Center for History in the Schools:
US History Era 9, Standard 4A
Relevant Curriculum Standards for the Social Studies from the National Council for the Social Studies:
Themes I-VI, X - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
How can sports and popular culture change public opinion? What historic place might you study to answer this question?
Objective
How can sports and popular culture change public opinion? What historic place might you study to answer this question?
Objectives
1. To describe the effects of Jim Crow on African Americans in the early 20th Century;
2. To explain how segregation in Daytona Beach looked different than in other places;
3. To describe who Jackie Robinson was and his place in the Civil Rights Movement.
Background
Download the full lesson plan PDF to access all materials, question sets for each primary and secondary source document, extension activities, additional resources, and procedural guidance.
Preparation
Download the full lesson plan PDF. Print out the full lesson's activity pages or project these pages onto the front of the classroom.
Students may also work with the full lesson plan PDF on their own computer screen. There is no answer key.
Materials
Lesson Hook/Preview
“Separate but equal” laws segregated society and culture in the United States for the first half of the 20th century. After World War II, the tide began to turn and one place where Americans saw a change was in professional sports. In 1946, African American baseball player and military veteran Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play on a white team in a segregated league. With support from his wife and community, he broke that “color barrier” during spring training in Daytona Beach, Florida, at the City Island Ballpark.
Robinson earned the title Rookie of the Year in 1947, played in the World Series in 1955, and was a passionate Civil Rights activist when his athletic career ended. The “City Island Ballpark” is a National Historic Landmark for its association with him and renamed in his honor. This lesson explores Jackie Robinson’s life and the events of 1946, racism and “Jim Crow,” pop culture’s influence on a nation of laws, and the historic beachfront ballpark.
Procedure
1. Getting Started Question (Essential or Compelling Question)
2. Map: Orients the students and encourages them to think about how place affects culture and society
3. Text: Primary and secondary source readings provide content and spark critical analysis.
Visual Evidence: Students critique and analyze visual evidence to tackle questions and support their own theories about the subject.
4. Activities: Optional activities will extend the lesson to deepen your students' engagement with the topics and themes introduced in the curriculum. These are intended to develop essential skills not demanded by the main lesson, such as civic engagement, service learning, and creative arts.
Complete question sets that facilitate critical analysis are paired with all primary and secondary source materials in the Full Lesson PDF.
Vocabulary
Jim Crow: Term used to describe the era and social organization of racial segregation in the United States, from the end of Reconstruction up until the 1950s. The Jim Crow Era is known for du jure segregation, or legal segregation, as opposed to de facto segregation, or racial segregation imposed by cultural and social forces.
Supports for Struggling Learners
Jackie Robinson Ballpark and Museum
The Daytona Cubs, affiliated with the Chicago Cubs, play at Jackie Robinson Ballpark. Their website includes a history of the ballpark, photographs, tour and schedule information.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has an online exhibit on Baseball and Jackie Robinson, available at its website here. The exhibit includes a timeline and essays about baseball and segregation.
The National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives reaches out to teachers with its excellent Digital Classroom web feature, which includes generic document worksheets for written documents, cartoons, photographs, maps, artifacts, posters, and sound recordings.
In addition to its Teaching with Documents "Beyond the Playing Field" lesson plan, which focuses on Jackie Robinson as a civil rights advocate after leaving baseball, there are additional lessons with documents about desegregation, including the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI collected several files on Jackie Robinson in connection with his activity in the Civil Rights movement and also in relationship to baseball, including a personal threat if he helped the Dodgers win the pennant.
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Jackie Robinson’s feature page at the National Baseball Hall of Fame website includes video clips demonstrating his playing style, biographical information, a 1996 interview with Branch Rickey’s talent scout (Clyde Sukeforth), and text of Robinson’s induction speech from 1962 into the Hall of Fame.
Major League Baseball
Visit Major League Baseball’s website to view the statistics of Jackie Robinson’s major league career.
The Jackie Robinson Foundation
Rachel Robinson established the Jackie Robinson Foundation in memory of her husband. Its mission is to advance higher education among underserved populations by providing scholarships, internships, and related opportunities. Visit the Foundation website to find out more.