Staci Stawar, Andrea Streckfuss, Alecia Williamson, Chrissy Wilson
Content Area: Language Arts, Geography
Grade Level: Grade 4-5
Objectives:
- Students will read Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt fluently to a partner (1.B.2c.).
- Students will compare and contrast Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt and Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky (16.A.2a.).
- Students will construct a quilt square that will act as a map (17.A.2b.).
Strategies/Techniques:
Read aloud
Materials:
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky, quilt squares, rulers, pencils, scratch paper, markers, local maps
Procedures:
Anticipatory Set:
Ask students, “If I wanted to go somewhere that I had never been before, how would I find my way?” Today, we will look at how escaped slaves found their way to freedom in unfamiliar and dangerous lands.
Development:
Read students Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky.
- While reading, stop to ask them questions related to the story (see attached).
- Discuss how the trip was neither easy nor safe.
- Ask students if they ever felt that they did something that wasn’t safe but they felt was right.
Talk to students about how slaves found their way along the railroad (help from Quakers, quilts, legends, oral traditions, nature).
Have students read Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quiltalone and then reread with a partner.
- Encourage students to read fluently.
- Explain to students that Clara created quilts that acted as maps for escaped slaves.
- She helped many people escape to freedom.
- Would you be willing to do such a thing?
Have students take out a piece of scratch paper.
- Today, we are going to work on creating a quilt.
- Each student will create a quilt square map that would help a runaway find their way to freedom.
- Students are to choose a place in their city (post office, police station, another school).
- All directions must be given from the school as the starting point.
- Students must label North, South, East, and West.
- Students may not know the meaning of the terms but allow them to explore maps and atlases to discover their meaning on their own. Explain the concepts if students are struggling.
- Once students have created a rough draft of their quilt square, give them a quilt square to copy their drawing onto.
- After all the students have completed their squares (some may need to take theirs home for homework), have the students present their squares.
- Encourage the class to try and guess where the map leads.
- Encourage them to use directional cues like North and South.
Closure:
Tape all of the students quilt squares together. Tell them how proud you are of their work and how they would have been very helpful if they had helped with the Underground Railroad.
Modifications/Adaptations:
Allow students to work in pairs to create quilt squares. Try and pair a more adept geography student with a student that may be struggling.
Create a quilt square as a class before sending students to work on their own.
Extensions:
Have students create a quilt square about a fictitious place.
Have students write a message wishing the journeyers well.
Have students create illustrations for the quilt.
Allow them to take the journey of an escaped slave on
Technology:
Computer
Assessment of Student Learning:
Questions
- What was the name of the star that guided the slaves at night?
- When we look at a map, where do we find North? Is that the same as the north in North Star?
- How did slaves find their way on the Underground Railroad?
- Did the slaves always use just one thing to guide them?
- Was the Underground Railroad and actual railroad with a train?
- Why did they call Harriet Tubman the conductor of the Underground Railroad?
- Why would slaves use quilts and not paper maps?
- Why couldn’t slaves turn back once they began the trip to freedom?
- If you lived back in the 1860’s, would you have risked everything to escape to freedom?
Quilt Square