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Lesson Plan: Whispers from the Past Title: Whispers from the Past Theme/Topic of Lesson: Using Primary Sources to Travel on the Underground Railroad Time Commitment: 2-3 45-minute class periods Subject Areas: Social Studies, Reading and Writing Grade Level: 6-8 Lesson Challenge Question: What are the some factors people had to consider as they thought about escaping from slavery? |
| STAGE 1: Identify Desired Results |
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OVERVIEW The Underground Railroad was a secret network organized by people who helped an estimated 60,000 men, women, and children escape from slavery to freedom in the United States during the 19th century. The Underground Railroad provided hiding places, food, and often transportation for the fugitives. People also provided directions for the journey, telling fugitives the safest way to get further north on the dangerous journey to freedom. The Underground Railroad was run by a well-organized network of people who worked together in secret to help slaves escape. The work of the Underground Railroad resulted in freedom for many men, women, and children. It also helped undermine the institution of slavery, which was finally ended in the United States during the Civil War. Deciding to try to escape slavery was very complicated. Living as a slave was extremely hard. But escaping meant leaving family behind. It also might lead to eventual capture, punishment, and sometimes, even death. In this lesson plan, students will learn about how people made this complicated decision. Students will investigate primary sources to learn more about the Underground Railroad in a group or individually. This lesson can be used to introduce a unit on the Underground Railroad. In this lesson, students will first complete a pre-reading activity, and then read, analyze and summarize primary source narratives about the Underground Railroad. Students will complete a document analysis chart to assist them with their investigation. They will complete the lesson by writing to inform about the reasons people chose to leave their homes and travel to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Through their analysis of primary sources, students will analyze factors that might change one's impressions of a past event, such as the passage of time. They will also analyze the purpose for writing the documents. Grade 8 students will be successful with this lesson if they are able to read, interpret and analyze primary source documents and write to inform. Appropriate accommodations for this lesson include annotating the primary sources, assigning the primary sources in a cooperative learning Jigsaw structure, assigning fewer sources, or modifying the culminating writing assignment. Teachers' prerequisite knowledge and skills should include the steps of primary document analysis and background knowledge on the Underground Railroad. Students can work individually or in groups to analyze the primary source documents. If students work in groups, teachers should consider reading ability levels and necessary modifications when placing students in groups. This lesson can be completed on or off-line. The following primary source documents are available through the Maryland Public Television Pathways to Freedom [http://pathways.thinkport.org/] web site:
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| STAGE 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence |
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Maryland Learning Outcomes Social Studies - Grades 6-8 Social Studies Skills http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/standards/social_studies/skills.html MLO 1.1: Construct various timelines of key events, people, and periods of the historic eras studied and explain how major events are related to each other. MLO 1.2: Evaluate, and organize information specific to social studies disciplines by reading, asking questions, investigating and observing. MLO 1.3: Interpret, evaluate, and organize primary and secondary sources of information including pictures, graphics, maps, atlases, artifacts, timelines, political cartoons, videotapes, journals, and government documents (MLO 1.3) Reading/Language Arts Grades 6-8 Reading http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/standards/english/literature.html Reading to be Informed: Students will demonstrate their ability to read for information by examining, constructing, and extending meaning from articles, editorials, content texts, and other expository materials related to the content areas. MLO R. 2.2.1. Compare and contrast information from different articles or procedures on the same topic. R. 2.2.2. Draw inferences, conclusions, or generalizations about text and support them with textual evidence and experience. Writing to Inform MLO #1.8. Write essays for an intended audience and purpose that state the thesis or purpose of the paper, that follow an organizational pattern, and that offer compelling evidence in the form of facts and details to support the thesis. Language in Use http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/standards/english/reading.html #1: Students will demonstrate their ability to use the structures and conventions of the English language in their written communication. 1.1 Use standard English language conventions correctly to communicate clearly, including:
1.3 Use conventional spelling in their own writing. ISTE Technology Standards - Grades 6-8 http://cnets.iste.org/68pro.htm 4. Use content-specific tools, software, and simulations (e.g., environmental probes, graphing calculators, exploratory environments, Web tools) to support learning and research (http://cnets.iste.org/68pro.htm) 6. Design, develop, publish, and present products (e.g., Web pages, videotapes) using technology resources that demonstrate and communicate curriculum concepts to audiences inside and outside the classroom. (http://cnets.iste.org/68pro.htm) Learning Objectives: At the completion of the lesson, students will be able to:
How will individual student's and team performance be evaluated?
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| STAGE 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction |
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TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES Internet Sites: Maryland Public Television’s Pathways to Freedom: Maryland and the Underground Railroad http://pathways.thinkport.org/ Pathways to Freedom: Maryland and the Underground Railroad has been designed to help Maryland students in Grades 4 and 8 look more closely at Maryland's people, stories, and events that surrounded this important effort. National Teacher Training Institute http://www.thinkport.org/teachers/ntti/home.shtml All 2002 NTTI Institute lesson plans, resources, and links can be accessed at this site. Links to the national WNET/Thirteen NTTI site and lesson plans from past institutes are also available. NTTI Electronic Learning Community http://cte.jhu.edu/ELC/ This Electronic Learning Community is the gateway to online resources, a discussion board, virtual chat and loads of links. The programming for this ELC is designed by the Center for Technology in Education, The Johns Hopkins University. Technology Toolbox http://www.thinkport.org/teachers/present/tech/index.html This informative site explains the many Internet projects available on the WWW, including many links. MPT staff compiles this site. Video(s): Visit MPT's LearningWorks Web site at www.mpt.org and click on the "K-12 Educational Video Service" MATERIALS Per student:
Copies of the primary source narratives from the MPT Pathways to Freedom: Eyewitness to History section VOCABULARY What are the essential terms related to the learning experience?
In this lesson, students will construct meaning from their interpretations of the primary source narratives. Technology will be used to access the primary source documents, and create either an essay or a web page to share the conclusions students draw about the factors people considered when deciding to leave captivity and escape via the Underground Railroad. As students will complete the analysis either individually or in groups, teachers will need to be familiar with the Jigsaw cooperative learning structure to effectively manage transitions from one activity to the next. Grouping strategies will allow teachers to match student interest and reading ability with the appropriate primary source narrative, maximizing learning. Teachers can enhance student discussion of the primary source narratives with the use of literature circles. This lesson can be used with any technology configuration - one computer to provide a paper copy of the primary source narratives, a lab for each student to access their own copies, or a mini-lab setting so that groups of students can access copies. This lesson plan is based on the primary source narratives located in the Eyewitness to History section of the Pathways to Freedom MPT web site. Eyewitness to History is an activity that is probably best utilized by students at the eighth grade level. Others may need more support in reading and interpreting these documents. There is some annotation included for each account, but you may need to supply more for your students. Following the Footsteps provides a multimedia (text, music and voice over) program for students to experience what a journey on the Underground Railroad might have been like. Students are given the opportunity to decide whether they will travel on the Underground Railroad, or stay on the plantation. To use this interactive exploration, you will need to make sure that the Flash software is loaded on the computers your students will use to view the Following the Footsteps feature of the MPT: Pathways to Freedom web site in advance. We strongly recommend you visit the web site prior to your students (on the same day) to increase the speed of the downloading images. Consult your school's technology specialist about ways to increase the speed of the downloading images or installing software if necessary! Some primary and secondary accounts show the gross inhumanity that was an unfortunate part of many slaves' experience. You are the best judge of whether your students are mature enough to handle this kind of information. To select appropriate differentiation and accommodation strategies, teachers should pre-assess students' skills at reading and interpreting primary source documents by completing a "think aloud" modeling activity and a discussion of the introductory paragraphs of a sample narrative. Learning accommodations for special education students include using a Jigsaw cooperative learning strategy so that groups of students only analyze one document; modifying the writing assignment and/or providing a frame paragraph structure for the essay. Advanced learners can complete their choice of the EXTENSION activities (listed at the end of the lesson). For additional resources to differentiate the lesson, view:
Day 1: Description of this Day's Lesson: What was the Underground Railroad? How did we know it existed if it was a secret? Complete a K-W-L or a web (using the software Inspiration) about the Underground Railroad to assess students' prior knowledge. Discuss student responses. Discuss the evidence that historians would need to be able to prove that an Underground Railroad existed. (5-10 minutes) Explain that students are going to be investigating the stories of people that traveled on the Underground Railroad by examining some primary source evidence. Share that much of the evidence that we have about the Underground Railroad is in the form of first-person narratives. Explain that during the 1930s, the federal government interviewed many former slaves and gathered these narratives together. Explain that they will be analyzing first person narratives from former slaves. Introduce the activity by talking a bit about primary source documents, and their reliability. Talk about factors that might change one's impressions of a past event, such as the passage of time and the purpose for writing down one's impressions of this event. (2-3 minutes) Activity 1: Sharing the Focus Question Share the focus question with the class, "Why did people choose to leave their homes and travel to freedom on the Underground Railroad? What are the some factors people had to consider as they thought about escaping from slavery?" either on an overhead or on the chalkboard. (5 minutes) If students are going to complete the lesson in Jigsaw cooperative learning groups, groups should be assigned at this point in the lesson. Activity 2: Modeling the Document Analysis Process Teachers should model, using a "think aloud" strategy, reading the narrative and completing the primary source analysis chart. Activity 3: Distribute the Primary Sources and Remind Students to Preview the Text Distribute the Harriett Tubman narrative either by accessing the MPT web site [http://pathways.thinkport.org/eyewitness/] or handing out paper copies of the narrative to students. Guide the students, either as a whole class, or in small groups, to preview the text prior to reading. Allow the students time to read the narrative silently. (5-10 minutes). Activity 4: Review the Annotated Text Discuss the questions used to annotate the text (in the left hand margin of the narrative. Point out the technical features of the web site (text is highlighted when the mouse is moved over a selection, etc.) (2 minutes) Activity 5: Completing the Assignment Depending on the ability level of students, distribute the Frederick Douglass narrative and repeat the process above. Highly able students can proceed with all of the narratives, (Caroline Hammond, Charles Ball, Josiah Henson). (15-20 minutes). Activity 6: Monitoring Student Participation Monitor students' completion of the primary source analysis chart. (15-20 minutes) Activity 7: Reporting Out and Class Discussion If students are divided into cooperative learning groups, ask groups to report out about their assigned documents at this point. (10 minutes) Activity 8: Preparing to Write Revisit the K-W-L Chart used as the introductory activity. Complete the "L" column - what did I learn about the Underground Railroad? This activity can serve as the pre-writing activity to prepare students to write an essay. (10-15 minutes) Activity 9: Writing to Inform Revisit the focus questions: "Why did people choose to leave their homes and travel to freedom on the Underground Railroad? What are the some factors people had to consider as they thought about escaping from slavery?" Share the writing prompt and writing to inform rubric with students. Activity 10: Wrap-Up/Closure/Transition to the Next Day's Activities Share the essays and discuss what else the students would like to learn about the Underground Railroad. ENRICHMENT OPTIONS Community Connection How can students take action in the community through their learning? For additional insight into community-based projects, go to the "Making Family and Community Connections" available at: http://www.thirteen.org/wnetschool/concept2class/month9
Children's Literature Print Materials: Children's literature could enhance your study of the Underground Railroad with Special Education or struggling readers. Possible titles include:
Create an illustration, mural or torn paper collage based on one of the primary source narratives and the sense poem. Mathematics Graph the population data included in the Pathways to Freedom: "Figure it Out" section. Technology Students can create a PowerPoint presentation describing all that they have learned from this lesson. Additional web resources include: Webquests:
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| STAGE 4: Teacher Reflection |
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As a reflective practitioner, note how this lesson could be adjusted after its initial implementation. How successful were the students? What did the assessment demonstrate about the students' learning? What skills do the students need to revisit? What instructional strategies worked and what made them successful? What will you change the next time you use this lesson? Why? Teacher Author of Lesson: Lisa Kissinger School System: Anne Arundel County Public Schools Pintable Charts and Graphs [Click on the link below for a printable version]
Today you will be writing to inform. When you write to inform, you are sharing what you know about a topic or subject with another person. Create an essay to share what you have learned about the reasons people chose to travel on the Underground Railroad through your analysis of the primary source narratives. In your essay, be sure to include:
MSDE Scoring Rubric: Writing To Inform 3 points Development: The writer incorporates specific, relevant information that is extended and expanded to fully explain the topic. The information is consistently purposeful. Organization: The writer establishes an organizational plan that is consistently and logically maintained. Attention to Audience: The writer incorporates information that clearly and effectively addresses the needs of the audience. Language: The writer consistently uses language choices to enhance the text. 2 points Development: The writer incorporates relevant information with some extension of ideas that explains the topic. The information is usually purposeful. Organization: The writer establishes an organizational plan that is maintained. The plan may have some minor flaws in the logical flow. Attention to Audience: The writer incorporates information that addresses the needs to the audience. Language: The writer frequently uses language choices to enhance the text. 1 point Development: The writer incorporates information that minimally explains the topic. The information may be general and/or extraneous, and may or may not be purposeful. Organization: The writer attempts to establish an organizational plan that is generally maintained. The plan includes some flaws in the logical flow. Attention to Audience: The writer attempts to address the needs of the audience. Language: The writer sometimes uses language choices to enhance the text. 0 points Development: The writer incorporates insufficient relevant information to explain the topic. The information provided may be overly general and/or purposeful. Organization: The writer establishes a weak organizational plan that is minimally maintained. The ordering of information is interrupted with flaws that hinder the logical flow. Attention to Audience: The writer does not incorporate information relevant to the needs and of the audience. Language: The writer seldom, if ever, uses language choices to enhance the text. © 2001, MSDE, Middle School Instructional Resource Manual, pg. F4 Language in Use Rule 2 points Consistently uses word and sentence order and language choices to express meaning with style and tone. Text conveys uniform impression of correctness and any errors that are present represent risk-taking. 1 point Sometimes uses word and sentence order and language choices to express meaning with style and tone. Text generally conveys impression of correctness and errors may or may not represent risk taking. 0 points Rarely or never uses word and sentence order and language choices to express meaning with style and tone. Text appears error-ridden. © 2001, Middle School Instructional Resource Manual, page F-1 |