Units on African-American Culture

The Drinking Gourd

by Pat Renner

Day 1

Subject: Social Studies, Reading
Title: The Drinking Gourd
Grade: 3rd
Time required: 5 hours
Objectives: Students will gain introductory knowledge of the underground railroad.

Pre-Lesson: Students will be presented with the book Follow The Drinking Gourd.
The students will be asked to write their prediction of what they think the story is about. The class will then discuss their predictions.

Lesson: The teacher will read Follow The Drinking Gourd to the class and then the class will discuss the story. The students will be asked to name all of characters in the book and that list will be recorded on the board. The class will then give a brief description of each character in the book and what they represent in the story.
Day Two: The students will then begin selecting cast members for the presentation of the play, Follow the Drinking Gourd. Students will then begin putting together the play with the supervision of the teacher and parent volunteers.
Day 3: Work on play
Day 4: work on play.

Day 5: Rehearsal of play.
Day 8: Present play to other classes. Presentation will be video taped.

Post Lesson: Watch the tape of the play and discuss the impact the underground railroad had on the cast of the play.

Assessment: Students will evaluate their own performance of their production.



Day 2

Subject: Art
Title: Character Art
Grade: 3rd
Time required: 1hr.

Objectives: Students will use crayons and scissors to create a drawing of a character from the book Follow the Drinking Gourd.

Materials:
1. Crayons
2. scissors
3. construction paper
4. box car pattern
5. drawing paper
6. glue
Pre-lesson: Students will be given patterns of a box car and then asked to trace and cut out the pattern using construction paper. Students will choose a character that they enjoyed in the book or one that they are portraying in the play and then draw a picture of that person. The picture will then be glued to the box car for display in the room.

Post Lesson: Cleanup


Day 3

Lesson 1: work on play

Lesson 2
Title: KWL bulletin board
Grade: 3rd
Time required: 1hr.
Objectives:
1. Students will construct a bulletin board based on the knowledge they have about the underground railroad.

Pre-lesson: Students will be

Lesson:
Students will be asked to write down what they know as well as some things they want to know about the underground railroad on the KWL bulletin board. Each student will read out loud their comments and questions to the class as they apply them to the bulletin board.

Post Lesson: Students will be reminded that as new ideas come to their head, they should apply more information to the bulletin board.

Assessment: Students will be observed for participation.



Day 4
Lesson 1: work on play

Lesson 2:

Subject: Music
Title: The Drinking Gourd Song
Grade: 3rd
Time required: 2 hrs.
Materials: Lyrics to the song "The Drinking gourd:"

Objectives: Students will learn the words to the song "The Drinking Gourd."

Pre-lesson: Student will discuss the significance of the song and talk about the meaning of the lyrics.

Lesson: Students will come up with actions to go with the words of the song after rehearsing it several times. The song will be practiced during two music sessions prior to the play.

Post Lesson: Students will sing their song at the conclusion of their play on Friday.

Assessment: Observation of participation

Day 5: Play rehearsal



Day 6


Subject: Science
Title: The Big Dipper
Grade: 3rd
Time required: 1hr.
Materials:
Objectives: Students will be able to identify a few stars and constellations of the solar system.

Pre-lesson: Students will be asked how the slaves might have navigated throughout their journey to safety? When did they travel? How did they find their way?

Lesson: A drawing of the Big Dipper will be displayed on the board to the for the class to view. The students will be instructed that the Big Dipper and the North Star has been used for navigation purposes for thousands of years. They will be instructed that it’s position remains the same year round unlike many other constellations. Students will then determine on their own where the Big dipper would be located in the room and then students will make a replica of the constellation on the wall of the classroom. This will become a prop for the classes dramatization.

Post lesson: Students will discuss others who may have used the stars for navigation purposes. Students will discuss what the slaves did when the sky was overcast. Students will be encouraged to view the Big Dipper at home with the assistance of their parents.

Assessment: Students will be observed for participation.



Day 7

Subject: Math, Social Studies
Title: Our Daily Routine
Grade: 3rd
Time required: 1 hr.
Materials:
1. paper
2. crayons

Objectives: Students will create pie graphs using student created data.

Pre-lesson: Students will asked to think about their daily activities on an average Saturday or Sunday and then write that information down. They will then be asked to think about the possible daily routine of a particular character in the book, Follow the Drinking Gourd and write that information down.

Lesson: Students will then create two different pie graphs, one using their lives and the other using the daily routines of a character from the book. Students will color then neatly for display in the classroom. Students will be asked to compare their lives to the slaves’ life as well as others in the class.

Post Lesson: Students will discuss other ways to record information such as that recorded in the pie graph they made. They will discuss what each segment of the pie graph represents and relate that to fractions or percentages.

Assessment: Students will save their graph for their portfolios.

Day 8: Students present play, watch video of play

Day 9

Subject: Language, Art, Social Studies
Title: Harriet Tubman
Grade: 3rd
Time: 2 hrs.
Objectives: Students will create an illustrated time line of Harriet Tubman’s life.

Materials:
A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman’s Life by David Adler
large roll of white paper
crayons, markers, paint, colored pencils

Pre-lesson: The teacher will read A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman’s Life.

Lesson: The teacher will then tell the class that there are many important dates and events that took place in the book. The class will then be instrcuted to listen closely and record as many dates and important events that happened, while the book is read to them again.
After the book is read, the class will be asked to create a time line as a group, recording only the dates and the name of the event on the roll of white paper.

Post lesson: Students will discuss the most important dates in Tubman’s
life.


Day 10: No school President’s Day

Day 11
Lesson 2: The class will illustrate the time line.

Post Lesson: The class will be asked to discuss what they learned from the activity.

Subject: Math
Title: Ticket Please
Grade: 3rd
Time: 45 minutes
Materials: none
Objectives: Students will create and solve story problems.

Pre-Lesson: the class will be instructed that Harriet Tubman led about 300 slaves to freedom using the underground railroad 19 different times.

Lesson: The class will be put into small groups and asked to find out how many slaves went on each trip. The groups will be given other relevant numbers related to Tubman’s life and slavery. The groups will then be asked to create their own story problems and exchange them with other groups for solving.

Post Lesson: Students will discuss with the class strategies they used to solve the problems.


Day 12

Subject: Language
Title: Farewell
Grade 3rd
Time: 1 hr.
Objectives:
Students will be able to read poetry orally.
Students will be able to create their own poetry.

Materials:
poem Harriet Tubman by Eloise Greenfield
Pre-Lesson: The teacher will read the poem Harriet Tubman

Lesson:
Each student will get a copy of the poem Harriet Tubman and each line will be discussed regarding it’s meaning. The class will then read the poem together in a variety of ways. Students will then brainstorm to find as many words describing Harriet Tubman. Students will then be asked to create their own four line poem using the words on the board or using their won words if they wish.

Post Lesson: Students will read their poem to the class.

Assessment: Students will include their poem in their portfolio.


Day 13

Subject: Science, Social Studies
Title: Weather or not?
Grade: 3rd
Time: 1 hour
Objective: Students will be aware of the weather patterns of several states. Students will be able to identify routes that slaves took to freedom and which states were slave states and which weren’t.

Materials: Freedom Map
Pre-Lesson: Students will be given the freedom map to take home. Each student will be assigned a state. Students will then be asked to either bring in the weather portion from a newspaper or collect information from the weather report on t.v.

Lesson: Students will all record their weather reports on an expanded version of the map they’ve been given. Students will then discuss the differences in the weather from the free states and the slave states. Students will be asked to identify complications that slaves might have encountered during their quest for freedom.

Post-Lesson: Students will record on their maps, the temperatures gathered by their classmates.

Assessment: Students will include this document in their portfolio.


Day 14
Subject: Language, Social Studies
Title: Freedom
Grade: 3rd
Time Required: 45 minutes
Objective: Students will be able to define freedom

Pre-Lesson: Students will be asked to imagine what it would be like to be taken away from their mother or father.
Lesson: Students will be asked to write down their definition of freedom and then share their definitions with the class. The teacher will write key words form their definitions on a sheet of tag board. Each student will write on paper a list of the freedoms they have and then share them with the class. The teacher will add these to the tag board.

Post-Lesson: the teacher will read Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.

Assessment: Students will put their definition and list of freedoms in their portfolios.


Day 15

Subject: Language, Music
Title: Freedom Rap
Grade: 3rd
Time: 1 hr.
Objective: Students will be able to create a rap song using freedom words.
Materials:
The book Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
Sample of Rap music

Pre-Lesson:
The teacher tell the class that today they are going to study about freedom.

Lesson. The students will be divided into groups and the "Freedom board" will be hung in the front of the class. The teacher will play a sample of rap music to the class. Students will then make a rap song using the words on the chart.

Post-Lesson: Students will sing their rap songs to the class and each will be recorded for a rap record.

Assessments: Students will include the lyrics to their rap song in their portfolio.


Day 16
Subject: Social Studies, Language
Title: The interview
Grade: 3rd
Time Required: 1 hour
Objective: Students will be able to communicate orally while interviewing peers.

Pre-Lesson: The teacher will read Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.

Lesson: Students will be paired up and assigned a character form the book. Students will be asked to come up with a list of questions and then one student will interview the other in front of the class.

Post-Lesson: Students will discuss what they learned from the activity.

Assessment: Observation of participation


Day 17
Subject: Art, Language
Title: Quiltn’ Bee
Grade: 3rd
Time required: 45 minutes
Objectives:
Students will be able to create a poem.
Students will be able to make a quilt using construction paper.
Materials:
construction paper
yarn
paper punch

Pre-lesson: Students will be shown the "Freedom Chart"
Lesson: Students will be shown the "Freedom Chart" and asked to create a poem using the words from the chart. Students will be asked to transfer their poems onto various colored construction paper. Students will then be asked to connect their poem patterns together with yarn to make a large quilt for display in the classroom.

Day 18
Students will evaluate their own portfolios using the rubric provided by the teacher.

Day 19
Students will discuss the entire unit and each student will write down to hand in to the teacher a sheet of paper listing what activity they liked most and what activity they liked least. Students will then complete their portfolio evaluations.