History Mystery Lesson

Resisting Slavery

Lesson Presented by: Karen Hughes, Shelly Greene, and Mandy Browning

The Mystery Lesson will provide students with a unique way of looking at history and gaining information by analyzing clues reflecting on actions taken by people to resist slavery. The main idea of this lesson is for the students to conclude that many people resisted slavery in many different ways.

The Mystery Lesson begins with a Movie Maker hook and the mystery question: How did people resist slavery? Students will complete a Visualizing Vocabulary graphic organizer and Knowledge Rating Scale with chunking and picture clues of words that are related to the institution of slavery. Then the students will watch a Movie Maker with images of the horrors of slavery and slave life with the background music of “Go Down Moses.” After the Movie Maker, students will Think-Pair-Share ideas and record information, including a hypothesis to the mystery question, on a graphic organizer.

The students will act as detectives by analyzing a variety of primary and secondary sources along with tactile objects as clues to answer the following Mystery Question: How did people resist slavery? They will be directed to different clue stations, follow directions, and complete their graphic organizer. After the students have completed their station rotations and graphic organizer, they will check their hypothesis and refine it if necessary.

Finally, the students will complete the lesson with a formative assessment on way people resisted slavery. The students will choose a task rotation that will compliment their learning style to answer the Mystery Question: How did people resist slavery?With the knowledge the students gained from the clues at each station, the students will choose from Mastery, Interpersonal, Understanding or Self-Expressivelearning styles then complete the assessment. To conclude the lesson, students will complete a self-reflection exit slip. The lesson will take four class sessions.

GRREC’s Teaching American History Grant

History as Mystery Lesson Plan

Lesson Topic:Resisting Slavery

Team Name: Freedom Fighters

Teachers’ Names: S. Greene, K. Hughes, M. Browning

1. History Mystery Question
How did people resist slavery?
2. Targeted Standards: (KY Core Content, Program of Studies, Academic Expectations) Include student learning targets (I Can statements).
  • I can explain how people resisted slavery.
Kentucky Core Content:
SS-05-5.1.1: Students will use a variety of primary and secondary sources (e.g. artifacts, diaries, maps, timelines) to describe significant events in the history of the U.S. and interpret different perspectives.
SS-05-5.2.4: Students will describe significant historical events in each of the broad historical periods and eras in U.S. history (specifically: expansion and conflict) and explain cause and effect relationships.
SS-05-2.3.1: Students will describe various forms of interactions (compromise, cooperation, conflict) that occurred between diverse groups (e.g., Native Americans, European Explorers, English colonists, British Parliament) in the history of the United States.
Program of Studies:
SS-5-HP-S-3: Students will investigate patterns across in U.S. history (e.g., major events/conflicts/culture; compare with major events/conflicts/culture to the present).
SS-5-HP-U-3: Students will understand thatthe history of the United States has been impacted by
significant individuals, groups and advances in technology.
3. Critical Vocabulary (What vocabulary will they need to know? How will you teach it?)
Pose the question of what it means to “resist.” Discuss how people show displeasure in something without using their fists and fighting.Students will then write the word “resist” on the Visualizing Vocabulary graphic organizer. Students will develop three pictures/visuals that show their understanding of “resist.”
Students will complete Knowledge Rating Scale with chunking and picture clue.
  • slavery
  • anti-slavery
  • abolitionist
  • Quakers
  • Underground Railroad
  • conductors
  • stations
  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • resist

4. The Lesson Hook (Encountering the Problem)
Movie Maker: Students will view images of the horrors of slavery and slave life with music of “Go Down Moses (Let My People Go!)” running in the background.
Teacher will share artifacts of shackles and cotton bolls to reiterate difficulty of slavery. Shackles were used to confine/restrain the slaves. The cotton bolls were harvested in the field and caused sores, cuts, and bleeding on the hands of the slaves.
Pose main question for Think-Pair-Share: (Think to yourself, pair with a partner and share your thoughts, and then share with the group)
Students will record information (including a hypothesis to the question) on movie maker graphic organizer.
5. Examining and Interpreting the Clues (Include all clues or sources that students will use to answer the mystery. Include directions for students, amount of time required, resources needed, specific instructions for implementing the lesson, etc.)
Station 1:
  • 1. Quaker style hat (artifact item)
  • 2. Quaker quote (
  • 3. Picture of Quakers involvement in helping slaves escape (
Station 2:
  • 1. Picture of Harriet Tubman (myhero.com)
  • 2. Excerpt from Enemies of Slavery by David A. Adler
  • 3. Excerpt from Freedom’s Wings: Corey’s Underground Railroad Diary by Sharon Dennis Wyeth (book is artifact item)
Station 3:
  • 1. Picture of Frederick Douglas statue with quote (
  • 2. Excerpt from Enemies of Slavery by David A. Adler
  • 3. Sample of the newspaper, the North Star(
  • Picture of Frederick Douglass (54th-mass.org)
Station 4:
  • 1. Picture of Levi Coffin with quote
  • 2. Picture of the Levi Coffin house (
  • 3. False bottom wagon picture/attic pictures/shoes picture
  • 4. Levi Coffin text excerpt (
Station 5:
  • 1. Picture of Abraham Lincoln ( excerpt from Emancipation Proclamation
  • 2. Replica of Emancipation Proclamation (artifact item)
  • 3. Excerpt from Enemies of Slavery by David A. Adler
Station 6:
  • 1. Picture of Harriet Beecher Stowe (
  • 2. Excerpt from Enemies of Slavery by David A. Adler

6. Establishing the Hypothesis (Include the instructions for students as well as a graphic organizer for them to use for collecting data.)
Before the lesson begins:
  1. Teacher will divide students into pairs or groups of threes.
  2. Teacher will decide on locations of stations and how students will rotate through them.
Day 1:
  1. Show Movie Maker as a hook to show horrors of slavery and slave life. Students will complete Movie Maker Graphic Organizer part 1 during the viewing. In box 2 students will do a Think-Pair-Share activity and compile ideas from the viewing. In box 3 students will create a hypothesis to answer the Mystery Question (at the top of page.)
  2. Teacher will discuss meaning of “resist.” Students will complete Visualizing Vocabulary activity with word “resist” making connections to their own lives.
  3. Teacher will introduce vocabulary by giving students a Knowledge Rating Scale (KRS). Students will rate each word based on their prior knowledge. Next students will create a picture/symbol to illustrate the word and write a brief definition.
  4. Teacher will give instructions and set up student expectations for rotating through the stations.
  5. Students will follow the directions at the top of the organizer. (Students will be independently reading directions for meaning.)
  1. Students will read directions with the team and will move to their first assigned station.
  2. Students will examine clues and fill in the organizer. Teacher will set timer for 10-15 minutes for each rotation (time will be decided by individual teacher.)
  3. Students will complete one rotation.
  4. Teacher will request feedback from students:
What went well?
What did you like?
What did you learn?
Day 2:
  1. Rotations 2-5 will be completed.
  2. Teacher will request feedback from students on day 2:
What went well?
What did you like?
What did you learn?
Day 3:
  1. Students will complete final station and complete graphic organizer.
  2. Students will then revisit the Movie Maker Graphic Organizer to refine their hypothesis (if necessary)
  3. Students will then participate in a gallery walk type activity to debrief after completing stations.
  4. Teacher will place six pieces of chart paper around the room labeled with station number. Next teams will rotate to each numbered chart around the room and record what actions the people took to resist slavery. Students will receive two minutes at each poster.
  5. When all groups have rotated through, teacher will ask for clarifying questions from the students. Discussion will take place as necessary.
Day 4:
  1. Students will be presented with a formative assessment task rotation activity. Students will choose one activity and complete to show their understanding and learning.
  2. Students will complete a final exit slip as a self-reflection.

7. Explaining the Hypothesis (What product will students use to explain their hypothesis? Include the rubrics for assessment of products and student self-reflection.)
Explaining the Hypothesis- Assessment: Evaluating your Hypothesis Reflection
The students will use a task rotation to explain their hypothesis. This incorporates four learning styles: Mastery, Interpersonal, Understanding, and Self-Expressive.
  • History Mystery Question:How did people resist slavery?
  • Prove or disprove your hypothesis. Provide some rationale and reasoning through your product.
Students will create a product to answer the question: How did people resist slavery?
Mastery
  • Choose one person that resisted slavery. Summarize what the person did and the effect you think their actions had.
  • Rubric provided
Interpersonal-
  • Choose one person that resisted slavery. Create a facebook profile page for the person telling what you have learned about how the person resisted slavery and the effect you think their actions had.
  • Rubric provided
  • facebook profile template provided
Understanding-
  • Choose one of the people that resisted slavery. Create a journal entry from the point of view of one of the historical persons you learned about. Describe what you learned about their actions and the effect you think it had.
  • Rubric provided
Self-Expressive-
  • Create an illustration of an action of one person who resisted slavery. Be sure to include important actions the person took. Include a caption describing/explaining the person you chose and their action.
  • Rubric provided
Self-reflection: After all students have completed the assessment, have them answer these questions individually:
1. What are THREE actions people took to resist slavery?
2. How well did your group work together?
3. How do you know you did your best work?
4. I used to think______, but now I know ______.
8. Resources Used in the Lesson (Include a thorough bibliography of books, articles, websites, etc.)
Websites:
(Quaker Quote-station 1)
picture—station 1)
myhero.com (Harriet Tubman picture—station 2)
(Frederick Douglass quote—station 3)
54th-mass.org (Frederick Douglass second picture—station 3)
(sample of North Star newspaper)
(Levi Coffin pictures and text)
(Abraham Lincoln picture)
(Harriet Beecher Stowe picture)
Pictures used in Movie Maker:
debateitout.com (“Am I not a brother?”)
nps.gov (scarred back photograph)
life.com (field slaves)
waynet.org (false bottom wagon/Levi Coffin/Levi Coffin House)
sodahead.com (Abe Lincoln picture with quote)
myhero.com (Harriet Tubman in “A Passage to Freedom”)
gainformer.com (Harriet Tubman photograph)
msu.edu (Reward slave poster)
conservapedia.com (Harriet Beecher Stowe photograph)
learnnc.org (field slaves photograph)
learnnc.org (Underground Railroad map)
54th-mass.org (Frederick Douglass)
flickr.com (slave with basket)
Books:
Ad Adler, D. A. (2004). Enemies of slavery. New York, NY: Holiday House.
Wy Wyeth, S. D. (2001). Freedom’s wings:Corey’s underground railroad diary. New York,NY:
Scholastic Inc.

1

Word / Know It
Well / Have Heard/Seen It / No Clue / Definition/Picture or symbol
slavery
anti-slavery
abolitionist
Quakers
Underground Railroad
conductors
stations
Emancipation Proclamation
resist

Knowledge Rating Scale Name: ______

Movie Maker Organizer—Think-Pair-Share

  1. Record what you see in the movie maker.
/
  1. Record what your partner noticed in the movie maker that is different from yours.

  1. Write a hypothesis to the question.
/
  1. After viewing clues, refine your hypothesis.

STATION 1

Quaker quote

The Quakers were radical Christians. They believed that all people were equal in the sight of God, and every human being was capable of receiving the "light" of God’s spirit and wisdom. They also were against violence. Quakers were known for their simple living and work ethic. Therefore, to the Quakers, slavery was morally wrong.
It was as early as the 1600s that Quakers began their fight against slavery, and thus the beginning of the abolitionist movement. They debated, made speeches, and preached to many people. By 1696, they made their first official declaration for abolitionism in Pennsylvania, in which they declared they were not going to encourage the importation of slaves.

Charles T. Webber (1825-1911) United States (Cincinnati)The Underground Railroad, 1893

STATION 2


STATION 2

“ I can’t die but once.”

--on the risks Tubman took during her many sojourns on the Underground Railroad, recalled in an interview probably given in the early 1860s

“I had a right to liberty or death,” former slave Harriet Tubman once said. “If I could not have one, I would have the other.”

In 1849 Tubman ran from her master’s Maryland property to the house of a white woman she knew who hated slavery. From there she went from one safe house to the next. She was on the Underground Railroad. “I had crossed the line. I was free,” but her parents, sisters, brothers, and friends were still slaves. “I was free,” she decided, “and they should be free. I would make a home in the North and bring them there.”

So Harriet Tubman went back. She risked her own freedom again and again as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.

Tubman made her trips in winter, when the nights were long and people stayed mostly indoors. With the stars to guide her, she helped more than 300 slaves escape, and she never let them turn back. When some were scared, afraid to continue, she pointed a gun to their heads and they went on. Years later she said proudly, “I never ran my train off track. I never lost a passenger.”

From: Enemies of Slavery by David A. Adler

STATION 2

Excerpt from Freedom’s Wings: Corey’s Underground Railroad Diary by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

Pg. 21

August 30, 1857

Preacher man came to our cabin at night. I was ‘neath the table. I listened to all of them talkin’. I wake up in the morning to recollect it.

Talkin’ about the Underground Railroad. It’s not a train, but people who can help us.

Must cross the Ohio River. Ohio is a free state. More people there are free, so they will help us take our freedom, too.

White people also part of it. They will help us, too.

Charles don’t trust that. Charles say he has not met the white person who will help him. Preacher man say, it is the truth. See a white man grab his ear and then look you in the eye straight, you can trust him. That is a signal for the Underground Railroad.

STATION 3

“I expose slavery in this country, because to expose it is to kill it.”

--Frederick Douglass

STATION 3

In 1838 Douglass escaped (from slavery) and moved north.

Douglass’s house became a “station” on the Underground Railroad-a safe house for runaway slaves. He lectured widely about the evils of slavery, and then published a newspaper of his own, the North Star. Douglass was a powerful voice for abolition-the ending of slavery.

“Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world,” Douglass said in an 1852 speech in Rochester, New York, “and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without rival.”

Excerpt from Enemies of Slavery by David A. Adler


STATION 3

STATION 4

“In the winter of 1826-27, fugitives began to come to our house, and as it became more widely known on different routes that the slaves fleeing from bondage would find a welcome and shelter at our house, and be forwarded safely on their journey, the number increased. Friends in the neighborhood, who had formerly stood aloof from the work, fearful of the penalty of the law, were encouraged to engage in it when they saw the fearless manner in which I acted, and the success that attended my efforts.”

Excerpt from Reminiscences of Levi Coffin

STATION 4

Above: The Levi Coffin House

Above: Escaping slaves could be hidden in this small upstairs room and the beds moved in front of the door to hide its existence.
Levi and Catherine Coffin were legendary in helping many former slaves escape to freedom in the North. Levi is often referred to as the President of the Underground Railroad.