Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man

Carol JohnsonPrairieland Elementary School Fall 2008

Teaching with Primary Sources Illinois State University

Baseball player, Lou Gehrig, of the American League's New York Yankees, holding a baseball bat, standing on the field at Comiskey Park

"I'm not a headline guy. I know that as long as I was following (Babe) Ruth to the plate I could have stood on my head and no one would have known the difference." - Lou Gehrig

The Book Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man by David A. Adler is a story about the courage and sportsmanship shown by Lou Gehrig. It chronicles portions of Gehrig’s life and the values instilled in him by his immigrant parents. During the course of the story, students learn how Gehrig decides to become a major league baseball player and how hard he works at giving his best efforts. At the end of the story, Lou Gehrig shares his thoughts with the crowd at Yankee Stadium during Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. Students will learn about the history of Lou Gehrig’s courageous life, they will listen to him speak at Yankee Stadium, and use primary sources to learn about baseball trading cards of the past.

Overview/ Materials/Historical Background/LOC Resources/Standards/ Procedures/Evaluation/Rubric/Handouts/Extension

Overview Back to Navigation BarObjectives Students will:

read a biography on Lou Gehrig, and they will be able to summarize what they read.

use a sequence of events sheet to collect important information about the life of Lou Gehrig.

make a timeline of Lou Gehrig’s life using Microsoft Excel. use technology to learn about the history of Lou Gehrig’s life. use a story web to show traits of good baseball players and collect

background knowledge. make a baseball trading card using accurate character traits of Lou

Gehrig. use pictures of baseball cards from long ago found at the Library

of Congress website to see how they have changed over the years.

Recommended time frame 5 daysGrade level Fourth GradeCurriculum fit Language Arts Materials Adler, David A. 1997. Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man. Gulliver

Books/Harcourt Brace Laptop Computers Web for background knowledge of baseball player traits (attached) Baseball Card Website with Template:

http://readwritethink.org/materials/trading_cards/ Informational websites about Lou Gehrig: http://www.education-world.com/a_books/books041.shtml (Use

only the first two links at this site for additional information.) http://www.lougehrig.com/ www.loc.gov (Go to American Memory and type in Lou Gehrig

for various pictures of Lou Gehrig.) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bbhtml/bbcapimg.html http://www.baseballhistorian.com/html/page13578.htm

http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gehrilo01.shtml http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Akxduexqug http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=a4msaZTJrTA&feature=related http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/81/Gehrig_time.jpg http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=gehrilo01 Sequence of Events in Lou Gehrig’s life worksheet (attached) Instructions for making a timeline using Excel (attached) Rubric for grading timeline (attached) Rubric for grading baseball trading card (attached)

Illinois State Learning Standards Back to Navigation BarLanguage Arts: GOAL 1: Read well with understanding. 1A. The learner will apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to

comprehend selections. GOAL 2: Read and understand literature representative of various Societies, eras and ideas. 2B. Read and interpret a variety of literary works.GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes. 3A. Use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization,

and structure. 3B. Communicate well-organized and coherent writing for

specific purposes and audiences.GOAL 5: Use the Language Arts to acquire, assess, and communicate information. 5A. Locate, organize, and use information from various sources to

answer questions, solve problems, and communicate ideas. 5C. Apply acquired information, concepts, and ideas to

communicate in a variety of formats.

Procedures Back to Navigation BarDay One: Ask how many students have ever played baseball. Make a web

(attached). Then ask students to tell traits of what makes a good baseball

player. Add each of those traits to the web. Introduce vocabulary words: immigrant, valuable, courageous,

modest, sportsmanship, appreciation, salary, and tremendous. Read the book Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man After reading go back to the web and see if there are any traits that

Lou Gehrig possessed that needed to be added to the web.

Day Two: Talk about important events in a person’s

life. (birth, successes, death, etc...) Take students to lab. Use websites to

research and read about the life of Lou Gehrig. http://www.education-world.com/a_books/books041.shtml (Use only

the first two links at this site for additional information.)http://www.lougehrig.com/http://www.baseballhistorian.com/html/page13578.htmhttp://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gehrilo01.shtml

Use Sequence of Events worksheet to compile important information about Lou Gehrig’s life. (attached)

Day Three: Talk about Timelines and make a timeline of a student’s life to

demonstrate that the events need to be in chronological order and that they need to be important events.

Use the directions for making a Timeline in Excel. (Attached) Take students to computer lab and make timelines using the

information that was collected on their Sequence of Events worksheet.

Print out timelines for display.

Day Four Play the tribute to Lou Gehrig and then the speech given by him

on July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium. Talk about Primary Sources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Akxduexqughttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4msaZTJrTA&feature=related

Show pictures of some of the early baseball trading cards. (Be careful if using the LOC website with baseball trading cards, because most early baseball cards promoted tobacco and cigarettes.) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bbhtml/bbcapimg.html

Go to trading card website: http://readwritethink.org/materials/trading_cards/ Make trading card for Lou Gehrig based on information about his

character traits that has been learned during the previous three days. Students follow along answering the questions as they type the answers to the questions, the card is made.

Print out cards.

Day Five: Go to www.loc.gov Go to American Memory. Type in Lou Gehrig, then search, and

click on any one of the seven links to view pictures from long ago of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.

Print out picture of him from this site or any other site that they had previously used to gather information about Lou Gehrig.

Glue pictures of Lou Gehrig onto trading cards.

Evaluation Back to Navigation BarThis learning experience will be assessed using the timeline produced by the students as well as the baseball trading card made by each student. The timeline rubric is attached to this lesson. The baseball card rubric is also attached.

Extension Back to Navigation Bar To extend this lesson, you could research ALS. An additional extension would be to produce a power point

presentation using pictures and the sequence of events sheet to sequence the slides of Lou Gehrig’s life.

An additional extension would be to produce a power point presentation using pictures and the sequence of events sheet to sequence slides of Lou Gehrig’s life.

Using the following websites from the Library of Congress, research how baseball began in the United States.

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jp/bball/early_1

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jp/bball

Historical Background Back to Navigation Bar

Lou Gehrig was a baseball player who was born to immigrants parents. His mother thought games were a waste of time and wanted Lou to become an engineer. He went to two years of college before he signed with the Yankees and became a major league baseball player. He never missed a day of elementary school and this trait carried over into his baseball career where he played 2,130 straight games. He was a modest man who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a deadly disease that affects the central nervous system. It has become known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The Yankees retired Lou Gehrig’s number and it was the first time any major league franchise had done that to honor a player.

Primary Resources from the Library of Congress

Back to Navigation Bar

Primary Sources TableImage Description Citation URL

Baseball player, Lou Gehrig, of the American League's New York Yankees, holding a baseball bat, standing on the field at Comiskey Park

SDN-066517, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+s066517))

Baseball players Babe Ruth, Shawkey, and Lou Gehrig sitting on a batting practice backstop on the field at Comiskey Park, dark exposure

SDN-069913, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+s069913))

Baseball players, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, New York Yankees surrounded by a group of boy football players and adults

SDN-067094, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+s067094))

Baseball players, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, New York Yankees, standing with Marian Davies at a train station, light exposure.

SDN-066999, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+s066999))

This collection presents a Library of Congress treasure -- 2,100 early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914. The cards show such legendary figures as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing formally in his Cleveland uniform. Other notable players include Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, King Kelly, and Christy Mathewson. Cigarette card collector Benjamin K. Edwards preserved these baseball cards in albums with more than 12,000 other cards on many subjects. After his death, Edwards' daughter gave the albums to noted poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, who donated them to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division in 1954.

Benjamin K. Edwards Collection 1887-1914. Gift of Carl Sandburg 1954. American Memory. Library of Congress. October 15, 1998. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bbhtml/bbcapimg.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bbhtml/bbcapimg.html

RubricBack to Navigation Bar

Timeline : Timeline of Lou Gehrig's Life         

Teacher Name: Mrs. Johnson

Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY 4 3 2 1Title The timeline has a

creative title that accurately describes the material and is easy to locate.

The timeline has an effective title that accurately describes the material and is easy to locate.

The timeline has a title that is easy to locate.

The title is missing or difficult to locate.

Dates An accurate, complete date has been included for each event.

An accurate, complete date has been included for almost every event.

An accurate date has been included for almost every event.

Dates are inaccurate and/or missing for several events.

Content/Facts Facts were accurate for all events reported on the timeline.

Facts were accurate for almost all events reported on the timeline.

Facts were accurate for most (~75%) of the events reported on the timeline.

Facts were often inaccurate for events reported on the timeline.

Spelling and Capitalization

Spelling and capitalization were checked by another student and are correct throughout.

Spelling and capitalization were checked by another student and were mostly correct.

Spelling and capitalization were mostly correct, but were not checked by another student.

There were many spelling and capitalization errors.

Baseball Trading Card Rubric

Name of

Student: ______________________________________

Comments: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Homerun 4

Triple 3

Double 2

Single 1

Strike-out 0

Card contains accurate information.Shows an understanding of what Lou Gehrig’s character traits were.Picture is included on front of card.Used correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation.

HandoutsBack to Navigation Bar

How to Make a Timeline Using Microsoft ExcelOpen Excel by clicking on the icon.

Highlight row 14 from column A to column M.

While the row is highlighted, choose the paint can and the color black. Dump the paint into the row, so that you get a thick black line as shown in the picture.

On the drawing toolbar at the bottom of the screen, click on Autoshapes. Choose callouts.

Choose Line Callout 3.

Then draw a box above the black line you made at row 14 attaching the end of it to the line as shown in the picture.

Make seven more boxes, alternating the boxes above and below the line.

Go to file and page setup. Change the page set up to landscape.

Go back and click on the first Callout box you added to the line. Type the date and the year Lou Gehrig was born.

In each box, type information you gathered about Lou Gehrig for the timeline activity in the sequence in which it happened. Include the year.You can make the boxes bigger by clicking on them. You can also format them by right clicking.

Highlight row 1 column A to column M.

Click on the merge and center button along the toolbar at the top of the page.

Change the font size to 18 and type in the title of your timeline. Be sure to include your name.

Name: __________________________ Sequence of Events WorksheetUse this sheet to record ten important events in the life of Lou Gehrig. You need to start with his birth and end with his death. The remaining eight events must be important events that someone should know about Lou Gehrig. Be sure to check your spelling and recheck the dates. You may use the book we read and any of the bookmarked websites in the Favorites folder on Lou Gehrig.

1. Date: ___________Event:

2. Date: ___________Event:

3. Date: ___________Event:

4. Date: ___________Event:

5. Date: ___________Event:

6. Date: ___________Event:

7. Date: ___________Event:

8. Date: ___________Event:

9. Date: ___________Event:

10. Date: ___________Event:

Traits of a Good Baseball Player