Flight to Freedom Interactive Game
Its 1848. You are Lucy, a 14 year old slave girl living in Kentucky.
Will you find the path to Freedom?
http://www.mission-us.org/pages/mission-2
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Underground Railroad Lesson Plan
Content Standard 8
U4.3.2 Describe the formation and development of the abolitionist movement by considering the roles of key abolitionist leaders (e.g., John Brown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Sojourner Truth, William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass), and the response of southerners and northerners to the abolitionist movement. (C2) (National Geography Standard 6, p. 154)
Purpose
To be a slave is to be controlled by another person or persons so that your will does not determine your life's course, and rewards for your work and sacrifices are not yours to claim. Students need to understand the cruel treatment and poor conditions of African Americans bound into slavery and the motives, process, and outcome for the people who chose to escape from slavery by using the Underground Railroad.
Objective
By the end of this lesson student will be able to:
Anticipatory Set:
The teacher will ask the students to brainstorm everything they know about slavery (To assess the students background knowledge of the subject). The teacher will ask the students to make a prediction by answering the question “What was the Underground Railroad? What do you think it was used for? (What was Underground Railroads purpose?)” (5-7 min.)(20-17 remaining)
Input
Task Analysis:
Check For Understanding
Closure
Extended Learning Activity
The students will be encouraged to go to the class website, www.ushistoryandrews.weebly.com and go to the page Institution of Slavery and access the link to http://www.mission-us.org/pages/mission-2
Resources
http://pathways.thinkport.org/about/about7.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilts_of_the_Underground_Railroad
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2915.html
Name _____________________________ Date ________________ Hour ____________
Bell Ringer:
Directions: Do your best to answer the following two questions. There is no penalty for being wrong and it is ok to take a risk and write whatever comes to mind even if you are not sure of your answer. Just try your best!
Brainstorm/ Non/stop write everything you know about slavery
Make a Prediction: What was the Underground railroad?
Objective:
By the end of this lesson you will be able to: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Key Terms:Directions: Read the powerpoint and listen to the teacher read each definition and write the missing word in the blank space provided.
Conductor- People who ________________ escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad, __________ them ____________ to go next.
Station- ______________ places on the Underground Railroad; another name for ________ ________
Load of Potatoes- _____________ word for the _______________ of escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad Resource ArticleDirections: Read the article and write a response to the questions that relate to your article. For example, students reading the article for Group 1 will answer the questions on this handout under the title GROUP 1. Group 2 Article will answer question for GROUP 2. The remaining groups should follow the same pattern.
Group 1 “Conductors”
Group 2 “The Stations”
Group 3 “The Quilt Makers”
Group 4 “ The Songwriters”
Group 5 “The Fugitive Slaves”
Do you think you could use the Underground Railroad to escape from slavery? Do you like video games? If the answer to both of these question are yes and you are up for a challenge you may go to www.ushistoryandrews.weebly.com and go to the page The Institution of Slavery. You will find a link to a game that will give you a first hand experience of life as a 14-year-old slave girl named Lucy. Bring your monkey wrench and be prepared with the tools you will need for a long journey!
Performance Task- GRASPS
Directions: Choose one of the following performance tasks to complete
Goal: To send a hidden message to slaves who want to escape to freedom.
Role: Quilt Maker/ Seamstress
Audience: Slaves who wish to find freedom
Situation: You want to help fugitive slaves find their way to freedom. You have volunteered your creative talent as a quilt maker to help slaves memorize codes that will assist them in their journey.
Product: You will create a quilt to send messages to slaves that are planning to use the Underground Railroad to escape slavery. You will need to create 3-5 Quilt Blocks that give a message to the slaves. You will need to provide an answer key that decodes your quilt
Goal: To ensure fugitive slave travel safely and successfully to their destination in the North.
Role: A slave that wants to use the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom.
Audience: A conductor that is planning to bring slave to the North by using the Underground Railroad.
Situation: You are a slave that has decided to runaway. You need to get a message to the conductor to let him or her know you want their help to make the journey to the North.
Product: You will need to create a message that you want to escape from slavery using the Underground Railroad. The challenge is that, although you have some ability, you have never been taught to read or write. Use the following 13 letters ONLY and ANY SYMBOLS or PICTURES of your choice to communicate with the conductor. Remember, there are consequences if your note is found including; being beaten, sold away from your family, or possibly death!
Use ANY pictures or symbols and use ONLY the following letters
A E I O U D R M F S L T B
Goal: To inform fugitive slaves of the Underground Railroad and how to use the Railroad to escape to freedom.
Role: A slave that is able to write a song with a coded message of the Underground Railroad.
Audience: Slaves who wish to find freedom
Situation: You are a slave that has information about the Underground Railroad. The only way to pass the information to other slaves is to sing a song using code words that explain when and where to go to find the Underground Railroad.
Product: You will use the melody of a song that is already popular and write new words that send a message to other slaves about the Underground Railroad. The words to your song will need to give clear instructions on how slaves can successfully find and use the Underground Railroad.
Goal: To help fugitive slaves pass safely to the North to gain freedom.
Role: Underground Railroad Conductor
Audience: Other Conductors that travel the Underground Railroad
Situation: You have escaped from slavery using the Underground Railroad and you have volunteered to help fugitive slave successfully to the North. You have information about the paths that will guarantee the safe travel for a fugitive slave.
Product: You will create a map to keep with you that indicates the locations of the trails to the North, destination cities that have volunteers to help fugitive slaves, and Detours in case you have to change routes in order to evade slave catchers.
Group 1 Question- How did the Conductors help Fugitive Slaves?
Free blacks, whites, and even some slaves worked as conductors who helped escaping slaves in many different ways. Baltimore’s large free black community and free blacks elsewhere provided hiding places for slaves who were running away. Many Quakers and other white people helped slaves because, even though they were white, they believed very strongly that slavery was wrong.
Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well known of all the Underground Railroads “conductors.” During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the south and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she “never lost a single passenger”
Tubman was born a slave in Maryland’s Dorchester County around 1820. At age five or six, she began work as a house servant. Seven years later she was sent to work in the fields. While she was still in her early teens, she suffered an injury that would follow her the rest of her life. Always ready to stand up for someone else, Tubman blocked a doorway to protect another field hand from an angry overseer. The overseer picked up and threw a two-pound weight at the field hand. It fell short, striking Tubman on the head. She never fully recovered from the blow, which subjected her to spells in which she would fall into a deep sleep.
Tubman resolved to run away. She set out one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to Philadelphia, where she found work and saved her money. The following year she returned to Maryland and escorted her sister and her sister’s two children to freedom. She made the dangerous trip back to the South soon after to rescue her brother and two other men. On her third return, she went after her husband, only to find that he had taken another wife. Undeterred, she found other slaves seeking freedom and escorted them to the North.
Group 2 Question- How did the Stations help fugitive slaves?Many different kinds of people were involved in the Underground Railroad. There were black people and white people, men and women, people from “slave” states and people from “free” states. There were old people and young people. Everybody who worked with the Underground Railroad took a big risk. If they were caught, they risked serious punishment, even death.
Men and women who operated Underground Railroad stations hid slaves in their homes, shops, churches, schools, and barns. Conductors drove slave hidden in wagons or coached to the next station. Some conductors led slaves through the woods and fields on foot until they could reach a safe house. Some put slaves on boats that sailed north to freedom. Others put slaves on real trains heading north. People figured out very clever ways to smuggle people out of slave states to a place further north.
We will never know exactly how many people were involved with the Underground Railroad, because they worked in secret. They had to keep the secret to protect both the escaping slaves and themselves. Groups willing to help sprang up in the larger towns and cities of the North, mostly in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. The organizations provided food, lodging and money, and helped the fugitives settle into a community by helping them find jobs.
Other volunteers employed escaping slaves so they could earn money to finish their journey to Canada. Many people offered clothing, shoes, bedding, and other things that the fugitives needed. It took the cooperation of many people to arrange successful escapes. There had to be a network of people that stretched all the way from the slave states to the North or to Canada. The conductors and other volunteers all had two things in common. They believed that slavery was very wrong. And they were very brave.
Group 3 Question- How did the Underground Quilt help fugitive slaves?
Several historians’ say African American slaves may have used a quilt to send a coded message to help navigate the Underground Railroad. Quilts with patterns named ‘wagon wheel,” “tumbling blocks,” and “bear’s paw” appear to have contained secret messages that helped direct slaves to freedom.
The code was a way to say something to a person in the presence of many others without the other people knowing,” said Dobard, a history professor at Howard University in Washington D.C. “It was a way of giving direction without saying, ‘Go Northwest.’”
The seamstress would hang the quilts in full view one at a time, allowing the slaves to reinforce their memory of the pattern and its associated meaning. When slaves made their escape, they used their memory of the quilts to guide them safely along their journey.
These historians believe the first quilt the seamstress would display had a wrench pattern. “It meant gather your tools and get physically and mentally prepared to escape the plantation,” Dobard said. The seamstress would then hang a quilt with the wagon wheel pattern. This pattern told slaves to pack their belongings because they were about to go on a long journey.
The quilt-code theory has been met with controversy since its publication. Quilt historians and Underground Railroad experts have questioned the study’s methodology and the accuracy of its findings.
Group 4 Question- How did Songs help fugitive slaves?
Songs associated with the Underground Railroad demonstrate that music has always been important in the heritage of African American people. The music can relay a story or bring people together in a common cause. In the slavery era, songs may have conveyed coded meanings to help bring the slaves to freedom.
One reportedly coded song of the Underground Railroad is “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd”. The song’s title is said to discuss the star formation known as the Big Dipper. The pointer stars of the Big Dipper line up with the North Star. In this song the repeated line “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd” is meant to be used as instructions to escaping slaves to travel north by following the North Star, leading them to the northern states, Canada, and freedom: The song supposedly translates escape instructions and a map from Mobile, Alabama up the Tombigbee River, over the divide to the Tennessee River, then downriver to where the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers meet in Paducah, Kentucky.
The song, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was written by Wallis Willis, a freedman in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma sometime before 1862. Many sources claim that this song had lyrics that referred to the Underground Railroad, the resistance movement that helped slaves escape from the South to the North and Canada.
Group 5 Question- What was it like to be a person that tried to escape from Slavery?
For the slave, running away to the North was anything but easy. The first step was to escape from the slaveholder. For many slaves, this meant relying on his or her own resources. Sometimes a “conductor,” posing as a slave, would enter a plantation and then guide the runaways northward. The fugitives would move at night. They would generally travel between 10 and 20 miles to the next station, where they would rest and eat, hiding in barns and other out-of-the-way places. While they waited, a message would be sent to the next station to alert its stationmaster.
One of the best clues they could use to find north was to locate the North Star. Unlike other stars, it never changes position. It always points to the north. People have always used a group of stars to help them find the North Star. They have called this group of stars many names, depending on how they saw the “picture” created by the stars. Some people thought the group of stars looked like a dipper- with a cup that had a very long handle. Slaves knew this group of stars as the “drinking gourd” in the sky; people traveling at night could always find the North Star.
There were many different routes that slaves took as they traveled north to freedom. One route out of Maryland was that frequently used by Harriet Tubman. She led her groups, beginning on foot, up the Eastern Shore of Maryland and into Delaware. Several stations were in the vicinity of Wilmington, Delaware. From Delaware the group traveled on to Philadelphia or other places in southeastern Pennsylvania. From there, many traveled further north. Some settled in Massachusetts or New York. Many continued through New York State and on into Canada.
Escaping slaves also boarded boats that sailed up the Chesapeake Bay. They could sail from many towns located directly on the Bay or from cities that were on rivers that flowed into the Bay. Baltimore was the largest such city. The Chesapeake Bay was a main rout to freedom. Many ship’s pilots were African Americans who his fugitives and helped them on their way. Some white captains were also conductors for the Underground Railroad. Because many blacks, both free and slave, were sailors, it was very common to see African American men on ships, so their presence did not arouse too much suspicion.
Quilt Maker GRASPGoal: To send a hidden message to those slaves wanting to escape to freedom.
Role: Quilt Maker/ Seamstress
Audience: Slaves who wish to find freedom
Situation: You want to help fugitive slaves find their way to freedom. You have volunteered your creative talent as a quilt maker to help slaves memorize codes that will assist them in their journey.
Product: You will create a quilt to send messages to slaves that are planning to use the Underground Railroad to escape slavery. You will need to create 3-5 Quilt Blocks that give a message to the slaves. You will need to provide an answer key that decodes your quilt
Key for the Secret Code-
Runaway Slave GRASP
Goal: To ensure fugitive slave travel safely and successfully to their destination in the North.
Role: A slave that wants to use the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom.
Audience: A conductor that is planning to bring slave to the North by using the Underground Railroad.
Situation: You are a slave that has decided to runaway. You need to get a message to the conductor to let him or her know you want their help to make the journey to the North.
Product: You will need to create a message that you want to escape from slavery using the Underground Railroad. The challenge is that, although you have some ability, you have never been taught to read or write. Use the following 13 letters ONLY and ANY SYMBOLS or PICTURES of your choice to communicate with the conductor. Remember, there are consequences if your note is found including; being beaten, sold away from your family, or possibly death!
Use ANY pictures or symbols and use ONLY the following letters
A E I O U D R M F S L T B
Songwriter GRASP
Goal: To inform fugitive slaves of the Underground Railroad and how to use the Railroad to escape to freedom.
Role: A slave that is able to write a song with a coded message of the Underground Railroad.
Audience: Slaves who wish to find freedom
Situation: You are a slave that has information about the Underground Railroad. The only way to pass the information to other slaves is to sing a song using code words that explain when and where to go to find the Underground Railroad.
Product: You will use the melody of a song that is already popular and write new words that send a message to other slaves about the Underground Railroad. The words to your song will need to give clear instructions on how slaves can successfully find and use the Underground Railroad.
Song Title-
Verse 1
Chorus
Verse 2
Verse 3
Conductor GRASP
Goal: To help fugitive slaves pass safely to the North to gain freedom.
Role: Underground Railroad Conductor
Audience: Other Conductors that travel the Underground Railroad
Situation: You have escaped from slavery using the Underground Railroad and you have volunteered to help fugitive slave successfully to the North. You have information about the paths that will guarantee the safe travel for a fugitive slave.
Product: You will create a map to keep with you that indicates the locations of the trails to the North, destination cities that have volunteers to help fugitive slaves, and Detours in case you have to change routes in order to evade slave catchers.
8th Grade Final Authentic Assessment Rubrics
GRASPS Rubic
5
4
3
2
1
0
Did you complete your GRASPS?
All 5 items are insightfully complete
All 5 items are basically complete
3-4 items are complete
2-3 items are partially complete
1-2 items are partially complete or attempted
Missing
Planning Piece Rubric
5
4
3
2
1
0
Do you have a successful plan?
Your plan for the project is thoroughly complete.
Your plan for the project is complete.
Your plan for the project is mostly complete.
Your plan for the project is partially complete.
Your plan for the project is limited.
Your plan for the project is missing.
Product Rubric
10
8
6
4
2
0
The product
is prepared, organized, articulate, and engaging. The presenter is knowledgeable about his/her task and how he/she fulfilled it.
is mostly prepared, organized, articulate, and engaging. The presenter is knowledgeable about their task and how they fulfilled it.
is partially prepared, organized, articulate, and engaging. The presenter is somewhat knowledgeable about their task and how they fulfilled it.
is minimally prepared and organized. The presenter is somewhat knowledgeable about their task and how they fulfilled it.
shows very little preparedness and organization. The presenter lacks knowledge about their task/product.
does not fulfill this requirement
Project Rubric
5
4
3
2
1
Project Fulfillment
Project completely fulfills the task and your GRASPS is achieved in a creative and original product.
Project mostly fulfills the task and your GRASPS is achieved in an original product.
Project partially fulfills the task and the GRASPS that your project sets out to achieve.
Project fulfills the task and your GRASPS in a limited way.
Project fulfills your
task and your GRASPS
in a minimal way.
Connection
to the text
Connection to the text is accurate, ample, and insightful.
Connection to the text is basic, literal, and accurate.
Connection to the text is basic and mostly accurate.
Connection to the text suggested or implied.
Little or no connection
to the text, and any implication
is mostly inaccurate.
Engagement
/Voice
Writing style and vocabulary are sophisticated and mature. Ideas are presented in a distinctive and engaging way.
Writing is clear, concise, and literal. Ideas are presented in a logical and coherent way. Sentence structure is varied.
Writing is mostly clear and concise, with basic vocabulary. Sentence structure is simple.
Writing is partially clear with basic vocabulary. Sentence structure is simple.
Writing is confusing,
Vocabulary is basic or limited.
Sentence structure is poor.
Mechanics/
Organization
/Formatting
Writing is organized with a clearly established focus. There are very few errors and errors do not interfere with readability.
Writing is mostly organized with a general focus. There are some errors, most of which do not interfere with readability.
An attempt is made at organization and focus. There are some errors, most of which do not interfere with readability.
Writing shows little organization and little or no focus. There are some errors, most of which do not interfere with readability.
Writing is disorganized.
Many errors interfere
with readability.
Content Standard 8
U4.3.2 Describe the formation and development of the abolitionist movement by considering the roles of key abolitionist leaders (e.g., John Brown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Sojourner Truth, William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass), and the response of southerners and northerners to the abolitionist movement. (C2) (National Geography Standard 6, p. 154)
Purpose
To be a slave is to be controlled by another person or persons so that your will does not determine your life's course, and rewards for your work and sacrifices are not yours to claim. Students need to understand the cruel treatment and poor conditions of African Americans bound into slavery and the motives, process, and outcome for the people who chose to escape from slavery by using the Underground Railroad.
Objective
By the end of this lesson student will be able to:
- Know that the Underground Railroad was a secret network organized by people who helped men, women, and children escape from slavery.
- Identify the key terms to understanding the Underground Railroad including
- Conductor- People who guided escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad, telling them where to go next.
- Station- Hiding places on the Underground Railroad; another name for safe houses.
- Load of Potatoes- Code words for the transporting of escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad.
- Understand that a runaway slave who was caught faced consequences for their actions including being sold to a location farther south,
- Explain that slave quilts served as coded maps for escapees, (claimed fact in the 1999 book Hidden in Plain View, written by Raymond Dobard, Jr.)
- Explain that the Conductors role was to help fugitive slaves escape safely to the North.
- Explain that slaves sang songs to inform others of the Underground Railroad.
- Perform a GRASP- Student will choose their role as a Quilt Maker, Fugitive Slave, Conductor, or a Songwriter, the students will create a quilt pattern, written message, song, or a map.
Anticipatory Set:
The teacher will ask the students to brainstorm everything they know about slavery (To assess the students background knowledge of the subject). The teacher will ask the students to make a prediction by answering the question “What was the Underground Railroad? What do you think it was used for? (What was Underground Railroads purpose?)” (5-7 min.)(20-17 remaining)
Input
Task Analysis:
- Anticipatory Set: The teacher will ask the students to brainstorm everything they know about slavery (To assess the students background knowledge of the subject). The teacher will ask the students to make a prediction by answering the question “What was the Underground Railroad? What do you think it was used for? (What was Underground Railroads purpose?)” (5-7 min.)(20-17 remaining)
- The teacher will introduce the Objective and give background on the conditions of live as a slave on a plantation and the process of escaping from slavery using the Underground Railroad. (5-7 min.) (15-10 remaining)
- The teacher will hand out 1 of 4 supplemental articles; one for each student. (1min) (14-9 remaining)
- On their own, students will read the supplemental articles and complete the information on their handout. (5 min) (9-4 remaining)
- As a group, students with the same number and topic will discuss the articles to verify information and share responses of the article (3 min) (6-1 min remaining) (1111) (2222) (3333) (4444)
- The teacher will ask the students to assemble in mixed topic groups to share information and to discuss the point of view held by each student. (5-7 min. after 7 min. the teacher will ask students if more time is needed for each group to finish their discussion- Additional 3 min. MAX)
- The teacher will discuss the GRASPS performance tasks that students will be able to choose from for their assignment.
- The teacher will offer the students a challenge to see if they would be able to escape slavery by using the Underground Railroad by informing the students of the website, http://www.mission-us.org/pages/mission-2 where students can play a video game that allows students to play from a first person point of view of Lucy, a 14 year old girl who is enslaved in Kentucky and is contemplating her escape to the North through the Underground Railroad.
Check For Understanding
- The teacher will ask “What questions do you have?” after giving instructions for the reading activity
- The teacher will listen to the students conversation during the group activity and will ask/ answer questions as needed.
- The students will complete a 3-2-1 Exit ticket to summarize what they learned about the Underground Railroad
Closure
- The students will use a 3x5 card or sticky note to summarize “What is the Underground Railroad?”
Extended Learning Activity
The students will be encouraged to go to the class website, www.ushistoryandrews.weebly.com and go to the page Institution of Slavery and access the link to http://www.mission-us.org/pages/mission-2
Resources
http://pathways.thinkport.org/about/about7.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilts_of_the_Underground_Railroad
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2915.html
Name _____________________________ Date ________________ Hour ____________
Bell Ringer:
Directions: Do your best to answer the following two questions. There is no penalty for being wrong and it is ok to take a risk and write whatever comes to mind even if you are not sure of your answer. Just try your best!
Brainstorm/ Non/stop write everything you know about slavery
Make a Prediction: What was the Underground railroad?
Objective:
By the end of this lesson you will be able to: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Key Terms:Directions: Read the powerpoint and listen to the teacher read each definition and write the missing word in the blank space provided.
Conductor- People who ________________ escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad, __________ them ____________ to go next.
Station- ______________ places on the Underground Railroad; another name for ________ ________
Load of Potatoes- _____________ word for the _______________ of escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad Resource ArticleDirections: Read the article and write a response to the questions that relate to your article. For example, students reading the article for Group 1 will answer the questions on this handout under the title GROUP 1. Group 2 Article will answer question for GROUP 2. The remaining groups should follow the same pattern.
Group 1 “Conductors”
- How did the Conductors help Fugitive Slaves?
- Name the conductor mentioned in the article and record how many people she rescued from slavery.
Group 2 “The Stations”
- How did the stations help the fugitive slaves?
- List some places where fugitive slaves would be kept at the “stations”
Group 3 “The Quilt Makers”
- What was the Underground Quilt?
- How did the Underground Quilt help fugitive slaves find freedom?
Group 4 “ The Songwriters”
- How did songs help fugitive slaves find freedom?
- How did the song, “The Drinking Gourd” use the stars to help fugitive slaves find freedom?
Group 5 “The Fugitive Slaves”
- Compared to other stars, what is different about the North Star that made it helpful to fugitive slaves?
- Describe what it was like to be a person that tried to escape from slavery.
Do you think you could use the Underground Railroad to escape from slavery? Do you like video games? If the answer to both of these question are yes and you are up for a challenge you may go to www.ushistoryandrews.weebly.com and go to the page The Institution of Slavery. You will find a link to a game that will give you a first hand experience of life as a 14-year-old slave girl named Lucy. Bring your monkey wrench and be prepared with the tools you will need for a long journey!
Performance Task- GRASPS
Directions: Choose one of the following performance tasks to complete
Goal: To send a hidden message to slaves who want to escape to freedom.
Role: Quilt Maker/ Seamstress
Audience: Slaves who wish to find freedom
Situation: You want to help fugitive slaves find their way to freedom. You have volunteered your creative talent as a quilt maker to help slaves memorize codes that will assist them in their journey.
Product: You will create a quilt to send messages to slaves that are planning to use the Underground Railroad to escape slavery. You will need to create 3-5 Quilt Blocks that give a message to the slaves. You will need to provide an answer key that decodes your quilt
Goal: To ensure fugitive slave travel safely and successfully to their destination in the North.
Role: A slave that wants to use the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom.
Audience: A conductor that is planning to bring slave to the North by using the Underground Railroad.
Situation: You are a slave that has decided to runaway. You need to get a message to the conductor to let him or her know you want their help to make the journey to the North.
Product: You will need to create a message that you want to escape from slavery using the Underground Railroad. The challenge is that, although you have some ability, you have never been taught to read or write. Use the following 13 letters ONLY and ANY SYMBOLS or PICTURES of your choice to communicate with the conductor. Remember, there are consequences if your note is found including; being beaten, sold away from your family, or possibly death!
Use ANY pictures or symbols and use ONLY the following letters
A E I O U D R M F S L T B
Goal: To inform fugitive slaves of the Underground Railroad and how to use the Railroad to escape to freedom.
Role: A slave that is able to write a song with a coded message of the Underground Railroad.
Audience: Slaves who wish to find freedom
Situation: You are a slave that has information about the Underground Railroad. The only way to pass the information to other slaves is to sing a song using code words that explain when and where to go to find the Underground Railroad.
Product: You will use the melody of a song that is already popular and write new words that send a message to other slaves about the Underground Railroad. The words to your song will need to give clear instructions on how slaves can successfully find and use the Underground Railroad.
Goal: To help fugitive slaves pass safely to the North to gain freedom.
Role: Underground Railroad Conductor
Audience: Other Conductors that travel the Underground Railroad
Situation: You have escaped from slavery using the Underground Railroad and you have volunteered to help fugitive slave successfully to the North. You have information about the paths that will guarantee the safe travel for a fugitive slave.
Product: You will create a map to keep with you that indicates the locations of the trails to the North, destination cities that have volunteers to help fugitive slaves, and Detours in case you have to change routes in order to evade slave catchers.
Group 1 Question- How did the Conductors help Fugitive Slaves?
Free blacks, whites, and even some slaves worked as conductors who helped escaping slaves in many different ways. Baltimore’s large free black community and free blacks elsewhere provided hiding places for slaves who were running away. Many Quakers and other white people helped slaves because, even though they were white, they believed very strongly that slavery was wrong.
Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well known of all the Underground Railroads “conductors.” During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the south and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she “never lost a single passenger”
Tubman was born a slave in Maryland’s Dorchester County around 1820. At age five or six, she began work as a house servant. Seven years later she was sent to work in the fields. While she was still in her early teens, she suffered an injury that would follow her the rest of her life. Always ready to stand up for someone else, Tubman blocked a doorway to protect another field hand from an angry overseer. The overseer picked up and threw a two-pound weight at the field hand. It fell short, striking Tubman on the head. She never fully recovered from the blow, which subjected her to spells in which she would fall into a deep sleep.
Tubman resolved to run away. She set out one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to Philadelphia, where she found work and saved her money. The following year she returned to Maryland and escorted her sister and her sister’s two children to freedom. She made the dangerous trip back to the South soon after to rescue her brother and two other men. On her third return, she went after her husband, only to find that he had taken another wife. Undeterred, she found other slaves seeking freedom and escorted them to the North.
Group 2 Question- How did the Stations help fugitive slaves?Many different kinds of people were involved in the Underground Railroad. There were black people and white people, men and women, people from “slave” states and people from “free” states. There were old people and young people. Everybody who worked with the Underground Railroad took a big risk. If they were caught, they risked serious punishment, even death.
Men and women who operated Underground Railroad stations hid slaves in their homes, shops, churches, schools, and barns. Conductors drove slave hidden in wagons or coached to the next station. Some conductors led slaves through the woods and fields on foot until they could reach a safe house. Some put slaves on boats that sailed north to freedom. Others put slaves on real trains heading north. People figured out very clever ways to smuggle people out of slave states to a place further north.
We will never know exactly how many people were involved with the Underground Railroad, because they worked in secret. They had to keep the secret to protect both the escaping slaves and themselves. Groups willing to help sprang up in the larger towns and cities of the North, mostly in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. The organizations provided food, lodging and money, and helped the fugitives settle into a community by helping them find jobs.
Other volunteers employed escaping slaves so they could earn money to finish their journey to Canada. Many people offered clothing, shoes, bedding, and other things that the fugitives needed. It took the cooperation of many people to arrange successful escapes. There had to be a network of people that stretched all the way from the slave states to the North or to Canada. The conductors and other volunteers all had two things in common. They believed that slavery was very wrong. And they were very brave.
Group 3 Question- How did the Underground Quilt help fugitive slaves?
Several historians’ say African American slaves may have used a quilt to send a coded message to help navigate the Underground Railroad. Quilts with patterns named ‘wagon wheel,” “tumbling blocks,” and “bear’s paw” appear to have contained secret messages that helped direct slaves to freedom.
The code was a way to say something to a person in the presence of many others without the other people knowing,” said Dobard, a history professor at Howard University in Washington D.C. “It was a way of giving direction without saying, ‘Go Northwest.’”
The seamstress would hang the quilts in full view one at a time, allowing the slaves to reinforce their memory of the pattern and its associated meaning. When slaves made their escape, they used their memory of the quilts to guide them safely along their journey.
These historians believe the first quilt the seamstress would display had a wrench pattern. “It meant gather your tools and get physically and mentally prepared to escape the plantation,” Dobard said. The seamstress would then hang a quilt with the wagon wheel pattern. This pattern told slaves to pack their belongings because they were about to go on a long journey.
The quilt-code theory has been met with controversy since its publication. Quilt historians and Underground Railroad experts have questioned the study’s methodology and the accuracy of its findings.
Group 4 Question- How did Songs help fugitive slaves?
Songs associated with the Underground Railroad demonstrate that music has always been important in the heritage of African American people. The music can relay a story or bring people together in a common cause. In the slavery era, songs may have conveyed coded meanings to help bring the slaves to freedom.
One reportedly coded song of the Underground Railroad is “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd”. The song’s title is said to discuss the star formation known as the Big Dipper. The pointer stars of the Big Dipper line up with the North Star. In this song the repeated line “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd” is meant to be used as instructions to escaping slaves to travel north by following the North Star, leading them to the northern states, Canada, and freedom: The song supposedly translates escape instructions and a map from Mobile, Alabama up the Tombigbee River, over the divide to the Tennessee River, then downriver to where the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers meet in Paducah, Kentucky.
The song, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was written by Wallis Willis, a freedman in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma sometime before 1862. Many sources claim that this song had lyrics that referred to the Underground Railroad, the resistance movement that helped slaves escape from the South to the North and Canada.
Group 5 Question- What was it like to be a person that tried to escape from Slavery?
For the slave, running away to the North was anything but easy. The first step was to escape from the slaveholder. For many slaves, this meant relying on his or her own resources. Sometimes a “conductor,” posing as a slave, would enter a plantation and then guide the runaways northward. The fugitives would move at night. They would generally travel between 10 and 20 miles to the next station, where they would rest and eat, hiding in barns and other out-of-the-way places. While they waited, a message would be sent to the next station to alert its stationmaster.
One of the best clues they could use to find north was to locate the North Star. Unlike other stars, it never changes position. It always points to the north. People have always used a group of stars to help them find the North Star. They have called this group of stars many names, depending on how they saw the “picture” created by the stars. Some people thought the group of stars looked like a dipper- with a cup that had a very long handle. Slaves knew this group of stars as the “drinking gourd” in the sky; people traveling at night could always find the North Star.
There were many different routes that slaves took as they traveled north to freedom. One route out of Maryland was that frequently used by Harriet Tubman. She led her groups, beginning on foot, up the Eastern Shore of Maryland and into Delaware. Several stations were in the vicinity of Wilmington, Delaware. From Delaware the group traveled on to Philadelphia or other places in southeastern Pennsylvania. From there, many traveled further north. Some settled in Massachusetts or New York. Many continued through New York State and on into Canada.
Escaping slaves also boarded boats that sailed up the Chesapeake Bay. They could sail from many towns located directly on the Bay or from cities that were on rivers that flowed into the Bay. Baltimore was the largest such city. The Chesapeake Bay was a main rout to freedom. Many ship’s pilots were African Americans who his fugitives and helped them on their way. Some white captains were also conductors for the Underground Railroad. Because many blacks, both free and slave, were sailors, it was very common to see African American men on ships, so their presence did not arouse too much suspicion.
Quilt Maker GRASPGoal: To send a hidden message to those slaves wanting to escape to freedom.
Role: Quilt Maker/ Seamstress
Audience: Slaves who wish to find freedom
Situation: You want to help fugitive slaves find their way to freedom. You have volunteered your creative talent as a quilt maker to help slaves memorize codes that will assist them in their journey.
Product: You will create a quilt to send messages to slaves that are planning to use the Underground Railroad to escape slavery. You will need to create 3-5 Quilt Blocks that give a message to the slaves. You will need to provide an answer key that decodes your quilt
Key for the Secret Code-
Runaway Slave GRASP
Goal: To ensure fugitive slave travel safely and successfully to their destination in the North.
Role: A slave that wants to use the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom.
Audience: A conductor that is planning to bring slave to the North by using the Underground Railroad.
Situation: You are a slave that has decided to runaway. You need to get a message to the conductor to let him or her know you want their help to make the journey to the North.
Product: You will need to create a message that you want to escape from slavery using the Underground Railroad. The challenge is that, although you have some ability, you have never been taught to read or write. Use the following 13 letters ONLY and ANY SYMBOLS or PICTURES of your choice to communicate with the conductor. Remember, there are consequences if your note is found including; being beaten, sold away from your family, or possibly death!
Use ANY pictures or symbols and use ONLY the following letters
A E I O U D R M F S L T B
Songwriter GRASP
Goal: To inform fugitive slaves of the Underground Railroad and how to use the Railroad to escape to freedom.
Role: A slave that is able to write a song with a coded message of the Underground Railroad.
Audience: Slaves who wish to find freedom
Situation: You are a slave that has information about the Underground Railroad. The only way to pass the information to other slaves is to sing a song using code words that explain when and where to go to find the Underground Railroad.
Product: You will use the melody of a song that is already popular and write new words that send a message to other slaves about the Underground Railroad. The words to your song will need to give clear instructions on how slaves can successfully find and use the Underground Railroad.
Song Title-
Verse 1
Chorus
Verse 2
Verse 3
Conductor GRASP
Goal: To help fugitive slaves pass safely to the North to gain freedom.
Role: Underground Railroad Conductor
Audience: Other Conductors that travel the Underground Railroad
Situation: You have escaped from slavery using the Underground Railroad and you have volunteered to help fugitive slave successfully to the North. You have information about the paths that will guarantee the safe travel for a fugitive slave.
Product: You will create a map to keep with you that indicates the locations of the trails to the North, destination cities that have volunteers to help fugitive slaves, and Detours in case you have to change routes in order to evade slave catchers.
8th Grade Final Authentic Assessment Rubrics
GRASPS Rubic
5
4
3
2
1
0
Did you complete your GRASPS?
All 5 items are insightfully complete
All 5 items are basically complete
3-4 items are complete
2-3 items are partially complete
1-2 items are partially complete or attempted
Missing
Planning Piece Rubric
5
4
3
2
1
0
Do you have a successful plan?
Your plan for the project is thoroughly complete.
Your plan for the project is complete.
Your plan for the project is mostly complete.
Your plan for the project is partially complete.
Your plan for the project is limited.
Your plan for the project is missing.
Product Rubric
10
8
6
4
2
0
The product
is prepared, organized, articulate, and engaging. The presenter is knowledgeable about his/her task and how he/she fulfilled it.
is mostly prepared, organized, articulate, and engaging. The presenter is knowledgeable about their task and how they fulfilled it.
is partially prepared, organized, articulate, and engaging. The presenter is somewhat knowledgeable about their task and how they fulfilled it.
is minimally prepared and organized. The presenter is somewhat knowledgeable about their task and how they fulfilled it.
shows very little preparedness and organization. The presenter lacks knowledge about their task/product.
does not fulfill this requirement
Project Rubric
5
4
3
2
1
Project Fulfillment
Project completely fulfills the task and your GRASPS is achieved in a creative and original product.
Project mostly fulfills the task and your GRASPS is achieved in an original product.
Project partially fulfills the task and the GRASPS that your project sets out to achieve.
Project fulfills the task and your GRASPS in a limited way.
Project fulfills your
task and your GRASPS
in a minimal way.
Connection
to the text
Connection to the text is accurate, ample, and insightful.
Connection to the text is basic, literal, and accurate.
Connection to the text is basic and mostly accurate.
Connection to the text suggested or implied.
Little or no connection
to the text, and any implication
is mostly inaccurate.
Engagement
/Voice
Writing style and vocabulary are sophisticated and mature. Ideas are presented in a distinctive and engaging way.
Writing is clear, concise, and literal. Ideas are presented in a logical and coherent way. Sentence structure is varied.
Writing is mostly clear and concise, with basic vocabulary. Sentence structure is simple.
Writing is partially clear with basic vocabulary. Sentence structure is simple.
Writing is confusing,
Vocabulary is basic or limited.
Sentence structure is poor.
Mechanics/
Organization
/Formatting
Writing is organized with a clearly established focus. There are very few errors and errors do not interfere with readability.
Writing is mostly organized with a general focus. There are some errors, most of which do not interfere with readability.
An attempt is made at organization and focus. There are some errors, most of which do not interfere with readability.
Writing shows little organization and little or no focus. There are some errors, most of which do not interfere with readability.
Writing is disorganized.
Many errors interfere
with readability.