Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad

By Henry Cole

Productive Resources Lesson

Relay Race

Book Synopsis: Set during the Civil War (1861-1865), this remarkable wordless book tells the story of a young Southern farm girl who protects a runaway slave. Brave and perceptive, our young heroine lives a simple life with a devout family. After discovering a fugitive in the cornfield, she not only keeps this information from bounty hunters seeking a reward, she manages to covertly get food to the unseen person in need. The power of actions over words is powerfully conveyed at the end of the story when the person who needed help rewards the young helper in a perfect manner.

With striking pencil drawings full of subtle shadings and meaning, this book can be enjoyed by the young reader who will follow the tale’s linear storyline. Older students with knowledge of this historical time period will be fascinated by the combination of embedded visual clues and unstated communication that defines the Civil War and Underground Railroad. The author’s endnotes reveal the inspiration for the book and invite readers to write their own story.

Introduction:This lesson reviews productive resources as they relate to the main characters in the wordless book Unspoken. After being introduced to the book, students “actively” learn about productive resources.

Time Required: 25-30 minutes

Objectives:

  • The student will participate in a class problem solving activity
  • The student will describe natural resources (water, soil, wood, and coal), human resource (people at work), and capital resources (machines, tools, and buildings)

Virginia Standard of Learning:

3.7The student will explain how producers use natural resources, human resources, and capital resources in the production of goods and services.

CE.11(a) The student will demonstrate knowledge of how economic decisions are made

in the marketplace by applying the concepts of scarcity, resources, choice,

opportunity cost, price, incentives, supply and demand, production, and consumption

Economic Concepts

  • Productive resources—all natural resources, human resources, and human-made resources (capital) used in the production of goods and services.
  • Natural resources—“gifts of nature” that are present without human intervention.
  • Human resources—the quantity and quality of human effort directed toward producing goods and services.
  • Capital resources are goods made by people and used to produce other goods and service.

Materials:

  • Three sets of puzzle cards copied on card stock (for ease of organization use a different color for each set)
  • Copy of Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole [Scholastic Press, 2012].
  • Visual –Henry Cole Puzzle
  • Writing tools
  • Ziploc Bags
  • Optional- A copy of “Make Your Own Puzzle” for each student

Procedure:

  1. Prepare and collect materials prior to class.
  2. Introduce the lesson by telling the students that they will be participating in an activity based on the book Unspoken by Henry Cole. Explain that while this is a wordless book it still tells a suspenseful story that takes place during the Civil War.
  3. “Read” the book to the students. This takes about five minutes.
  4. Review the concepts of natural resources (water, soil, wood, and coal), human resource (people at work), and capital resources (machines, tools, and buildings) with the students. Explain that they will be putting this knowledge to work by assembling three puzzles.
  5. Display the Henry Cole puzzle sheet and review its contents. This works well if you have two versions of the puzzle; one as a whole sheet and the other cut up in the three puzzle pieces.
  6. Tell the students that there are three puzzles in each bag. Explain that each team is to assemble these puzzles on the predetermined flat surface.
  7. Divide the class into three teams. (Two teams will work for smaller classes.)
  8. Give each team a Ziploc bag with a complete puzzle set.
  9. Instruct the teams that one student from each team is to take the bag to the flat surface, remove a piece and try to place it correctly. (This should become easier as the relay progresses.) That student then returns, giving the bag to the next person in line, who adds an additional piece to the puzzle. Each student takes a turn until all three puzzles are completed.
  10. The winning team is the one that completes all three puzzles first. This team gets bragging rights.
  11. Review the content on the puzzle pieces, discussing the part each of the characters played in the storyas well as the economic concepts involved.

Extension Activity: Students may create their own puzzle using the “Create Your Own Puzzle” activity sheet.

Visual

Author/Artist Henry Cole

Drawing Easel Corn Field

Artist- Henry Cole

#1:Farm Girl

Potatoes Basket

Farm Girl

# 2: Bounty Hunter

Water Rifle

Bounty Hunter

#3: Unknown Traveler

Polaris (Big Dipper) Quilt


Possible Runaway Slave

Create Your OwnPuzzle

Some character suggestions:

Human Resources: Farmer’s Wife (gathering eggs in a basket), The Grandmother (knitting a scarf) The Grandfather, (planting corn), Confederate Soldiers (returning home)

Natural Resource Capital Resource

Human Resource

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Lesson © 2013 Lynne Farrell Stover

Unspoken © 2012 Scholastic Press