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Underground Railroad Unit – Fourth Grade

1. Standards:

Iowa CORE SS.3–5.H.4 Essential Concept and/or Skill: Understand the role of individuals and

groups within a society as promoters of change or the status quo. Iowa CORE SS.3–5.H.8 Essential Concept and/or Skill: Understand cause and effectrelationships and other historical thinking skills in order to interpret events and issues.

National Visual Art Standard: Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.

National Theater Standard: Acting by assuming roles and interacting in improvisations.

National Music Standard: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and

disciplines outside the arts.

2. Core Work: The Underground Railroad, a painting by Charles T. Webber

3. Big Idea Statements:

The establishment of the Underground Railroad and its success depended on the cooperation andinteraction of different groups of people.

Slaves were denied basic human rights.


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Slaves were not free to live as white people were during this time, so they took great risks toescape to freedom.

The people who helped the slaves were abolitionists and believed in peace, equality and freedom

for all people.

Guiding Questions:

• What is the Underground Railroad?

• What conditions were present in the South surrounding slavery?

• Can you describe the life of a slave?

• How did the Underground Railroad work?

• What were the risks and opportunities of escaping slavery?

4. Key Concepts:

Slavery, Freedom, Roles, Risks, Opportunities, Compassion

5. Skills and Processes:

• Students will draw upon schematic knowledge of the Underground Railroad to create a

foundation for exploration of the subject.

• Students will interpret a well-known painting, The Underground Railroad by Charles T.Webber.

• Students will compare and contrast the risks and rewards of the slaves and theabolitionists.

• Students will defend and justify a slave’s escape to freedom.

•

Students will characterize the varying clues, paths, hideaways that worked collaborativelyto make the Underground Railroad a success.

• Students will reconstruct a dramatized account of escape while pretending to be anescaping slave.

• Students will also identify and explain main points and key vocabulary words within theunit.

6. Art Connections:

• The painting will give students a visual portrayal of the interactions and cooperation ofdifferent groups of people in the journey to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

•

The music will demonstrate the emotional and physical tolls of slavery and lead tounderstanding of the cause and effect relationship of a slave’s desire to escape.

• The interpretation of the music and hidden clues within the music will also allow studentsto apply knowledge of the workings of the Underground Railroad.

• The reenactment of an escape will allow children to experience through movement and

emotion the escape to freedom.


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• The literature will provide both biographical character portraits of slaves and fictionalaccounts of escaping to freedom.

Art Resources:

Painting, music and literature to explicitly describe the inner workings of the

Underground Railroad and the different perspectives of the parties involved.

MasterWork: The Underground Railroad by Charles T. Webber

Negro Spiritual Music :

This Train, The Tell Tale SingersWade in the Water Vol. 1, African American Spirituals

(Smithsonian Folkways Series)

Literature:Unspoken, by Henry Cole

Follow the Drinking Gourd, by Jeanette Winter Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, by Laban Carrick Hill

Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom by Shane W. Evans Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad

by Ellen Levine

Other resources:

www.artsedge.com www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmG0Jq55Neo Classroom Social Studies Textbook

7. Assessment:

Arts-based Formative Assessment:The following will be assessed by a rubric based on participation, preparation and

cooperation throughout the activity.o Interpretation of the spiritual music, in that they can describe the meaning to

slaves and the “hidden messages” within these songs in the context of theUnderground Railroad.

o Preparation of individualized quilt square.o Dramatized demonstration of Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the

Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine.

o Journal writing of a slave’s experience and oral presentation.

Unit Summative Assessment:

Students will be asked to describe the Masterwork in an essay using their own wordscombined with unit vocabulary that will be included in a key. Students will be expected

to explain why escape was necessary (the lives and conditions of slaves and slavery), thedangers of escaping to freedom (risks and rewards) and how codes and symbols helped


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slaves escape (abolitionists, clues and pathways to freedom) within the context of theMasterwork.

9. Time Line & Lesson Plans

Underground Railroad: Day 1-2

Essential Questions:

What is the Underground Railroad?

Content Objective: Students will draw upon schematic knowledge of the Underground Railroad to create a

foundation for exploration of the subject. Introduction of Masterwork painting,The Underground Railroad by Charles T. Webber.

Students will also identify and explore main points and key vocabulary words within the unit and

how they tie to the visual art piece.

Purpose and Modeling:Modeling: Begin with open-ended questioning in regards to the painting. Say something like, “I

see people in a historic setting. When could this be?”Purpose is to establish background knowledge surrounding content area and introduce students to

the idea of the Underground Railroad. Probing questions regarding the artwork will “paint” the broad theme of the unit.

Guided Instruction:Whole Group: Pose probing questions to students regarding artwork.

What do you see?What is special about this piece of work?

What do you think the artist is trying to convey?How does this painting make you feel?

In what time period do you feel it is placed?Is there anything in history you may connect to this painting?

Charting ideas and words as a large group will set the stage for foundational knowledge of the

unit.

Explore ideas further through buddy-reading of assigned text within textbook. Students will beresponsible for identifying key vocabulary and concepts with a partner.

The experience for the day will conclude by students posing questions “to” the artist and posing

questions “of” the painting by using newly acquired knowledge from the reading and charteddiscussion points.




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What conditions were present in the South surrounding slavery?Can you explain the life of a slave?

Content Objective:

To conceptualize the contextual situation of the life of a slave during this time. Students will

explore life on a plantation for slaves in order to weigh the risks and opportunities surroundingescape. By incorporating a biographical account and listening to Negro spirituals, as well as anonline activity, students can immerse themselves into the culture and character of a slave.

Guided Instruction:

Open with playing of African American Spiritual music. Ask students to listen and quick writefor one-minute emotional words that the music brings to mind.

Whole Group: Bring students together and briefly discuss the music. Ask that each students

share one word that they wrote down in order to set the mood for understanding the dismalcircumstances surrounding slavery. Bridge these feelings with read aloud, Dave the Potter , and

explain that we will read about a man who was a slave.

Students will then partner up and do an online activity through National Geographic that takesthem virtually through the life and journey of a slave escaping to freedom. Continue to play

music while students work together through the online exercise.

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/underground-railroad-journey-

freedom/?ar_a=1



What are the inner workings of the Underground Railroad?Who assisted the slaves and how did they escape to freedom?

Content Objective:

Connect the story to previous learning of subject matter including read aloud materials andonline activity. Compare and contrast the situations of slaves and how they escaped to freedom.

Through group discussion and independent work they will read about, chart, dissect and examinethe risks and rewards of escaping slavery via the Underground Railroad.

Guided Instruction:

Buddy Work: Students will read about Harriet Tubman, the Quakers and other abolitionistsalong with the inner workings regarding the Underground Railroad in the Social Studies

textbook. They will revisit vocabulary, identifying contextual clues to define these words.

Group Work:1. Read The Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter.

After reading, teacher will guide discussion and chart answers as a class with questions such as:When did slaves escape?


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How did they find their way?How did they know who would help them?

How do you think the slaves felt?What were some of the clues and signals that helped slaves along the way?

2. Revisit spiritual music and prompt students to look for signals and clues within the music that

may have communicated messages to the slaves. Watch Wade in the Water video(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmG0Jq55Neo) to show spiritual music connection toescaping.

Individual Work: Students will use the quilt patterns as a focus study for understanding signals

and clues that were used for communication on the Underground Railroad. Students will create aquilt square with found materials, paper, or drawing that represents their own understanding of

the inner workings of the Underground Railroad.



What were the risks and rewards of escaping slavery?

Content Objective: Explore the following books:

Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom by Shane W. EvansUnspoken by Henry Cole

These picture books have little or no words and rely heavily on striking images to communicate

the message and story of the Underground Railroad. The intention is that students will be able tosynthesize the story, create meaning and comprehension through their new knowledge of the

Underground Railroad.

Purpose and Modeling:Students will brainstorm and shape their own ideas through the study of these profound

illustrations in an attempt to use drama to express the story of an escaped slave.With in-depth examination of the illustrations, I will ask how the pictures portray mood and

feeling, setting and plot. By modeling what I notice in the illustrations, students can think of the pictures as a more living and breathing representation of the Underground Railroad story.

• A series may go like this, “I notice the little girls eyes in this drawing. They are wide,like this (I demonstrate with my own eyes). I think this means she is surprised or startled.Or maybe she is disbelieving of what she thinks she sees. What do you think widened

eyes (demonstrate again) like this mean? What do you think is going through her mind atthis moment? Let’s act it out together.

Guided Instruction:

Whole Group:


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1. Guide students through Unspoken. Integrate elements of drama in order tosynthesize the meaning of each book. Use the following guide to chart (in a group

discussion) the components of the book as a dramatization.Actors

Space

ConflictCharacters/Actors carrying out actionPlot

SettingMood

2. Now guide students through Underground. Use modeling strategies mentioned aboveto dramatize the story together.

Small Group: Read aloud Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad

by Ellen Levine. Students will listen as a whole group to the story in it’s entirety first, and then be break into small groups for a dramatized reenactment of the story. Copies of different parts of

the book will be distributed so that students can organize their wordless performance of eachsection of the book. Following each small group performance, the group will discuss what the

scene portrayed.

Underground Railroad: Day 10

Essential QuestionsCan you imagine yourself as a slave trying to escape to freedom?

Content Objective:

Through this writing assignment, students will revisit the Masterwork painting for inspirationand write through the eyes of a slave through a journal, memoir or narrative from the perspective

of a slave wanting to escape from freedom. They will begin with the current life of the slave,moving sequentially through their journey to freedom. Students will create and complete this

piece of writing and share it orally to the class in order to deepen their understanding of theUnderground Railroad.

Guided Instruction:

Whole Group: Explanation of writing assignment as writing a journal or narrative as ifthe student were a slave escaping to freedom. Inform students that the assignment will

be presented orally to the class.

Small Group: Small group discussion and individual charting of questions:Who am I as a slave?

How old?Do I have a family?

What kind of work did I do on the plantation?How do I feel about escaping?

When I escape what dangers to I encounter?Do I get caught? Or do I narrowly escape?


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Do I encounter codes and signals along the way? What are they?Who helps me escape?

Do I make it to freedom?

The small group discussion and recording will help students concretely define and

identify their own “character”. The writing and presentation will conclude theinstruction phase to this unit.

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