Just Mercy Lesson Plan

The Four Institutions

Kind of Activity:

Research

Objective:

Students will research and write about the four institutions that Stevenson identifies in Chapter Sixteen.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.7, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.8, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1

Structure:

In Chapter Sixteen, Stevenson lays out the four institutions that have "shaped our approach to race and justice but remain poorly understood: slavery, racial terrorism post-slavery but pre-Civil Rights, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration.

Ask students what they know about each of these institutions. What have they been taught about these institutions in school?...