Grades 3-5

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

¨     Place events during the Underground Railroad as well as people from that time in chronological order.

¨     Recount the lives and characters of a variety of individuals from the Underground Railroad.

¨     Identify the responses of individuals to historic violations of human dignity involving discrimination, persecution, and crimes against humanity. This will be done through newspaper articles, interviewing, or reenactments.

 ¨     Write scripts by planning and recording improvisations based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature,     and history.

 ¨     Research and find information to support classroom dramatizations.

 ¨   Respond to literature through discussion groups, quilting, and newspaper or interview.

 ·        Consumption: A wasting disease with symptoms of coughing and spitting up of fluid from the lungs; tuberculosis--a disease caused by a microorganism 

Mycrobacterium tuberculosis and marked by lesions in the lung and other parts of the body.

·        Extradition: The legal transfer of a person accused of a crime from one authority to another, usually in a separate geographic area, as from one state to another or one country to another.

 ·        Freeman: Person who is not a slave; person with the rights of a citizen.

        ·      Freedman: Former slave who either purchased his or her freedom or was granted freedom by an owner or by a legal act.

 ·        Fugitive Slave Act, 1850: Provisions of the Compromise of 1850 that set up a system for returning escaped slaves to their masters from all states and territories of the United States. It permitted a slave owner or person working for him (slave catcher, slave tracker) to go into a free state (state that had outlawed slavery) to take back an escaped slave. Federal marshals were required to enforce this law.

·        Memorial: Something that serves to help remember a person or an event.

 ·        Obituary: Published notice of someone's death. It often includes a brief biography of the person who died.

·        Pension: Money paid to a soldier or a worker or to their surviving relatives as a retirement benefit.

 ·        Slave: Person owned or bound by servitude to another.

·        Underground Railroad: A secret network of stations and safe houses that helped fugitive slaves find sanctuary in free states or Canada.

 ·        War of the Rebellion: The Civil War; the war between the northern and southern U. S. states that lasted from 1861 to 1865.

Fine arts to be used:

Throughout this unit we will be using music, drama, visual and hands on art, as well as computers for references and ideas.

 We chose these selections because they create a personal experience that is realistic and heartfelt. The children will be able to 

feel and understand the trials and tribulations the people of this time endured through the integration of these fine arts.

Procedures and steps:

Introduction:

You hear a story about a former slave who was separated from his family and sold to the highest bidder. He had to wear shackles around his wrists and ankles. When he arrived at his new plantation, he was expected to work from dawn to dusk under the blazing hot sun. He was not paid nor did he have control over his daily life. He tells that escape was his only choice. Refusing to remain a slave, he decided to cross the Mason-Dixon line using the Underground Railroad to find freedom in the North.

 You begin to write down his story:
...It is late at night. He and his conductor carefully journeyed on the Underground Railroad. We were walking through deep woods, using the shadows of the trees to hide us. When the crickets chirped, we would take our steps. It was slow going. The starry sky was their blanket, and the songs of crickets and hooting owls covered the sounds they made as they walked through the forest. High above in the night sky, the Drinking Gourd guided them as the North Star led them on their way to freedom.

 You run to your editor in chief with the beginning of your news story...

 Available at- http://education.ollusa.edu/edtech/educ5354/testfile2.htm

 
Step 1:

            To begin this study the teacher can use a k-w-l chart to find out what students know and what they would like to know about the Underground Railroad. 

Using various books to introduce the topic would also be helpful.  One book that will be used for an activity further along in the study of the Underground Railroad is Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. This book can either be read aloud by the teacher or on an individual basis with frequent class discussions.

There will be plenty of other work involved in this study and may be better if the teacher read the story aloud. Some terms that should be discussed throughout the story are:

·        Abolitionist - person who demanded immediate emancipation of slaves

·        Agent - coordinator, plotting course of escape, making contacts

·        Conductors - people directly transporting fugitives

·        Drinking Gourd - North star

·        Freedom Train - Code for UGRR

·        Gospel Train -code for UGRR

·        Heaven - Canada

·        Load of Potatoes, Parcels, Bundles of Wool - code word meaning fugitives to be expected

·        Preachers - leaders, speakers for UGRR

·        Promised Land - Canada

·        Shepherds - people escorting escaping slaves

·        Station - place of safety and temporary refuge, safe house

·        Station Master - keeper of safe house

·        Stockholder - donor of money, clothing, food, etc to UGRR

·        “The wind blows from the South today - warning of slave catchers nearby

·        “A friend with friends - code, password used to signal arrival of fugitives with UGRR conductor

Step 2:

After introducing the book, have the children choose an individual who fought against the injustice of slavery. There is a list provided or students may choose their own.

·        Levi and Catherine Coffin

·        Thomas Garrett

·        Harriet Tubman

·        William Still

·        Frederick Douglass

·        Sherman Booth (Wisconsin)

·        Lucretia Mott

·        Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

·        William and Ellen Craft

·        Henry  Box Brown

·        Jermaine Loguen

·        William Lloyd Garrison

·        Jonathan Walker

·        John Brown and Harpers Ferry

·        Eliza Harris

·        Sojourner Truth

·        John Rankin

·        Dred Scott

·        Elijah Lovejoy

·        Sengbe (Joseph cinquez)

·        Elizabeth keckley

·        Malinda paris

Our class will be creating quilt.  Each student will create a quilt square with symbols, illustrations of events, and a map related to his or her research topic.  Quilt squares may be used as a bulletin board.  Make borders and strips between the squares look like rivers, railroad tracks, or wagon trails.  Students will write a paper or paragraph telling what happened, where events occurred, who was involved, and why this person, place, or event was important in the history of the Underground railroad and/or abolition movement.

Students will spend one class period reviewing the play, “Plantation Trouble” which can be found at 

www.connix.com/dennis/julia/plant.htm

This will be an informal production of the play, but can be elaborated on with time permitting.

Step 4:

There was a lot of music introduced during the Civil War.  Some of the music included swing lo, sweet chariot, 

follow the drinking gourd, go down Moses, Jacob’s ladder.  The following is an activity that can be done using 

music from that time. 

Play spirituals. Have students discuss what messages these songs reflect.

Read aloud Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad without sharing the pictures. Students listen for statements that paint pictures in 

one's mind. Write these statements on the board.  Help students recognize these phrases as examples of figurative language. Compare 

examples cited by students with a previously recorded list on a chart, containing the following

Students explain what each statement means.  In groups, students select one of the statements and draw a picture to interpret the statement.  

At this time, share pictures from the story with the students as they share their pictures.

Students will be using a web quest to explore the Underground Railroad.    http://education.ollusa.edu/edtech/educ5354/testfile2.htm

http://newdeal.feri.org/asn/

1.  Your teacher will break your class into groups of four.  Each group will be its own news team.  Once in your groups, decide which role each member will play. 
2. Once each member has a role, be prepared to do your research using the resources provided above. Plan to use on-line and off-line sources. You may use additional sources not listed in this web quest, but remember to share what you find with your team.
3. While conducting your research, be sure to record your findings, such as important dates, people, places, and terminology that go along with the Underground Railroad.
4. At the beginning of each class share with your team members your findings from the previous day(s).
5. After you complete your research, begin working with your news team members to create a multimedia newscast or newspaper to report your findings about the Underground Railroad to the class. Remember to be CREATIVE with your newspaper or newscast so that it appears authentic and realistic.

Roles of group members:

Resources

http://education.ollusa.edu/edtech/educ5354/testfile2.htm--webquest

http://newdeal.feri.org/asn/ --American slave narratives

 www.connix.com/dennis/julia/plant.htm --Plantation Trouble play

Spiritual music references

http://www.okbu.edu/academics/natsci/planet/shows/gourd.htm

http://artsci.wustl.edu/~educ/historyweb/rachaelandbrianhistory.html

Quilt

http://www.ugrr.org/learn/jp-proj.html

Other relevant sources

http://www.beavton.k12.or.us/Greenway/leahy/ugrr/code.htm

http://www.sos.state.mi.us/history/museum/techstuf/civilwar/paris.html

http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam005.html

Assessment

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