This teaching idea was submitted by Michael Salmon, who taught fifth-grade English, social studies and math at Sidwell Friends Middle School in Washington, D.C.
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Lesson Overview
The New York Times is one of the most respected and well-known newspapers on the plant, but many people who contributed important work to the world were ignored by the paper for a long time because of their gender, race or identity. There were no death notices — or obituaries — written about them, and their accomplishments were never recognized.
In 2018, The Times started “Overlooked,” a series of obituaries about those remarkable people whose deaths had gone unreported since 1851.
This series became the center of my class’s own “Overlooked” project. I invited students to choose one “overlooked” person from The Times’s series to explore, and then share what they found out with the class via an essay or a spoken monologue. The goal, as a part of our Equity, Justice and Community series, was to learn about someone whose light made a difference in the world, but who had until recently been unknown.
Warm-Up: What Is an Obituary?
First, we began with a discussion about what it means to be “overlooked.” Then I explained that this project was designed to expose us to people we had never heard about and to learn of their remarkable stories through their obituaries. I asked students:
Does anyone know what an obituary is?
What might an obituary include?
Where might we find one?
Does everyone who dies have an obituary?
You might also share an obituary from the Overlooked series to begin. One interesting example is the story of Emily Warren Roebling, who oversaw the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. You can read it together as a class, either by projecting it or printing it out and reading it aloud, and then discuss the following questions:
What did we learn about Emily Warren Roebling?
Was there anything you learned that surprised you?
What important interests did Roebling have? How did she become interested in bridges?
What obstacles did she face while pursuing her goals?
Why do you think she was overlooked? Why should we know about her and her work?
Do you see any patterns in the ways that an obituary’s information is organized? (A question to introduce “obituary style,” which you can learn more about in this lesson.)
Main Activity: Learn About Someone Who Has Been “Overlooked”
Then, students chose their own historical figure to research and shared the person’s life story with the class. Here’s how:
1. Choosing a person from the Overlooked series: One good place for students to start their search would be this article from Wikipedia. Though this list is incomplete, it can give students an idea of the various kinds of people included in the project. If none of these people interest them, they can go directly to the Overlooked page to find many more.
2. Reading, annotating and taking notes: Students can save the link to the obituary or print it out. Printing it out will enable them to highlight important facts, annotate with their own questions, or mark sections that are challenging to understand.
My students used this plan and note sheet to record important information about the person’s life. This was their guide for producing their presentation for the class.
3. Class presentations: I had my students choose one of the following ways to share what they learned:
They could write an expository piece of several paragraphs that included an introduction, information about the person’s life and accomplishments, why the person was overlooked and why the person deserves to be recognized.
Or they could deliver a first-person monologue, either in a Flip video, where all students could view and comment on it, or in a live presentation. Monologues helped my students better understand how it felt to be that person, and develop more empathy for those whose lives differed from their own. For this option, practice with peers, as well as a lesson on presentation skills, is encouraged.
Reflection and Student Outcomes: The Importance of Story
The presentations became a collection of stories of interesting people in written and video form.
As a class, we explored the question of why it is important to pursue a project like this one. What does it teach us about the importance of story? How do lesser-known stories inform our understanding of time, place and culture?
For my students, it was very powerful to expand their understanding of the world by learning that history is a kind of kaleidoscope, made up of many people’s stories. We began to understand that there are so many stories and perspectives we don’t know, a loss of richness for all of us. To look only at stories we find in our textbooks often diminishes our understanding of the world as it has been and is, and if we are to make the world a better place, we need to have experiences like this more often.
Going Further
You might consider teaching this lesson alongside a shared class text. For us, as we opened our eyes to people and ideas we didn’t know, it became an activity to further develop our thinking as we explored “This Book Is Anti-Racist,” by Tiffany Jewel. Another favorite is “Spoon River Anthology,” a 1915 collection of short fictional epitaphs by Edgar Lee Masters that is based in part on residents of his hometown, Lewistown, Ill. The many portrayals are fascinating to read.
Students can learn more about who gets a Times obituary and why most obituaries are still of white men by reading this essay by the Times obituary editor. They can also try writing their own stories about someone who they think led an interesting life with the lesson plan, “Writing a Short Biography With Obituaries.”
