Lesson 7: March: Book One, The Chickens

Have students take out March: Book One with their annotations.

• Lesson 6 Homework: Students were instructed to read pp. 12–35 of March and make annotations to prepare to answer the questions in the Give One, Get One protocol during this lesson.

Turn and Talk

Say these Directions: Read the question below and think about your response. First, briefly share your ideas with a partner. Then be prepared to contribute your thinking during the whole-class discussion.

• Ask: Why might authors shift between past and present in memoirs like March?

  • Authors, specifically those sharing their memories, might shift between past and present to help readers see how earlier experiences shape later beliefs and choices. In March, the text’s present-day scenes show people coming to Lewis’s office “for the inauguration” (p. 17) while the story shifts back to childhood moments that explain how his values formed. For example, Lewis describes feeling deep guilt after harming a chick (p. 32), which helps readers understand why dignity and nonviolence might matter so much to him later. Moving between time periods helps readers connect personal experiences to public action.

As students talk in pairs, listen to evaluate whether students properly share their ideas and listen to their partners. Cold-call one student to share their partner’s ideas before moving into a whole-class discussion about the question. Once the whole-class discussion is complete, model the link to move into what they’ll be doing.

Connection to Today’s Learning:

• Say: Today, you will reread pages 14–35 with a partner and annotate shifts in time and what you learn about John Lewis as a person from his past and present-day life in the text. Then you’ll participate in a group activity to answer questions about the text. Finally, you’ll write a short response using evidence from this section.

Introduce New Words Using Morphology

Target Word: generation

Say these Directions: We’re learning about the word generation today.

Introduce the Word: Write generation on the board and pronounce it.

• Ask: Have you seen this word before? Where?

Identify the Roots: Underline the root gen in generation. Explain that gen comes from the Latin genus/generare, meaning “birth,” “kind,” or “to produce.”

• Ask: Do you know any other words with the root gen?

  • gene, general, genre

Language Connection: Spanish has generación, and French has génération, which closely match the English meanings (a group of people linked by time of birth and life experience).

Identify Affixes: Circle -ation in generation. Explain that -ation means “the act or process of.”

• Ask: What other words do you know that use the suffix -ation?

  • celebration, migration, integration, nomination

Language Connection: In Spanish and French, the same -ción/-tion ending often marks the “act or process” noun form (Spanish: información, nominación; French: information, nomination), which can help you quickly identify the word’s role in a sentence.

Determine Meaning:

• Ask: Using what we know about gen, and -ation, what do you think generation means? Turn and talk with a partner and agree on a meaning.

Verify Meaning:

• Ask: Use a dictionary, thesaurus or other reference material to review and verify the meaning of the word constructed using morphemes.

Then have students share the meaning of the word generation.

Connection to Today’s Learning:

• Say: Understanding the word generation will help you describe what you notice as the text moves between the present and Lewis’s memories. For example, you might explain why the inauguration matters to Lewis's generation. As you re-read, consider how this word can help you speak and write about the text with precision.

Part A: Read and Discuss March: The Chicken Scene (RI.8.3) (15 minutes)

Prompt students to retrieve their copies of March: Book One, and provide them with sticky notes. Then transition the students into partners to engage with the text.

Read and Discuss

Say these Directions: Reread pages 14–35 with a partner. As you read, use sticky notes to annotate the text for time shifts and connected moments—places where something in the present helps explain the past or where the past helps explain the present.

• Mark places where the storytelling shifts between past and present.

• Explain how one moment helps you understand the other.

Part B: Give One, Get One (RI.8.1, RI.8.3) (15 minutes)

Keep students in pairs. Remind them that they have closely read and discussed pp. 14–35 of March. Now, they will further engage with these pages of the text through the Give One, Get One protocol, rotating partners as they share one idea and record one new idea from each peer to answer the questions that they made annotations about for homework.

Give One, Get One

Say these Directions: Work with a partner to respond to the questions below. Use your annotations and specific evidence from the text to share one idea with your partner. Then record one new idea that your partner shares. After discussing each question, rotate to a new partner and repeat the process for the next question.

• Ask: What is the significance of President Obama’s inauguration for John Lewis? Why might he have chosen to include this important event to begin his reflection on the past?

  • The inauguration of President Barack Obama is significant because it represents the kind of change Lewis marched for on Bloody Sunday, Black Americans not only having the right to vote but seeing an African American elected to the highest office. The mother who brings her sons says she wanted them “to see their history” (p. 18), showing how Obama’s election is seen as an outcome of the civil rights struggle Lewis was part of.

• Ask: Lewis surrounds himself with artifacts and memories of his experiences. Why might it be important to Lewis to preserve his experiences and the civil rights struggle for future generations?

  • It might be important for Lewis to preserve this history for future generations to show them “how far we’ve come” (p. 19). Also, Lewis points out that he is the “only one who’s still around” (p. 20) from important historical events like the March on Washington, indicating that he knows it might be important for him to share this important past with future generations.

• Ask: What does Lewis suggest about his family’s financial situation on pages 21–34, and how does it impact his childhood?

  • Lewis suggests that his family had limited money and that “from time to time, they would have no cash . . .” (p. 33). He desires getting some extra farm equipment for his chickens, but he “was never able to afford it” (p. 26). One way it impacted his childhood is that his family would sometimes have to trade “one of” (p. 33) his chickens for food, which made him upset with his family.

• Ask: How do Lewis’s family’s experiences with tenant farming and economic hardship help shape his early understanding of inequality and injustice?

  • Lewis sees that his family works very hard but still struggles to get what they need, as evidenced when the family would have to sell chickens because they had “no cash” (p. 33). Lewis’s family’s experience with tenant farming shows him that people can work constantly and still have very little control over their own lives. Hard work does not always lead to fair outcomes. The system of tenant farming shows Lewis that economic systems can create unequal conditions for families like his in that his father spent “every penny” (p. 22) he had just to buy his farm.

• Ask: What does Lewis’s treatment of his childhood chickens demonstrate about his character?

  • Lewis treats his chickens like fellow humans, as he feels “the need to talk to them first” (p. 22), showing that he sees the chickens as more than just animals and more like “individuals” (p. 23). This shows that Lewis is a person who treats others with humanity and dignity. He also takes care to mark the hens’ eggs and “take a few from the hens that were setting on a large number of eggs, and slip them under the hens that weren’t” (p. 24), showing that he cares about fairness.

Quick Write

Instruct students to choose one of the Give One, Get One questions from Part B to answer in a Quick Write response.

Say these Directions: Choose one of the Give One, Get One questions and write a Quick Write response in 2–3 sentences. Include at least one piece of text evidence from pages 14–35 to support your answer.

• Optional Sentence Starters:

  • “The question asks ____. ____ connects to ____ because ____. The text shows this when ___.”

  • The question asks how guilt after harming a chicken connects to Lewis’s later values. Lewis admits, “I never felt more guilt than I did that day” (p. 32), which shows his strong sense of responsibility and empathy. That early guilt helps explain why he later cares so deeply about how people are treated and why dignity matters.

Instruct students to take notes in their Journal on the following prompt:

Review pages 14-35 in March, and annotate the text for the following:

• Annotate the text to note a central idea from pp. 14–35 of March. Prepare to discuss at least one central idea in Lesson 8.