Daily Activities – Poll Tax Abolished
The daily activities created for each of the Today in Georgia History segments are designed to meet the Georgia Performance Standards for Reading Across the Curriculum, and Grade Eight: Georgia Studies. For each date, educators can choose from three optional activities differentiated for various levels of student ability. Each activity focuses on engaging the student in context specific vocabulary and improving the student’s ability to communicate about historical topics.
One suggestion is to use the Today in Georgia History video segments and daily activities as a “bell ringer” at the beginning of each class period. Using the same activity daily provides consistency and structure for the students and may help teachers utilize the first 15-20 minutes of class more effectively.
Optional Activities:
Level 1: Provide the students with the vocabulary list and have them use their textbook, a dictionary, or other teacher provided materials to define each term. After watching the video have the students write a complete sentence for each of the vocabulary terms. Student created sentences should reflect the meaning of the word based on the context of the video segment. Have students share a sampling of sentences as a way to check for understanding.
Level 2: Provide the students with the vocabulary list for that day’s segment before watching the video and have them guess the meaning of each word based on their previous knowledge. The teacher may choose to let the students work alone or in groups. After watching the video, have the students revise their definitions to better reflect the meaning of the words based on the context of the video. As a final step, have the students compare and contrast their definitions to their textbook, dictionary or other teacher provided materials definitions.
Level 3: Provide the students with the vocabulary list and have them use their textbook, a dictionary, or other teacher provided materials to define each term. After watching the video, have the students write a five sentence paragraph based on the provided writing prompts.
Vocabulary/Writing Prompts:
Bulwark
Jim Crow
Roadblocks
Authorized
Provision
Progressive
Ushered
Reforms
Abolishing
Writing Prompts
1. In a five-sentence paragraph explain how African-American voters may have had the
legal right to vote between 1877 and 1945, but they were basically denied that right
through the poll tax.
2. What is so powerful about a vote? In a five-sentence paragraph explain why voting
became such an important issue during the African-American struggle for equality. In
your answer be sure to think about the power a vote holds in the United States of
America.
3. In a five-sentence paragraph use your own words to define the term progressive. In your
answer, use Ellis Arnall as an example of a progressive.
Related Georgia Performance Standards:
Reading Across the Curriculum (Grades 6-12)
SSRC1 Students will enhance reading in all curriculum areas by:
c. Building vocabulary knowledge
• Demonstrate an understanding of contextual vocabulary in various subjects.
• Use content vocabulary in writing and speaking.
• Explore understanding of new words found in subject area texts.
d. Establishing context
• Explore life experiences related to subject area content.
• Discuss in both writing and speaking how certain words are subject area
related.
• Determine strategies for finding content and contextual meaning for unknown
words.
Common Core, College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing
Text Types and Purposes
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using
valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and
information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and
analysis of content.
3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change; Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions;
Theme 10: Civic Ideals and Practices
Grade 8 Georgia Studies
SS8H7 The student will evaluate key political, social, and economic changes that occurred in
Georgia between 1877 and 1918.
a. Evaluate the impact the Bourbon Triumvirate, Henry Grady, International Cotton
Exposition, Tom Watson and the Populists, Rebecca Latimer Felton, the 1906 Atlanta
Riot, the Leo Frank Case, and the county unit system had on Georgia during this period.
b. Analyze how rights were denied to African-Americans through Jim Crow laws, Plessy
v. Ferguson, disenfranchisement, and racial violence.
c. Explain the roles of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, John and Lugenia Burns
Hope, and Alonzo Herndon.
d. Explain reasons for World War I and describe Georgia’s contributions.
SS8H10 The student will evaluate key post-World War II developments of Georgia from 1945
to 1970.
a. Analyze the impact of the transformation of agriculture on Georgia’s growth.
b. Explain how the development of Atlanta, including the roles of mayors William B.
Hartsfield and Ivan Allen, Jr., and major league sports, contributed to the growth of
Georgia.
c. Discuss the impact of Ellis Arnall.
SS8H11 The student will evaluate the role of Georgia in the modern civil rights movement.
a. Describe major developments in civil rights and Georgia’s role during the 1940s and
1950s; include the roles of Herman Talmadge, Benjamin Mays, the 1946 governor’s race
and the end of the white primary, Brown v. Board of Education, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and the 1956 state flag.
b. Analyze the role Georgia and prominent Georgians played in the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1960s and 1970s; include such events as the founding of the Student
Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Sibley Commission, admission of Hamilton
Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to the University of Georgia, Albany Movement, March
on Washington, Civil Rights Act, the election of Maynard Jackson as mayor of Atlanta,
and the role of Lester Maddox.
c. Discuss the impact of Andrew Young on Georgia.