Scottsboro Boys and To Kill a Mockingbird: Two Trials for the Classroom

In this lesson, students will perform a comparative close reading of select informational texts from the Scottsboro Boys trials alongside sections from To Kill a Mockingbird. Students analyze the two trials and the characters and arguments involved in them to see how fictional “truth” both mirrors and departs from the factual experience that inspired it.

https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/scottsboro-boys-and-kill-mockingbird-two-trials-classroom
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Resource provided by National Endowment for the Humanities, EDSITEment Project

Grades

9, 10, 11, 12

Subjects

Rights and Responsibilities

Issues

Discrimination

Resource Types

Modules (Teaching Unit), Lesson Plans, Essays

Teaching Strategies

Analysis, Primary Source, Case Study, Informational Text, Whole Class Discussion, Small Group Discussion, Writing

Constitution Articles

Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment - Right to due process, Sixth Amendment, Sixth Amendment - Trial by an impartial jury, 14th Amendment, 14th Amendment - Due process, 14th Amendment - Equal protection

Tags

trial by jury, English Language Arts, ELA, Scottsboro Boys