Athlete Leaders of Social Change

In this module, students consider the factors that contribute to the success of professional athletes as leaders of social change. They read about a number of professional athletes who have been leaders of social change, beginning with Jackie Robinson. In Unit 1, students build background knowledge about Jackie Robinson through reading Promises to Keep, written by Jackie’s daughter, Sharon. Students determine the main ideas and identify key details, using these to summarize chapters of the book. They also think about the relationship between people and events in the text as they gather factors that led to Jackie Robinson’s success in leading social change. In Unit 2, students continue their study of Jackie Robinson, building on their understanding of factors that led to his success by developing an opinion on which factor(s) were most important in his success. In the first half of the unit, students examine different texts and videos, describing each author’s opinion on the factor that led to Jackie’s success and comparing these points of view.

In the second half of the unit, students draw from the factors gathered throughout Units 1 and 2 to state their own opinion. First, they participate in a text-based discussion. They then draw from the discussion to write an opinion essay on which factor they think was most important in Jackie Robinson’s success in leading social change. In Unit 3, students read about other athletes who were also leaders of social change, beginning with Jim Abbott. They research and write essays to compare and contrast the factors that contributed to the success of the athletes they study with those of Jackie Robinson. Once students have read about a few athletes, they then consider the common factors that contribute to being an effective leader of social change and work in pairs to create a multimedia presentation highlighting three of those factors. For the performance task, students work in groups to create a poster highlighting a personal quality that effective leaders of change need to have for a display titled “Be an Effective Leader of Change.”