Lesson Title: Communication: the Power to Free – Choices

 

By: Dee Anne Squire, Teacher Consultant, Wasatch Range Writing Project

 

Burning Questions:

·         What forms of communication do we use to share our ideas?

·          How do we choose which form to use?

·          How can communication help us navigate situations in our lives?

 

Objectives:

·         Students will explore various methods of communication used by slaves, slave catchers, and members of the Underground Railroad.

·         Students will relate prior knowledge to make connections to text (e.g., text to text, text to world).

·         Students will evaluate forms of communication and how they are used in particular situations

 

Context: Grades 4-6

 

Materials:

·         Lassieur, Allison, The Underground Railroad: An Interactive History Adventure (You Choose Books) new York: Capstone Press, 2008.

·         Paper for individual student responses.

·         Chart for each student

·         Computer access for students or paper copies of the information

·         Clickers (if available)

 

Time Span:  1-2 hours broken up as desired and depending on the depth of the learning stations

 

Procedures:

1.      Review the discussion about communication from the Douglass lesson, or if you haven’t given that lesson use steps 1-4 from that lesson to give students an idea of the many forms of communication in our world. 

2.      Set up three different learning stations:

·         The slave

·         The slave catcher

·         “Conductor” on the Underground Railroad. 

Provide students with information about their persona. This maybe done by giving students access to a computer or by printing out the information and having it available for students. 

3.      Give students an opportunity to rotate through each station and complete the attached chart as they learn about each type of individual. The following resources are available for each station. There is a lot of information available and some of it does crossover.  Review it and decide what will be best for your students.   Feel free to add your own information.

4.      Bring students back together and have a discussion about what the students have learned.  Were they surprised by anything?  Did they see any similarities or differences between the different people?

5.      Introduce the story, The Underground Railroad: An Interactive History Adventure, by Allison Lassieu. Explain how to choose your own adventure story works. 

6.      Using clickers (if available) or regular hand voting, allow students to decide which story path they want to take.  Begin reading the book based on that choice.  Whenever an opportunity to make a choice is reached stop and allow all students the chance to vote.  Follow the vote of the majority.  When you reach the final vote, stop reading and don’t take a vote. 

7.      At this point instruct students to make an individual choice and begin writing the end of the story based on that choice.  Students should pay special attention to communication while writing the end of their stories.  Think about what forms of communication are used, whether or not they are appropriate for the situation, and if communication was able to transform the situation. Also refer students to the chart they created at the beginning of the lesson to help them create a richer character.

Allow students time to share their stories with each other in small groups.  Each group can then choose their favorite to share with the entire class.

Discuss the endings and the use of communication in each one.  Also discuss the differences in the endings based on the choice of communication. 

 

Variation: Rather than writing as an individual, students can form groups to create their stories.

 

Rationale:    

As students are introduced to a variety of individuals with different roles and motives they will see the importance of communication in the life of each person.  Also they will be able to see why different forms of communication are needed at different times.  We hope they will begin to make a connection to their own life and the way they choose to communicate. 

 

Resources: