Sojourner Truth & The Underground Railroad Lesson Overview

Lesson #1:  What Was Slavery in America?

Goals:

1. Students will understand what life was like for slaves, including their journey from Africa to the United States using a world map.
2. Students will appreciate the hardships and conditions of slave life in America.

Instruction:

• Show students map of the world (their own laminated copy), have them identify Africa and The United States
• Students will draw slave route from Africa to U.S.
• Students will be introduced to new vocabulary pertaining to slavery in the 1800s United States.
• Students will view images of slavery in 1800 United States and read explanations describing the events.
• Students will get to examine and experience real cotton and processed cotton – teacher uses an excerpt from Henry’s Freedom Box to enhance the students’ understanding.
• The students will complete their own sentence “snapshot” based on what they learned in the lesson and then create a picture to represent their sentence.

Lesson #2:  Who Were the Heroes of Freedom?

Goals:

1. Students will understand that there were many people in 1800s United States who were strongly against slavery and committed their lives to equality for all.
2. Students will appreciate the struggles and accomplishments of Sojourner Truth and how she helped change America for black slaves and women.

Instruction:

• Students are introduced to a variety of freedom heroes on the “Heroes of Freedom” board; men, women, young, old, black and white. 
• Each student will choose a hero from the board and read that hero’s short bio aloud to the team.
• The students will each draw what they believe freedom looks like and explain their drawing to the team.
• Students will be introduced to the team hero, Sojourner Truth
• The students will complete a K-W-L chart to prepare for their lesson on Sojourner.
• Students will be introduced to new vocabulary relating to the Sojourner’s life.
• The students will view a PowerPoint “book” on Sojourner Truth and each have the opportunity to read a slide aloud.
• During the PowerPoint, each student will be in charge of finding the event that corresponds to a date they were given on a note card.  This date note card will then be added to the “Freedom Timeline” by the students.
• Also, during the PowerPoint the students will have a cloze sentence worksheet to complete, highlighting details and main events in Sojourner’s life.
• The concluding activity will be the completion of a story pyramid describing Sojourner. 

Lesson #3:  Sojourner: Living Up to Her Name

Goals:

1. Students will understand the struggles that blacks as well as women faced during the 1800s, especially African American women.
2. Students will appreciate the contributions made by Sojourner for women’s rights and how she helped to raise awareness to these inequalities.

Instruction:

• Students will begin by choosing another hero from the “Heroes of Freedom” board and reading aloud his/her bio.
• The team will discuss the inequalities between men and women during the 1800s and the students will discuss whether they believe certain situations, described by the co-teachers, is fair or unfair and why.
• The team will participate in a Reader’s Theatre based on main events in the life of Sojourner Truth, especially where Sojourner spoke about equality for all and women’s rights.
• The students will be asked questions in regard to what they read in the Reader’s Theatre and also find the event that corresponds to timeline date card.
• Students will be introduced to new vocabulary that helps the students understand women’s rights and the struggle for freedom.  The students will be given a note card with the vocabulary word and give their description of what they think it means based on what they learned in the Reader’s Theatre.
• Each student will create a vocabulary cube with a given vocabulary word.  Each team members vocabulary cube will be used to create a freedom mobile representing Sojourner Truth.
  

 

 

Lesson #4:  Pathways to Freedom

Goals:                                          

1. Students will be able to recognize major characters that assisted on the Underground Railroad.
2. Students will understand and be sympathetic with the dangers the “passengers” and “conductors” faced on The Underground Railroad.
3. Students will have stronger knowledge of the routes taken on The Underground Railroad.

Instruction:

• Students will examine the routes escaped slaves took on the Underground Railroad both in paper and electronic form.
• Students will be introduced to new vocabulary that will help them comprehend the secret codes and language used on The Underground Railroad.
• Students will complete an Anticipation Guide prior to viewing a video.
• Students will view a short video highlighting the main concepts of The Underground Railroad; the dangers, the key players, the codes, the geography.
• Students will listen to the teacher read Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad and the teacher will model a think-aloud.
• The students will take their own virtual journey on the Underground Railroad.  Each student will be given a duty; trip recorder (records every city we move to and from), journey master (controls the virtual journey), and diary keeper (records who we meet on the journey). 
• After the virtual journey, the students will recall what cities they traveled to and from and chart their journey on a map.
• The concluding activity will be for each student to write one or two sentences about the most important thing they learned about the Underground Railroad.  All the student documents created during this lesson will be compiled into a team book. 

 

Lesson #5:  A Quilt Map to Freedom

Goals: 

1. Students will understand the significance of freedom quilts and how they helped slaves communicate and relay messages to one another.
2. Students will appreciate and understand a portion of African American history as it relates to banner and quilt making.

Instruction:

• Students will begin by reviewing the book Barefoot and recall the importance of the quilt hanging outside the house.
• Students will be introduced to vocabulary that will help them understand the significance of freedom quilts.
• The teacher will read The Patchwork Path aloud to the students and model a think-aloud while bringing their attention to the different types of quilt patterns in a freedom quilt. 
• The students will examine a variety of freedom quilt patterns and learn their meanings – what they told slaves and members of The Underground Railroad.
• The students will each create 2-3 quilt squares, tracing over template patterns of quilt squares.  One of their quilt squares should be an original and the student must write a written explanation of what secret it reveals or how it helps escaped slaves make it to freedom. 

Lesson #6:  Freedom Hands: A Timeline to Truth

Goals: 

1. Students will understand the major accomplishments in Sojourner Truth’s life as well as the many significant events that shaped who she became.
2. Students will be able to define and appreciate how Sojourner Truth improved the lives of women and African Americans. 
3. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of Sojourner Truth’s character traits through the creation of freedom hands.

Instruction:

• The teacher will read the book Sojourner Truth:  Preacher for Freedom & Equality and model a think-aloud.
• The teacher will activate the students’ prior knowledge of Sojourner Truth and the struggles for freedom by asking specific questions as she reads the book.
• Each student will be given 5-6 timeline date cards and an assortment of images and pictures that represent events in Sojourner’s life.  Each student is to choose pictures that represent the event described on each timeline date card and glue it on.  Then they must put all their timeline date cards in chronological order so that they each can place their cards on the “Freedom Timeline.” 
• Each student will be given 3 freedom hand templates.  The teacher will explain that the team is going to create a freedom hands chain to demonstrate the unity between all races and the equality for all that Sojourner fought for. 
• Each student will write a word or sentence on each hand that describes something Sojourner did, believed in or that describes who she is.  Then, using multicultural crayons, the students will color each hand a color to represent a different race or ethnicity.  They will be encouraged to mix colors as the teacher will explain that no one person is the same color as another, each person is unique and different. 
• The completed freedom hands will then be connected to create a chain to be displayed at the open house.