This Is What Courage Looks Like

Essential questions: What is courage? How can people stand up for their rights? What does it take to change an unfair law or practice?

Preview vocabulary. (5 minutes)

• Distribute or project the Vocabulary Words and Definitions and preview with students. Highlighted words: boycott, federal, integrated, plaintiffs, segregation, Supreme Court, testimony, unconstitutional. 
• Encourage students to circle other unfamiliar words in the text and write them on their vocabulary sheets. 
• Assign the activity as homework.

Watch the video. (10 minutes)

• Distribute or project the Video Discussion Questions and preview. 
• Watch our Time Machine video to help build context about the setting of the play. 
• Discuss the Video Discussion Questions as a class.

Preview text features. (10 minutes)

• Direct students to the Character box. Point out that the Historians in the play are a bit like narrators. Discuss what a historian does. (A historian studies and records history.)
• Ask students why the author might have chosen to use Historians. (This is a play set in the past. Using Historians gives the author the chance to provide comments and historical perspective.)
• Preview the images as a class. Ask volunteers to read the captions aloud. Briefly discuss each caption.
• Read aloud the “As You Read” box on page 18.

• Assign parts and read the play aloud as a class. 
• Have students discuss the following in groups.

Close-Reading Questions

• In Scene 1, Eddie says, “At the movies, we have to sit in the balcony, a million miles from the screen.” Eddie is using hyperbole. What idea is he expressing? (figurative language) Eddie means that the seats for black people are very far from the movie screen, especially when compared with the seats reserved for white viewers.
• Based on Claudette’s lines in Scene 1, what can you tell about her personality? (character) Claudette gives a presentation that her teacher calls “excellent.” She also says that she plans to become a lawyer. You can tell that Claudette is a serious student who values her education and has ambitions for her career. You can also tell that she has thought a lot about Jim Crow laws and what she can do to change them.
• In Scene 2, Claudette tells her classmates that she wants to “bring the Constitution to Montgomery.” What does she mean? (figurative language) Claudette means that laws and policies in Montgomery violate the Constitution, and she wants to change that.
• In Scene 2, Claudette twice says, “I paid my fare.” What point is she trying to make? (inference) Claudette is making the point that because she paid her bus fare, she is just as entitled to a seat on the bus as any white passenger.
• In Scene 5, when Gray asks Claudette to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit, why does she “inhale sharply”? (inference) Claudette’s previous experience in a courtroom brought her a lot of suffering. She was shunned by her classmates and convicted of crimes she didn’t commit, which cost Claudette her dream of becoming a lawyer. The act of inhaling sharply tells the reader that Claudette feels suddenly nervous; the idea of going back to court fills her with apprehension.
• In Scene 6, Knabe says to Claudette, “Be honest. Didn’t Reverend King give you the idea that there was something wrong with the buses?” Why does he ask her this question? (character motivation, inference) Knabe is suggesting that black people in Montgomery were satisfied with the bus system before Dr. King began saying that there was a problem with it. Knabe hopes to convince the judges that bus desegregation is not what most people want.
• The play’s final line states that Claudette “had helped bring the Constitution to Montgomery, just as she said she would.” How was her experience similar to her original plan? How was it different? (compare and contrast) Claudette’s experience was similar to her original plan in that she went to court and helped to change an unfair policy. It was different in that she was a plaintiff in the case, not a lawyer.

Critical-Thinking Questions

• In Scene 1, Miss Nesbitt says, “. . . history can be careless about who it remembers.” How does this statement relate to the play as a whole? Miss Nesbitt is talking about why Harriet Tubman became famous and others like her did not. Miss Nesbitt’s statement applies to Claudette. Most people today have heard of Rosa Parks, but few know about Claudette.
• What are some ways that Claudette Colvin’s story could be more widely known? Answers will vary. Students may say more books could be written about her, or a movie could be made about her life.

Featured Skill: Text Evidence (15 minutes)

Break students into groups to complete activity Claudette Colvin: A Dauntless Teen Hero From History. This text-evidence activity will prepare students to respond to the writing prompt on page 22. For alternative culminating tasks, see the boxes below.