Narrative

Lesson Plan TOPIC: Slavery, Then and Now Class: 10th Grade African American History (Magnet Program, NEHS) Period: 7 Time: 52/56, depending on the bell schedule ST: Jaimie Stevenson CM: David Sokoloff PM: Pam Gallagher Draft date: March 3, 2013 Teaching date: March 5, 2013 OVERVIEW/ RATIONALE UNIT This unit addresses the history of slavery in the U.S. and asks students to examine modern-day examples of slavery, with the goal of communicating the idea that slavery is not an institution of the past. Students will examine the institution of slavery to understand the roles of individuals and groups in creating, perpetuating, and resisting the enslavement of people. Students will evaluate, analyze, and compare primary and secondary sources. Using the enslavement of African Americans in the U.S. as a case study, students will research and analyze modern-day examples of slavery around the world. Students will examine 4 key components present in every example of slavery: experience, business, resistance, and abolition. Students will complete a two-part project: 1) Construct an Issue Analysis Report addressing the question: How does slavery today compare to race-based slavery in America? (individual project) 2) Create a public service announcement (PSA) answering the EQs: What is slavery today? How does it compare to the enslavement of Africans and African-Americans in the US? What is the biggest issue facing the abolition of slavery today? (group project) LESSON This lesson wraps up the 4 themes of slavery: experience, business, resistance, abolition. The lesson focuses on the theme of resistance, which we explore by analyzing excerpts slave narratives collected by the WPA in the 1930s. Students begin class by exploring the topic of resistance in their own lives. The Do Now is intended to guide students towards the realization that resistance can be direct or indirect. Students use a graphic organizer to collect examples of resistance in the slave narratives they read in class. Ive borrowed an activity more typically used in English classes to wrap up the class: students will write 6-word memoirs about resistance. Instead of writing from their own perspectives, as they did in the warm up, by the end of class I hope for students to be able to take on the perspective of an enslaved person. They will write the 6-word memoirs from the perspective of an enslaved person, about an act of resistance. Note: This is not the first time students will have encountered the activity to write 6-word memoirs in this class, so there is minimal introduction to the activity in this lesson plan.

 ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS The institution of slavery has 4 themes: experience, business, resistance, and abolition. The institution of slavery is one wherein humanity is lost in all areas of society (6 social institutions). Small and large acts by individuals and groups can fight for the existence of humanity inside the institution of slavery. Allies to enslaved peoples can participate in resistance efforts. A powerful relationship exists between the 6 social institutions (education, domestic, economic, government, judiciary, religious) and the persistence/maintenance of the institution of slavery. The 6 social institutions are tools/mechanisms for preserving or abandoning humanity. An individual or groups culture can prohibit or enable awareness of the immorality of slavery. To become an agent of change, an individual or group may have to shift its culture. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS 1. Why does slavery exist? 2. What role does society and culture play in allowing slavery to exist, and continue? 3. What role should society and culture play when confronted with slavery? 4. What does it take to abolish slavery? OBJECTIVES Evaluate primary sources to find evidence of resistance efforts against slavery Compose 6-word memoirs from the perspective of an enslaved person who is exercising resistance ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION Students will evaluate slave narratives to find evidence of resistance efforts in slavery Students will compose 6-word memoirs from the perspective of an enslaved person who is exercising resistance STANDARDS PA 8.1.12.B: Synthesize and evaluate historical sources PA 8.1.12.D: Synthesize historical research PA 8.3.12.A: Identify and evaluate the political and cultural contributions of individuals and groups to United States history from 1890 to present PA 8.3.12.B: Identify and evaluate primary documents, material artifacts, and historic sites important in United States history from 1890 to present MATERIALS Primary Source Packet: Resistance to Slavery Exerpts Teacher Presentation: Slavery Unit_JStevenson.pptx PROCEDURES OPENER (5 mins) Do Now: What are 10 ways that you can resist your parents power? BODY OF THE LESSON

0. During Do Now, take attendance (5 mins) 1. Debrief Do Now (5 mins) a. Pair/Share b. Full-class whiparound c. T collects HW 2. Activity One: Reading Primary Sources (1015 mins) a. Ss work in small groups b. Ss read excerpts from WPA narratives on resistance c. T has Ss draw a a graphic organizer into their notebooks: 3 columns, labeled: Observe, Reflect, Question d. T instructs Ss to read in 3 phases: i. Observe: Write down 10 examples of slaves resisting their condition as slaves (directly or indirectly) ii. Reflect: How does resistance affect a slaves sense of their own humanity? What is similar about your 10 examples? What is different? iii. Analyze: Do you think these excerpts give you a good perspective on slavery? What additional questions do you have? 3. Activity Two: 6-Word Memoirs (15 mins) a. T has Ss take out a piece of paper that they will hand in at the end of class, write name on it! b. T introduces 6-word memoirs, showing examples (and their respective topics) on the board c. Assignment: Write a 6-word memoir from the perspective of a slave about an act of resistance. d. T specifies perspective: Youre not writing about your own interpretation, in 2013, of what slaves were doing (3rd person), instead youre writing as if you were the slaveuse words that describe what you see, feel, experience, desire, etc. e. After 3 mins, T stops Ss; share out 4 or 5 as a full class f. Set timer for another 3 mins, have students write a 2nd 6-word memoir g. If time remains, share out additional ones CLOSURE (<5 mins) Exit Ticket: Your 6-word memoirs! ACCOMMODATIONS This lesson makes the material accessible for students using various modalities. Learners can draw from personal experience to engage with the Do Now. The lesson favors verbal skills because of its emphasis on independent reading. Students collect examples from the reading using a graphic organizer (table) that they draw into their own notebooks. The verbiage and dialect of some of the slave narratives will be challenging for non-native English speakers, so I anticipate some amount of collaboration among students who can assist one another by reading the passages aloud. The teacher will likely have to facilitate some of this interpretation as well. For students who struggle with the reading in an independent mode, small-group discussion allows students to assist one another. Some differentiation occurs through the variety of types of social interactions. Students must transfer information from the readings, which they may be able to clarify through small and full group conversation, to the 6-word memoirs. The assessment is the memoirs themselves, which shifts the emphasis from reading comprehension to application of ideas.