Units on African-American Culture

Title by Lori Dierks

Art, Reading, & Listening
Title: Introduction of the Underground Railroad & Art
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: Paper, pencils, copy of "Running For Our Lives" by Tilley Turner.
Objectives: Students will be able to visualize while the story is being read. Students will be able to use a K-W-L diagram. Students will be able to write a letter to the family in the story.
Pre-Lesson: Students will make a K-W-L diagram using the topics of slavery and the Underground Railroad. Draw a picture of what you think the Underground Railroad looks like.
Lesson: Have the students close their eyes while reading "Running For Our Lives"
Post-Lesson: Discuss the story and the K-W-L diagram
Assessment: The students will write a letter to the family from the story expressing their feelings about the family and their reaction from the story.


Literature, Reading, & Writing
Title: Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold
Objectives: Students will be able to answer questions about the story. Students will be able to write their own adventure describing ways to escape and how to find/remember the way.
Pre-Lesson: Introduce the story and explain what will be done. With Harriet Tubman as her guide, Cassie retraces the steps escaping slaves took on the Underground Railroad in order to reunite with her younger brother.
Lesson: Read the story.
Post-Lesson: Ask following questions: How did other escapees find the route North especially when most of them were not allowed to learn reading or writing? Talk about traveling at night and how escaping slaves must have felt. What constellations would you use to find your way? Along the escape route, how could people know which houses were "safe"?
Assessment: Each student will write an adventure of how and what they would do or use to escape.


Research & Bulletin Board
Title: Who’s Who Bulletin Board
Time Requirement: 3 Class Periods
Materials: Resource books, library
Objectives: Students will be able to identify Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and other prominent figures of the era.
Pre-Lesson: Discuss Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and list other prominent figures of the era
Lesson: Research these people. Find pictures, and list facts about them and why they are important
Post-Lesson: Create a class bulletin board displaying what was found
Assessment: Students will discuss/describe what they found and added to the bulletin board


Reading, Speaking, & Listening
Title: Readers Theater
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: Copy of Civil War readers theater found at http://www.triton/eled360
Objectives: Students will be able to perform readers theater and discuss it
Pre-Lesson: Read the poem about Harriet Tubman
Lesson: Assign parts and read through the Readers Theater
Post-Lesson: Discuss what it was about
Assessment: Students will write a reflection in their journals


Literature, Reading
Title: The Drinking Gourd
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: The Drinking Gourd by F.N. Monjo, paper, pencils
Objectives: Students will be able to predict what the story is about. After the story is read, students will be able to discuss it.
Pre-Lesson: What do you think the story is about? Why do you think so? What is meant by "Drinking Gourd?"
Lesson: Read the Story
Post-Lesson: What is the Underground Railroad? Why did slaves have to hide? What is the "Drinking Gourd?" Continue with a story web
Assessment: Write a different ending to the story and read them aloud in class.








Writing & Speaking
Title: Freedom
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: Students Journals
Objectives: After discussing freedom, the students will be able to list freedoms they have, tell why its important, and what it would mean to them if they lost their freedom.
Pre-Lesson: Discuss freedom, list some on the board
Lesson: Write in journals why freedom is important and what it would mean if they lost it
Post-Lesson: Summarize in groups what each student wrote
Assessment: The students will summarize/write a reaction of what was discussed in the groups.

Science
Title: Science and the Underground Railroad
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: Map of escape route, topographical maps
Objectives: After studying the terrain, the students will be able to describe it. Students will be able to discuss the importance of why slaves escaped, how they may have escaped, and what they may have used to escape.
Pre-Lesson: Students will look at a map of the escape routes. We will discuss what means they used to escape.
Lesson: Students will be given topographical maps and will study the terrain traveled during the escape.
Post-Lesson: Discuss the results of the terrain they found and why it was difficult to escape and why they had to.
Assessment: Herringbone Diagram of what was discussed in class.


Reading & Math
Title: Math and the Underground Railroad
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: map of the escape routes, "Follow The Drinking Gourd" by Jeanette Winter.
Objectives: Students will be able estimate in order to calculate the average number of miles walked per night.
Pre-Lesson: Read "Follow the Drinking Gourd"
Lesson: Working in groups, students will estimate the number of miles the slaves walked per night and find a class average.
Post-Lesson: Discuss the results from each group
Assessment: Graph the result of each group and summarize the graph




Social Studies & Reading
Title: Social Studies and the Underground Railroad
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: Reference book, paper, posters, tape, markers
Objectives: Students will be able to use reference books to develop a time line of slavery
Pre-Lesson: Discuss slavery, Civil War, and the Underground Railroad
Lesson: Use reference books to find facts to develop a time line. The students will be put into cooperative groups. Each group will be assigned different years to research. Students will write the year and the fact on paper
Post-Lesson: The students will share with the class what they found and will perform a readers theater or post them around the room
Assessment: Each students will write in their journals the fact they found most interesting and why.

Technology
Title: Internet Underground Railroad
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period
Materials: Computers, Internet Access, and a printer
Objectives: Students will be able to use the Internet to find information on the Civil War, Slavery, and the Underground Railroad
Pre-Lesson: Students will be assigned a topic and will brainstorm for ideas
Lesson: Students will be given Internet addresses or type in key words to find information on their topic.
Post-Lesson: Students will be grouped with those with similar topics and discuss their information
Assessment: K-W-L strategy

Music
Title: Music and the Underground Railroad
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period & Perform to Parents on last day
Materials: following music: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Go Down Moses.
Objectives: After practicing the music, students will be able to perform it to parents and other grades.
Pre-Lesson: Students will warm up voices
Lesson: Introduce and practice songs
Post-Lesson: Discuss the meaning of each song
Assessment: Students will be assess on their cooperation








Literature & Reading
Title: Literature Circles
Time Requirement: 1 Class Period (books may have to be taken home and discussed the next day)
Materials: Book List
Objectives: After reading a book chosen from a book list, the students will represent themselves and their book in a literature circle.
Pre-Lesson: Students will be given a book list and then dismissed to the library to find the book and to read the book.
Lesson: Students will read the book chosen
Post Lesson: Students will be put in groups and have a literature circle.
Assessment: Each student will make a graphic organizers of their books.


Poetry, Art, & Literature
Title: Poetry
Time Requirement: 2 Class Periods
Materials: Words to Drinking Gourd poem-found in The Drinking Gourd by F.N. Monjo & Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson
Objectives: Students will be able to work cooperatives to create a poem to tell the route of the Underground Railroad.
Pre-Lesson: Read the poem and discuss its meaning.
Lesson: Work in groups to create their own poem for the Underground Railroad
Post-Lesson: Read Sweet Clara and The Freedom Quilt, students will then draw a quilt showing their escape route.
Assessment: Invite the parents to hear about what the students have been doing all through the month. The students will tell what they have done and what they liked best.

Drama, Speaking, & Listening
Title: Drama
Time Requirement: 3 Class Periods
Materials: Library, Resource Books, paper pencils
Objectives: Given an assigned person, the students will be able to describe a typical day of that person.
Pre-Lesson: Students will be assign a person. Examples include: Harriet Tubman, a male slave, a female slave, Frederick Douglass, a girl slave, a boy slave, and a slave owner.
Lesson: Students will research their assigned person. They can use any materials or people.
Post-Lesson: Students will perform their parts.
Assessment: K-W-L Strategy




BOOK LIST
FICTION
*Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt*
Deborah Hopkinson
James Ransome
1993
Alfred A. Knopf: New York

*Steal Away to Freedom*
Jennifer Armstrong
1993
Scholastic

*Now Let Me Fly: The Story of a Slave Family*
Dolores Johnson
1993
MacMillan

*The Drinking Gourd: Story of the Underground Railroad*
F.N. Monjo
1993
Harper Trophy

*Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad*
Faith Ringold
1992
Crown

*Working Cotton*
Sherley Anne Williams
1992
HBJ

*Follow the Drinking Gourd*
Jeanette Winter
1990
Knopf








*Running for Our Lives*
Glennette Tilley Turner
1994
Holiday House
*Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky*
Faith Ringold
1993
Crown: New York


NON-FICTION
*Harriet Tubman and The Underground Railroad*
Dan Elish
1993
Milbrook Press

*Captive Bodies, Free Spirits: The Story of Southern Slaves*
William J. Evitts
1985
Julian Messner

*Many Thousands Gone: African-Americans from Slavery to Freedom*
Virginia Hamilton
1993
Knopf

*Get On Board: The Story of The Underground Railroad*
James Haskins
1994
Scholastic

*Harriet and The Promised Land*
Jacob Lawrence
1993
Simon & Schuster

*If You Traveled on The Underground Railroad*
Ellen Levine
1992
Scholastic

*Escape From Slavery: Five Journeys to Freedom*
Doreen Rapport
1991
Harper Collins

*Our Song, Our Toil: The Story of American Slavery as Told by Slaves*
Michele Stepto
1994
Milbrook

*To Be A Slave*
Julius Lester
1968 (An oldie but goodie)
Scholastic

10. *A Separate Battle: Women and the Civil War*
Ina Chang
1991
Lodestar Books


FOLKLORE
*The Last Tales of Uncle Remus*
Julius Lester
1994
Dial Books

*African-American Folktales for Young Readers*
1993
August House


POETRY
*Followers of the North Star: Rhymes about African-American Heroes, Heroines, and Historical Times*
S. Altman & S. Lechner
Scholastic
1993
Children's Press

*Pass It On: African-American Poetry for Children*
Wade Hudson
1993
Scholastic

*Harriet and The Promised Land*
Jacob Lawrence
1993
Simon & Schuster
AUDIO-VISUAL RESOURCES
*The Slave Dancer*
Paula Fox
1993
Recorded Books, Inc.
cassette
-This seems to be a good resource. It is lengthy (4 hours). But, you could use certain parts of it. This book, won a
Newberry Medal.

*Follow the Drinking Gourd*
Bernadine Connelly
Narrated by Morgan Freeman
1992
Rabbit Ears Productions, Inc.
video

TEACHER RESOURCES
*Kwanzaa: An African American Celebration of Culture and Cooking*
Eric V. Copage
1991
William Morrow and Company, Inc.

*From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans*
John Hope Franklin & Alfred A. Moss, Jr.
1988
McGraw-Hill

*Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism*
Michael Eric Dyson
1993
University of Minnesota Press

*People in Bondage: African Slavery Since the 15th Century*
L.H. Ofosu-Appiah
1993
Runestone Press

*A Voice From the South*
Anna Julia Cooper

*Collected Black Women's Narratives*
Henry Louis Gates


*Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl*
Harriet Jacobs

*We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century*
Dorothy Sterling