Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum

Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum

Lesson Plan for Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi

Created by: Deann Koster-Fester

School: Calhoun Unit #40, Hardin, Illinois

July 7, 2014–Mark Twain Teachers’ Workshop

Hannibal, Missouri

“1800s: Life on the Rivers ”

LESSON PLAN for American History
Concept or Topic:
What was 1800s life on the rivers? / Suggested Grade Level:
6th, 7th and 8th
Subject:
Literature/Social Studies/American History / Suggested Time Frame:
two weeks
Objective(s):
Students will
1. The students will research using primary and secondary sources about 1800s life on the rivers?.
2. The students will use historical contextual analysis to determine different aspects of 1800s' life on the rivers.
3. The students will compare and contrast life in the 1800s to today.
State Standards: Illinois Social Studies Standard 16A. Students who meet the standard can apply the skills of historical anallysis and interpretation.
Add related Common Core State Standards for 6th, 7th and/or 7th grade
Reading Standards for Literacy in History/ Social Studies 11-12: Key Ideas and Details: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
Assessments:

History Fair Project Rubrics
ELA classroom will be reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finnto discover topics for their history fair projects. Examples: Food, Transportation, Medicine, Media, Social Norms, Housing, Education, Fashion, Technology, Entertainment, Family Dynamics, Legal System, Travel

Vocabulary:
Primary / Secondary Sources (Dr. Jocelyn Chadwick's Powerpoint Slides)
Primary sources--(1st person) are documents, photos, videos that are of the event or the actual person that was at the event.
Secondary Sources--(2nd person) are books or stories of written or "retold" by another person.
"Historical context" - Understanding the text of Huckleberry Finn through life in the 1800s and present day perspective.
Subject Area Integration:

History/ Social Studies
Language Arts

Background Information:

This unit will be integrated the same time as the ELA teacher is teaching the Mark Twain novels.
In this lesson and two-week unit, I will use the readings of this workshop (specifically list the readings you will share with the students) to engage my students in Mark Twain's novels.
Throughout the school year, the students will be studying local Illinois history and participate in a history fair project and pioneer day for the school and county community. (Fifteen sources are required for the history fair project.)

Materials: 3 Mark Twain Books: Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Adventures of Mark Twain(Do you mean Huckleberry Finn?)
Technology:

Research Mark Twain Resource Sites(Which sites specifically? Include the webpage title and address.)for historical context topics. The students will be researching selected 1800s topics for their Illinois History Project. They are required to have at least 15 sources.
Mark Twain Boyhood Home Site, Hannibal, Missouri(add url)
Review of chronology of Clemen's Life
Search of Twain's letters from the era
Library of Congress- Photos of 1800s and WPA stories of slave accounts(add url)

Related Twain Quotes/Passages:
Chapter 9—Graveyard Scene
Chapter 30—Life on the Mississippi
Lesson Sequence: During the two weeks of this lesson, the students will research the history of the river area. The Language Arts teacher will be teaching the Mark Twain unit.
Hook/Intro: The students will be introduced to the Illinois History Fair Project for the local community fair and their semester project. Students will present their history fair project to younger students and invite them to the culminating activity the first Tuesday of April 2015 which is Pioneer Day. Their projects will be on display, but they will also act as hosts for each topic. Example topics are: 1800s Life on the River: Food (breading making, butter, hardtack), Transportation(Steamboats, horses, feet), Medicine (germs, diseases, surgery, country doctors), media/ communication (newpapers, telegraph, letter writing/ Pony Express), social norms (Tom vs. Huck, slavery), Housing (City vs. Country), Education (one room- private vs. public), Fashion (social ladder), Technology, Entertainment, Family Dynamics, Legal System and Travel around the World
Teaching of the Concept(s):
1. Read the passages that were highlighted in quotes area of lesson plan. As the teacher reads the passage to the students, they will illustrate the scenes from the book. The students will do an art gallery walk of their art work and students will view and add captions to the pictures with sticky notes. The students will work in groups to compare and contrast the 1800s to today.
2. Primary vs. Secondary Sources
a. Dr. Jocelyn Chadwick’s Slides- What are primary and secondary sources?
b. Primary Sources—Letters, Pilot License, Photos (Steamboats)
c. Secondary Sources—Drawing, Biographies
3. Doing research of historic topics
a. online—validity issues will be discussed (How do you know a source is valid?)
b. hard copy—conflicts of data (What do you do if facts differ in two sources?)
4. Introduce Bibliography- What are the research requirements for the history fair?
a. How to cite sources
b. Reliability of the resource
5. After research-
a. Answer history question
b. Create Trifold display
c. Presentation of history project
d. Pioneer Day with Student Expert Projects, Activities and Speakers
Rubric of History Fair Report and Visual Project
Suggested Questions:

How was the 1800s life on the river alike and different from life today?
How do you know what is a reliable resource?
What is an example of primary source?
What is an example of a secondary source?
How do you cite a source? (digital and hard copy)
Have you met the history fair requirements?
What have you learned about life in the 1800s?

Learning Activity:
1. After reading the passage from Life on the Mississippi, draw a picture of life on the Mississippi. Using an art gallery activity with post-it notes, the students will write captions for the drawings. Use figurative language or expansion of writing when possible.
2. Students will identify primary and secondary sources during research of their topics.
3. Students are selecting topics for the history fair.
4. Write bibliography and written report of summary statement form.
5. Develop visual boards and presentation for Pioneer Day.
Homework:
Students will conduct extensive research of history fair topics and create visual projects and presentations.
Strategies for Exceptional Students:

Increase engagement—students have a choice of topics
Gifted—Require more resources
LD—Students may use scribes to dictate responses or accommodations in line with their IEPs.
Read Twain passages out loud.

Suggested Follow-Up Activities:

Hannibal Field Trip
Community History Fair Night
Regional and State Level History Fair
Pioneer Day for every student

Illinois History Fair Grading Rubric Form

Title of Project ______Total Score ______/225 pts.

Name (s) of Student (s) ______

Visual Project

1. Effect on You: Did the set-up of the visual project draw your interest? 25 pts. _____

2. Neatness: Was everything cut out evenly, set up nicely, and spaced correctly

in an organized fashion? 25 pts. _____

3. Timeline: Does the timeline look organized and set-up in a chronological order

across the presentation board? 25 pts. _____

4. Board: Did the information, photos, captions, etc. presented go with the

title and tell us a pertinent story? Are the students involved with the subject?

50 pts. _____

5. Additional Visual Materials- Do the additional materials help enhance the quality of the presentation? (Check any of these which apply.)

_____ model ______quiz _____ photo album ______map ___ drawing

_____ flip the facts ______other ______(List.)

______

Written Report

Bibliography 50pts. _____

______Good variety of resources

______Minimum of 10 resources (15 or more preferred)

______No more that 30% of resources websites (Effort should be made to find

the resource in hard copy form.) Websites should be valid. NO

Wikipedia. What is a valid website?

How often is it updated? Does it have a contact person? Does the website

cite its own primary and secondary sources?

______Correctly spelled, indented, spaced, and alphabetically ordered.

______Some inclusion of primary vs. secondary sources.

______Did they make an effort to find the authors, title, publishers, places and

dates?

Title Page 5pts. _____

Questions 1 and 2—Topic chosen and why. Favorite part of the project.

10pts. _____

Question 3 and 4—Give stages and hours spent - How many hours did you spend on your research? 20 pts. _____

Question 5—List facts/ conflicts learned from the project. Minimum of 1 full page response required. 25 pts. _____

Question 6—Tell us why this subject is important to Illinois History. Minimum of 2 pages with three pages preferred. 40 pts. _____

______

Comments-

Calhoun County, Illinois History Fair 2015

Summary Statement Form

1. In one sentence, what is the main theme of your entry?

2. Briefly explain why you became interested in researching your subject. What was your favorite part of your project?

3. Explain the stages involved in creating your entry.

4. How much time did you spending working/researching your entry?

5. What did you learn from your research? Did you find any conflicting information about your topic while you were researching? If so; please explain.

6. Please explain the project’s relationship to Illinois History?

Bibliography:

Good variety of resources
Minimum of 10 resources listed (15 or more preferred).
No more than 30% websites.
Correctly spelled, indented, spaced, and alphabetically ordered
Some inclusion of primary vs secondary resources.
Did you make an effort to find the authors, titles, publishers, places, and dates?