A selection of English ESL civil rights movement printables

This is a webquest/research worksheet about the different aspects of segregation in the USA. In the first part, the students are invited to describe/comment on two photographs showing what segregation was. They will have to choose another picture (photograph or painting) to present to the class.

Beside this research, they will have to present an important figure of the movement (someone who fought for civil rights or a person in favour of segregation).

The lesson itself is about the trailer of the film Selma - the  British-American historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb (2014)

The civil rights movement in America - Selma

Created by PrimaryLeap. This worksheet introduces learners to the history and significance of the Civil Rights Movement in a clear and accessible way. Through a concise fact sheet, students will explore the fight for equality, the unfair system of segregation, and the peaceful protests led by Martin Luther King Jr.

The accompanying fill-in-the-blanks activity helps reinforce key ideas and vocabulary, making it suitable for both native and ESL learners. Ideal for classroom lessons or homework, this resource supports the development of historical understanding, literacy skills, and an appreciation of equality and fairness.

The Civil Rights Movement: Equality and Fairness

Reading comprehension about Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin. Even though this article focuses on Rosa Parks, it also explains why Claudette Colvin is a "forgotten" heroine of the Civil Rights Movement. There are different exercises: easy ones like a true or false but also some questions about the Jim Crow Laws and the different references to religion in the article. This document can either fit in the notion Myths and Heroes or Places and forms of Power in the French curriculum. Hope you´ll enjoy it

Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin (Civil Rights Movement)

Martin Luther King

Voting Rights Act

Civil Rights Act

1956

1964

1965

This activity is created by using VOA Learning English. After You listen to the conversation you can start filling the gaps. Thanks for your consideration. 

Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.

Watch two videos and take notes. Students should understand what segregation means, what the Civil Rights Movement, what Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr are famous for and what the Civil Rights Act is. Afterwards, they have to describe two pictures and talk about what they have learned in a voice recording.

Racial segregation & the Civil Rights Movement in the US

Learn about the Civil Rights movement in the USA, from Plessy v. Ferguson to the story of civil rights icon Ruby Bridges. You will also find links to other online multimedia interactive activities.

Civil Rights & &Ruby Bridges

Questions about the 1998 Disney movie "Ruby Bridges". This was made for French-speaking 6th grade ESL students who had prior knowledge of Ruby Bridges' story. I recommend handing the worksheet and going through the questions before watching the movie.

Be careful to provide context before and while watching "Ruby Bridges", as its themes (racism, discrimination, etc.) might be difficult to grasp for certain students, and disconcerting to others.

Ruby Bridges – Viewing comprehension

An activity on defining figures of speech in a text of Martin Luther King

Civil Rights Movement_ I have a dream

"The problem we all live with" - Questions about a painting by Norman Rockwell with a introduction in French (but you can change that). 

You can add a creative writing at the end such as "Write what the little girl must have felt"

A painting by Norman Rockwell with questions

Simple questions to work on a Cold Case episode (you can find the whole episode on youtube. Season 6, episode 3, title: "Wednesday's women")

A good way to illustrate Segregation and the fight for equality as it takes place during the Freedom Summer (Mississippi).

Can be used from A2 to C1, depending on if you put subtitles or not. (You can find the subs on websites like Addict7d)

An episode of Cold Case : "Wednesday's women"

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Christian minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi.

Martin Luther King

Hey Teachers!



With Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18th, I've decided to create and publish an ESL lesson plan on him. This lesson is based on a short biography video about MLK and racial segregation in the USA in the 1950s & 60s. With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA, I found it would be an interesting topic for students to study in the context of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement in the USA that took place in the 1950s. One of the aims of the lesson is to help students build awareness on racial discrimination in the USA and what it was like.



I would say this lesson plan is probably most suitable towards intermediate (B1) to upper intermediate (B2) level students - probably better for upper intermediate level students, although you could probably present a tough challenge to an intermediate student if you're willing to play the video a few times for them.



In order to view the video, please visit the lesson page on Fluentize via the link below. The full lesson plan is free to download on Fluentize until January 18, 2021 as long as you're registered. After that, the lesson will cost 1 credit. Here on iSL Collective, you get the first half of the lesson plan for free, which includes the preview activities and viewing activity, but excludes the post-viewing exercises.



https://app.fluentize.com/lesson/martin-luther-king



As you'll see, the preview activities include feature discussion material, pre-teaching the essential vocabulary that is presented in the video, and then the viewing activity is essentially a listening comprehension exercise based on the video. The post-viewing sections feature activities on a video quote, vocabulary context usage,  prefixes / suffixes, grammar using the conjunction "despite", follow-up conversational material, and then a quiz & review, in addition to the teacher's guide.



Students learn about Martin Luther King Jr., what segregation. They'll also learn a few special phrases and terms such as "to be on the run" and what "sit-ins" are. After watching the video and completing the first post-viewing section, there is a second post-viewing part that focuses on some grammar using the conjunction "despite" based on the following quote from the video:



"Martin Luther King Jr. believed in the power of nonviolent sit-ins and marches despite the use of force by police."



You can follow everything up with additional discussion material based on the following topics...



- The effect of racism on society

- What racism and discrimination is like in the native country where students are from

- Cultivating anti-racist attitudes for future generations

- What kinds of other social changes students would like to see take place in the future beyond racism



From the creator’s standpoint, my favorite part of the lesson is the section on prefixes and suffixes, as I found that the specific vocabulary words in the video and their accompanying prefixes and suffixes to be both interesting and useful (discredit, nonviolent, outspoken, brotherhood, rightful).



I also realize that many English language teachers are teaching in an online environment. For those of you who are, I recommend trying out our interactive lesson plan for it  (attached below), which is basically a digital version of the lesson materials that comes equipped with interactive fields for your students to write answers within.



I hope you have a great lesson exploring Martin Luther King Jr. and his influence in detail with your students!

Martin Luther King Jr. Bio - Lesson Plan

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

17 Civil Rights Movement English ESL worksheets pdf & doc