Unit Plan
Ruby Bridges: Connecting Lives
This unit, designed to promote the study of racial integration, begins with learning about the true story of Ruby Bridges.
Grades
6–8
Duration
10 CLASS PERIODS
Quick links to unit plan resources:
Objectives
Students will:
- Engage in critical discussions
- Discover picture books for presenting ideas
- Learn how literature can break barriers and build bridges
- Respond to shared texts in group discussions
- Practice critical-thinking skills
- Learn and apply the comprehension strategy of making connections
- Make connections and react to various texts using a double-entry journal
- Research suspension bridges
- Demonstrate knowledge of abstract concepts of geometric shapes and measurement
- Design a suspension bridge
- Construct a suspension bridge and describe the process
- Create a presentation
During Instruction
Culminating Activity
Students will become amateur architects by designing, constructing, and presenting a suspension bridge. Students will invite parents to the presentations and the test of strength of their suspension bridges.
Supporting Books

Connecting with Ruby Bridges
Strategic reading with the use of a double-entry journal to express thoughts and become more involved with material.
GRADES
3–5
DURATION
4 CLASS PERIODS
