Lesson
2
:
Learning Fairness from a Nonfiction Text
Grade
Grade 8
UNIT
7
•
Fairness
In Unit 7, Lesson 2, “Learning Fairness from a Nonfiction Text,” students will develop their reading comprehension skills and learn examples of fairness by reading a contemporary work of young adult nonfiction, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin. Additionally, students will develop their critical thinking skills by answering questions about the text and advance their academic dialogue skills by participating in a class discussion about the book.
SUGGESTED TIME:
- 1 class period to introduce the book; 1 class period to discuss the book
- If desired, additional class periods can be devoted to in-class silent reading of the book
- The book for this lesson, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin, is 170 pages and 18 chapters.
- Suggested reading assignments are three chapters per session, to be completed either in class or for homework:
- Assignment 1: First Hero – Port Chicago
- Assignment 2: Work and Liberty – Hot Cargo
- Assignment 3: The Explosion – Column Left
- Assignment 4: Prison Barge – Treasure Island
- Assignment 5: Prosecution – The Verdict
- Assignment 6: Hard Labor – Epilogue: Civil Rights Heroes
- Have students complete the worksheet questions as they read.
- Allow at least 50 min for in-class discussion of the book.
SUGGESTED TIME:
English Language Arts
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Read a nonfiction text and demonstrate an understanding of the central ideas
- Write answers to questions about the book, demonstrating an understanding of standard English sentence structure and grammar
- Engage effectively in collaborative discussions about the book
REQUIRED MATERIALS:
- Book: The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin.
- Video: 1944 Port Chicago Explosion: What happened at Port Chicago? by The National WWII Museum (~2 min)
- Video: Navy exonerates Black sailors 80 years after Port Chicago disaster, broadcast on July 20, 2024, by CBS Evening News (~3 min)
- Prohuman Grade 8 Unit 7 Worksheet 2: Learning Fairness from a Nonfiction Text
VOCABULARY:
Fairness: I treat everyone the same. If someone has been left out, I bring them in.
ELA COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET
CHARACTER AND SOCIAL EMOTIONAL (CSED) NATIONAL STANDARDS MET
LESSON PROCEDURE
Step 1:
- Without providing any information or showing the caption, show students the second image in this article: “The Port Chicago 50 at 76: Time for Exoneration” published by The National WWII Museum on July 17, 2020.
- Ask students what they notice about this photograph.
- Ask students what they wonder about this photograph.
Step 2:
- Explain that this photograph was taken of the aftermath of the explosions at Port Chicago, which happened on July 17, 1944. It was the largest man-made detonation in history to that point. It happened while sailors were loading munitions on ships. Instantly, 320 sailors, two-thirds of them African American, were killed and hundreds more were injured.
Step 3:
- Explain that we will be reading a book about this incident: The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin.
Step 4:
- Have students read the book, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin, either as a series of in-class reading assignments or for homework.
- Have students write the answers to the worksheet questions while reading the book.
Step 5
- Set aside a class period to discuss the book. Invite students to a whole-class discussion of the worksheet questions.
GRADE 8 UNIT 7 WORKSHEET 2: LEARNING FAIRNESS FROM A NONFICTION TEXT
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER WHILE READING THE BOOK
- How was the Navy prejudiced against African Americans during WWII?
- In the chapter “The Inquiry” the author documents several instances of unfairness. Provide at least two examples of unfairness.
- In the chapter “Column Left” how many sailors refused to follow orders and load ammunition? What was the consequence of their refusal?
- In the chapter “Prison Barge” what were the two elements of Joseph Small’s fight for fairness?
- In the chapter “The Fifty,” how does the author explain why the Navy’s definition of mutiny did not apply in this case?
- In the chapter “Prosecution” what experiment did the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, and the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ernest King, begin?
- In the chapter “Joe Small” what didn’t Thurgood Marshall like about the defense’s strategy?
- In the chapter “The Verdict” what did Thurgood Marshall say was the larger meaning of this case?
- What was the verdict in this case and the sentence? How long of this sentence did the men actually serve, as the author explains in the chapter “Small Goes to Sea”?
- In the chapter “Hard Labor” what does the author present as the results of the Navy’s experiment with integration? What did the Bureau of Naval Personnel inform all officers of in February 1945?
- What did the Navy become to first branch of the U.S. military to do? What did Executive Order 9981 issued by President Harry Truman in July 1948 do?
- In the Epilogue, what did the Navy conclude in 1994 after it reviewed the Port Chicago case? Do you think the Navy’s conclusion was fair? Why or why not?
- What did you learn about fairness from reading this book, and how can you show more fairness?
Prohuman K-12 Curriculum © 2025 by Prohuman Foundation is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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