Douglass in the Classroom

THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT

Written by: Linda Caprio

Grade Level/Discipline: In this lesson, students will analyze primary source documents related to slavery and the abolitionist movement in the United States. The predominant content area it will address is American history. Although this lesson was originally designed for use in an eleventh grade classroom, it can easily be adapted for use with seventh grade students as well by extending the suggested time allotment.

Suggested Time Allotment: 4 class periods

Essential Question(s): What strategies did nineteenth century abolitionists use to attack slavery?

Instructional Objectives: The growth of public opposition to slavery represents one of the largest and most significant reform movements in American history. Students will learn about this movement by critically examining primary source documents from the nineteenth century and creating their own abolitionist newsletters.

Objectives for Student Learning :

• Students will improve their abilities to critically analyze primary source documents.
• Students will learn about the various strategies that abolitionists used to attack slavery.
• Students will answer questions in groups and participate in a class discussion to demonstrate their understanding of these strategies.
• Students will create their own abolitionist newsletters.
• Students will improve their abilities to work productively with their peers.

NCSS Standards :

• II.a: Time, Continuity, and Change: Students will systematically employ processes of critical historical inquiry to reconstruct and reinterpret the past, such as using a variety of sources and checking their credibility, validating and weighing evidence for claims, and searching for causality.
• V.e: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions: Students will describe and examine belief systems basic to specific traditions and laws in contemporary and historical movements.
• X.d: Civic Ideals and Practices: Students will practice forms of civic discussion and participation consistent with the ideals of citizens in a democratic republic.
• X.e: Civic Ideals and Practices: Students will analyze and evaluate the influence of various forms of citizen action on public policy.
• X.h: Civic Ideals and Practices: Students will evaluate the degree to which public policies and citizen behaviors reflect or foster the stated ideals of a democratic republican form of government.

Student Assessment: Student learning will be assessed during the class discussion and after they complete their newsletters. During the class discussion, students will be evaluated for their ability to critically analyze primary source documents and to support their assertions with evidence from the texts. Their newsletters will be assessed in terms of three criteria: the accuracy of the reporting, the quality of the presentations, and the amount of effort put into the assignment. See the rubric below for further details. The methods used to assess the students' contributions to the class discussion and their written assignments will help teachers to determine what skills the students need to continue building, what concepts they already understand, and what ideas they need to spend more time working on.

Resources: (See procedure for distribution details.)

1. Student journals
2. Document packets (one per student)
3. Activity sheets (one per student)
4. Textbooks (one per student)
5. Computers (at least one per group).

Procedure :

Day 1:

Warm-up activity: Please answer the following questions in your journal: What contemporary political and/or social cause do you support? Why do you support it? How do you support it?

1. Remind students to complete the warm-up activity.
2. Spend a few minutes discussing students' answers to the warm-up questions.
3. Tell students that we will be learning about one of the most important social movements of the nineteenth century: the movement to end slavery.
4. Pass out document packets. Ask for a few volunteers to read the introduction and directions out lout to the class.
5. Divide class into mixed-ability groups of four.
6. Assign roles for group members to play:
   1. Facilitator: Makes sure that everyone participates, does not allow group members to insult one another, makes sure that the group finishes on time, and contributes to the group's discussion. Remind students that the facilitator is not the leader.
   2. Resource Manager: Distributes and collects the group's documents and any other items that they use at the beginning and end of the class period. This person should also contribute to the group's discussion. Remind students that the resource manager is the only person in their group who has any reason to be out of their seat.
   3. Teacher Liaison: If the group has a question or is experiencing difficulty with the task, the liaison should raise his or her hand and ask the teacher to come over. The liaison should also contribute to the group's discussion.
   4. Recorder: Notes key points under discussion, records the group's answers to the discussion questions, and contributes to the group's discussion.
7. Give groups twenty to twenty-five minutes to analyze the documents and answer the corresponding discussion questions.
8. While students are working, move from group to group answering any questions and helping students who appear stuck.
9. Ask groups to share their interpretations of the documents and answers to the discussion questions.

Day 2:

1. Assign students to the same groups that they worked in the day before.
2. Tell them to switch roles (See Role Rotation Chart below).
3. Pass out activity sheets and explain directions.
4. Make sure each student knows what role he or she is supposed to play.
5. Give groups the remainder of the class period to work on their newsletters.
6. While students are working, move from group to group answering any questions and helping students who appear stuck.

Day 3:

1. Remind students that they should finish their newsletters by the end of this class period.
2. While students are working, move from group to group answering any questions and helping students who appear stuck.

Day 4:

1. Ask each group to present their work. Encourage presenters to thoroughly explain their decisions: why they decided to write about the specific events/people that they did, how they decided to divide the work, etc.
2. Possible questions for group debriefing:
   1. What is the most important thing that you learned from working on this project?
   2. What difficulties did you encounter while completing this project? How did you overcome these difficulties?
   3. What strategies did you use to condemn slavery in your newsletter? Why did you decide to use these strategies?
   4. How can we use the experiences of nineteenth century abolitionists to fight forms of social injustice and oppression today?
   5. Tell us one good thing that the person standing to your left contributed.
3. Draw students into a quick wrap-up discussion to answer the essential question: What strategies did nineteenth century abolitionists use to attack slavery?

Role Rotation Chart

Rubric for Newsletter Activity