Title: the Underground Railroad

Title: The Underground Railroad

Narrative: This unit of study focuses on slaves and the Underground Railroad centering on the concept of relationships that the fugitive slaves encountered. Students will learn how slaves interacted with slave owners, abolitionists, Quakers, slave hunters and Northerners as they escaped from the South. During this journey for freedom, slaves were assisted by people who developed the system that became known as The Underground Railroad. Students will understand how this system worked and the people associated with the Underground Railroad who assisted fugitive slaves. This unit has been developed for fourth grade and should take approximately four weeks to cover.

Title

Concept Based Title-Relationships Fugitive Slaves Encountered.

Concepts:

Relationships

Content Concepts:

Abolitionist, emancipation, fugitive slaves, Underground Railroad, biography, slavery

Learning Outcome Statements:

Students will develop an understanding of how slaves interacted with different types of people in the 1800’s
Students will understand the function of the Underground Railroad as it aided slaves on the road to freedom.
Students will know important people who aided fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad.

Organizational Chart

Hook: Simulation to get students excited about the unit.
Learning Outcome 1: Students will develop an understanding of how slaves interacted with different types of people in the 1800’s.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary Strategies: Bingo, Crossword Puzzles, Graphic Organizers
Comprehension Strategies: RAN chart
Economic Strategies: T-chart, Poem Interpretation
Writing Strategies: RAFT, Poster-Analysis
Standards
Resources

Learning Outcome 2: Students will understand the function of the Underground Railroad as it aided slaves on the road to freedom.

Readings
Vocabulary Strategies: Poems
Comprehension Strategies: Simulation, Field trip, Create a poster, Venn Diagram, Map making.
Writing strategies: Digital Storytelling
Standards
Resources

Learning Outcome 3: Students will know important people who aided fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad.

Readings
Vocabulary Strategies: Mural, Role Play
Writing Strategies: Biography/Live report
Entrepreneurial Strategies: Interactive Bulletin Board, Picture drawing
Standards
Resources

Following the unit, there is a list of various strategies and descriptors that can be used during this unit. They are listed as types of strategies:

Writing Strategies
Vocabulary Strategies
Role play/Simulations
Comprehension Strategies

Assessments
Resources: A complete list of resources and information about the resources are listed at the end of the unit.

Hook

First I will put together 4 desks forming a small table. 4 students will be randomly selected to pose as fugitives. I will place a sheet over the desks so they cannot be seen. The task: The principal or another adult is going to come into the room and read a read aloud to the students. The adult is not going to know that there are any students under the sheet. These students will be told that they have to sit under the desks and stay completely quiet. If at any time during the reading they are discovered, the class will lose their recess for the day. If on the other hand, the reader does not realize that they are under the sheet, they can earn the class an extra recess.

Once the reader leaves, the class will discuss the simulation.

How hard was it to be completely quiet?

How did you feel being cramped up under the desk?

How did you feel about possibly causing punishment for the whole class?

We will then discuss how this relates to fugitive slaves as they left their families in danger and tried to escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

Overview

This unit will be taught to 4th graders and will last approximately 4 weeks.

Learning Outcome 1. Students will develop an understanding of how slaves interacted with different types of people in the 1800’s. (different types include: slave owners, abolitionists, Quakers, slave hunters, Northerners )

Listed below is a collection of strategies that can be used to achieve Learning Outcome 1. The strategies do not need to be taught in order and can be substituted with other strategies listed at the end of the unit if desired.

Vocabulary –Students will be introduced to the following vocabulary and people associated with the Underground Railroad.

Abolitionist / Bounty Hunter/slave hunter / Colonization / Conductor
Drinking Gourd / Emancipate / Free Colored / Free-Labor Goods
Manumission / North Star / Fugitive / Canaan
Quaker/Society of Friends / Station / Biography / Person of Color
Underground Railroad / Warrant

Vocabulary Strategies:

Bingo—Using the Key-concepts and Definitions from the Underground Railroad, play Bingo.

Crossword puzzles—Students will use a computer program to generate a crossword puzzle of their own using words from the word bank. They will have to come up with their own clues to show their understanding of the vocabulary.

Graphic Organizers—For words such as abolitionists and fugitives, students will use graphic organizers that have them list the word in the middle, give the definition, write it in a sentence that shows meaning, give a synonym for it and an antonym for it. (I have these organizers at school that I can use)

Comprehension Strategies:

RAN Chart—Students tell what they think they know, as they study they confirm their knowledge, they also note mis-understandings, and then they write down new learning that occurs during the unit. This will be done at the beginning of the study to see what background children have on the Underground Railroad. Each child will have his/her own, and then they will make a large one as a class that they can add to as the unit goes along.

Economic Strategies:

T-Chart--I will read passages selected passages from web sites that debate the issue of slavery and how it impacted the South economically. Students will make a t-chart with their small group and list ways that Slavery helped the South and ways that it had a negative impact. We will then come together as a group and make a class t-chart over , ”The Pros and Cons of Slavery’s impact on the South’s economy.”

Poem Interpretation—After doing the class T-Chart above, students will go back with their groups and will be given a stanza from the poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each group will interpret their stanza in their own words. What do they think Emerson is trying to say to his readers? The class will come together to go over the entire poem.

Writing Strategies:

RAFT—Students will learn about the fact that slaves had to travel at night so they would not be seen or caught by slave catchers looking to cash in on the fugitive slave law. The RAFT activity will be as follows: (Transportation)

R / A / F / T
Moon / Sun / Friendly Letter / Explaining how all the slaves got past the Mason-Dixon line to Canada without the Sun knowing it.

Poster Analysis—primary source (national)

1.“Let the North Awake!!” Abolition Poster from the Indiana Historical Society’s Digital Image Library. Item ID: BROADSIDE_LET_THE_NORTH_AWAKE. Students will analyze a primary source document from the antebellum era. This will help them understand reasons for supporting abolition. (primary source --national)

2.”Slaves for sale-Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920” Students will analyze a primary source document exposing children to how slaves were bought and sold. This will help them understand how slaves were treated by slave owners.

View Website-primary source (national)

Students will hear narratives from American Slaves taken in 1936-38 about first- hand accounts of their life on plantations, in cities, and on small farms in the south.
After listening, students and teachers would have a class discussion about the feelings these narratives evoked in them personally.
Students would use exit tickets stating how their feelings of slavery have changed after listening to these narratives.

Standards:

Social Studies:

4.1.6,Explain how key individuals and events influenced the early growth of and changes in Indiana.

4.1.7, Explain the roles of various individuals, groups and movements in the social conflicts leading to the Civil War.(Individuals, Society and Culture)

4.2.7Use a variety of information resources* to take a position or recommend a course of action on a public issue relating to Indiana’s past or present.

Language Arts:

4.1.2 Apply knowledge of synonyms (words with the same meaning), antonyms (words with opposite meanings), homographs (words that are spelled the same but have different meanings), and idioms (expressions that cannot be understood just by knowing the meanings of the words in the expression, such as couch potato) to determine the meaning of words and phrases.

4.2.1,Use the organization of informational text to strengthen comprehension.
Example: Read informational texts that are organized by comparing and contrasting ideas, by discussing causes for and effects of events, or by sequential order and use this organization to understand what is read. Use graphic organizers, such as webs, flow charts, concept maps, or Venn diagrams to show the organization of the text.

4.2.3, Draw conclusions or make and confirm predictions about text by using prior knowledge and ideas presented in the text itself, including illustrations, titles, topic sentences, important words, foreshadowing clues (clues that indicate what might happen next), and direct quotations.

4.4.2,Select a focus, an organizational structure, and a point of view based upon purpose, audience, length, and format requirements for a piece of writing.

Resources:

Poster—“Let the North Awake!!” Abolition Poster from the Indiana Historical Society’s Digital Image Library. Item ID: BROADSIDE_LET_THE_NORTH_AWAKE. Php?CISOROOT=/dc008&CISOPTR=204&CISOBOX=1&REC=10

(accessed April 24, 2011).

Digital History

SlaveryIn The Civil War Era

slavery.htm

Learning Outcome 2. Students will understand the function of the Underground Railroad as it aided slaves on the road to Freedom.

Listed below is a collection of strategies that can be used to achieve Learning Outcome 2. The strategies do not need to be taught in order and can be substituted with other strategies listed at the end of the unit if desired.

Readings:

Follow the Drinking Gourd—This song and read aloud book was important to slaves as it was a symbol of the “Big Dipper” The Big Dipper is a group of stars where the bowl of the big dipper points to the Little Dipper. At the end of the Little Dipper’s handle is the North Star. The North Star is always above the North Pole so, if the enslaved Africans could find the North Star, they could find the path to freedom. There is a version that Morgan Freeman narrates. (Communication-National)

The Economy-Cabin Creek Short Branch and Some of Its Operations, A Description of One Section of the Underground Railroad System by C.E. Charles. This is document #11 located in the Underground Railroad file1 at Morrison Reeves Library. It tells how Barnabas Coffin, a Quaker that lived in Economy, IN aided fugitive slaves. He ran a pork-packing plant that ran pork to the Cincinnati waterfront and brought back salt and merchandise. His cousin, Levi Coffin, would press colored passengers on the northbound drivers of Barnabas. So whether he knew it or not, his wagons transported fugitive slaves along the Underground Railroad. (Transportation –State)

Coffin House—This is document #23 located in the Underground Railroad file at Morrison Reeves Library. The source is the Palladium, Nov. 13, 1968, p26, c.1. This article describes the wagon nicknamed “Palace Coach” that Levi Coffin had made for transporting escaping slaves. The increase in the number of runaway slaves caused Coffin to provide transportation facilities that would be available for use at a moment’s notice. (Transportation –State)

Vocabulary Strategies:

Poems—Students and Teacher will brainstorm a large list of any words that they can associate with the Underground Railroad to make a word bank. After compiling the word bank, students write them in their writer’s notebook or social studies notebook. Using the word bank, students can generate different types of poetry such as Haikus or Diamantes.

Assessments: Students will be assessed on accuracy of poem structure and correct usage and definition of terms.

Comprehension Strategies:

Simulation—Students will role play doing the simulation “Riding the Underground Railroad”. The simulation has slaves escaping from the South to the North. They travel from different designated spots until they reach their destination—or until a slave hunter captures them. Roles include: Quakers, abolitionists, conductors, slaves, and slave hunters. They then reflect on the simulation.

Field Trip--Students will take a field trip to the Levi Coffin House to see an actual station on the Underground Railroad. During the trip, they will take digital photos of the house.

Create a poster—Students will create their own poster incorporating ideas and phrases associated with the abolition movement.

Assessment—Students will be assessed on their poster on ability to get a clear message about abolition across in their drawing.

Venn Diagram—Given a list of Goals and Beliefs, students will place the goals on a Venn diagram under Abolitionist’s beliefs or Colonization’s Beliefs.

Assessment—Venn diagram will be assessed on accuracy of placement.

The Underground Railroad Map—This is located on the web site titled Underground Railroad American Civil War History. It is a great map that has a national map of all the routes believed to be used on the Underground Railroad. Students then could use a map of the United States and color the states that had slavery and the states that did not and then mark the routes the Underground Railroad followed. (Transportation-National)

Writing Strategies:

Digital Storytelling—After going to the Levi Coffin House students will use photographs to retell stories that they learned from the field trip. They can either do these on paper, or by making a PowerPoint. (State)

Assessment: Students will be assessed using a checklist and accuracy of facts.

Standards:

Social Studies:

4.1.6,Explain how key individuals and events influenced the early growth of and changes in Indiana.

4.1.7, Explain the roles of various individuals, groups and movements in the social conflicts leading to the Civil War.(Individuals, Society and Culture)

4.2.7Use a variety of information resources* to take a position or recommend a course of action on a public issue relating to Indiana’s past or present.

Language Arts:

4.1.1,Read aloud grade-level-appropriate literary and informational texts with fluency and accuracy and with appropriate timing, changes in voice, and expression.

4.2.2, Use appropriate strategies when reading for different purposes.
Example: Read and take notes on an informational text that will be used for a report. Skim a text to locate specific information. Use graphic organizers to show the relationship of ideas in the text.

4.2.4,Evaluate new information and hypotheses (statements of theories or assumptions) by testing them against known information and ideas.

4.2.5, Compare and contrast information on the same topic after reading several passages or articles.

4.3.3Use knowledge of the situation, setting, and a character’s traits, motivations, and feelings to determine the causes for that character’s actions.

4.7.1, Ask thoughtful questions and respond orally to relevant questions with appropriate elaboration.

4.7.2,Summarize major ideas and supporting evidence presented in spoken presentations

Resources:

Follow the Drinking Gourd—This song was important to slaves as it was a symbol of the “Big Dipper” and the big dipper is a group of stars where the bowl of the big dipper points to the little dipper. At the end of the little dipper’s handle it the North Star. The North Star is always above the North Pole so if the enslaved Africans could find the North Star, they could find the path to freedom. (National)