Redlining and the New Deal: National and Local Connections Part 1

Grade: 11^th 

Subject(s): U.S. History

Standards: 

Arizona History and Social Science Standards 

• HS.G2.2 Evaluate how political and economic decisions throughout time have influenced cultural and environmental characteristics of various places and regions.
• HS.G3.2 Evaluate the impact of economic activities and political decisions on spatial patterns within and among urban, suburban, and rural regions.

National Council for Social Studies Standards

• Geography Theme 3: People, Places, and the Environments

• Assist learners to analyze the spatial information about people, places, and environments on Earth’s surface.
• Enable learners to describe the processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement. 

Learning for Social Justice Standards

• JU.9-12.12 I can recognize, describe and distinguish unfairness and injustice at different levels of society.

Objectives: 

• Students will be able to
  • identify political and economic processes involved in redlining.
  • evaluate the impact of redlining on spatial patterns within cities.
  • describe the systemic injustice embedded in redlining. 

Guiding Questions: 

• What political and economic decisions create the consequences of redlining?
• How does redlining shape spatial patterns within urban and suburban regions?
• Why is redlining unfair and unjust?

Assessment:

• Use students’ definitions, answers to discussion questions, and exit tickets to assess student understanding.

Prior learning: Students will have previously learned about the rise in industrial capitalism and the New Deal. 

Materials: 

• A current map of neighborhoods in Flagstaff, AZ
• Video A: “How redlining prevented Black and Brown families from becoming home owners”
• Video B: “What is Redlining?”

Differentiation Strategies:

• Students will work in small, teacher-led groups during group practice. 
• Students will be provided with discussion questions before watching the text and before discussion time.
• Students will have access to captions on the videos they watch.

Cross-Curriculum Connections: 

• Students could read primary sources about people who experienced redlining and create narratives to describe the ways redlining affects multiple generations.

Extension: 

• Evaluate racial wealth gap statistics to understand the link between redlining and current material conditions. 

Total time: 60 minutes 

Activating background Knowledge: [10 minutes]

• Instruct students to create a list of the neighborhoods in Flagstaff that they can think of in two minutes.
• Encourage students to compare their list with someone next to them. 
• Invite students to write answers on the board.
• Ask students to write a description of or draw something that distinguishes their neighborhood from another neighborhood. 
• Facilitate a class discussion about different characteristics of neighborhoods.

• If they struggle, choose two different neighborhoods from the list and elicit differences between them.
• Some possibilities include: size of houses, type of places to live, yards to play in, types of cars, space between houses, jobs the residents have, ethnic differences.

Presenting New Information: [15 minutes]

• Facilitate a discussion about the factors that influence neighborhoods to form.
  • Consider using these questions:
    • What social factors encourage people to form neighborhoods?
    • What economic factors encourage people to form neighborhoods?
    • What political factors encourage people to form neighborhoods?
  • Tell students that you will revisit these ideas at the end of class. 
• Ask students if any of them have heard of or are willing to try to define the term redlining.
• Form groups with four to five students in each group.
  • Provide students with directions before the activity.

• Two students choose to be team A, and two students choose to be team B.
  • If there is a fifth person, they choose a team.
• Team A will watch video A: “How redlining prevented Black and Brown families from becoming home owners.”
• Team B will watch up to 4:26 minutes on video B: “What is Redlining?”

• Show students the questions they will discuss after watching the videos:

1. What were some of the consequences of redlining? 
2. What political and economic decisions shape the consequences of redlining?
3. What is unjust about redlining and why is it unjust?

• Tell students that after they watch the first video, they will write a definition of redlining in their own words.
• Give students time to watch the first video and write a definition of redlining in their own words.

Guided Practice: [10 minutes]

• Instruct students to synthesize their definition with the other member(s) on their team.
  • Notice similarities and differences.
  • Build from the similarities and revise or expand your definition to address the differences.
• Encourage students to synthesize their team’s definition with the other team.
  • Notice similarities and differences.
  • Build from the similarities and revise or expand your definition to address the differences. 
• Invite each group to write their definition on the board.
  • If it’s a large class with many groups, you can have two groups compare definitions before writing it on the board.
• Engage students in a class synthesis to arrive at a class definition of redlining. 

Group Practice: [20 minutes]

• Review the discussion questions before students watch the second video.
  • What were some of the consequences of redlining? 
  • What political and economic decisions shape the consequences of redlining?
  • What is unjust about redlining and why is it unjust?
• Give students time to watch the second video.
• Tell students to choose roles within their groups to facilitate small-group discussions.
  • If they have 5 people in their group, they can choose two reporters.
  • Time keeper—keeps track of the time to make sure they spend three minutes or less discussing each question.
  • Note taker—writes down the groups’ answers to the discussion questions.
  • Facilitator—leads the conversation to make sure everyone in the group contributes.
  • Reporter—shares highlights from the conversation with the whole class. 
• Encourage students to answer the following discussion questions in small groups:

1. What were some of the consequences of redlining? 
2. What political and economic decisions shape the consequences of redlining?
3. What is unjust about redlining and why is it unjust?

• Invite the reporters from each group to share highlights from their conversations with the class. 
• Explain to students that the next class will focus on redlining in Flagstaff.

Reflection: [5 minutes]

• Ask students to complete an exit ticket that answer the following question:
  • How does redlining shape spatial patterns within a community?