<p>Underground Railroad Lesson Plan Thought Process in College Writing</p><p>Audra Rys Berne-Knox Westerlo School District, Berne, NY </p><p>Grades 9-12</p><p>Overview: In this unit/lesson(s) students will become familiar with the process of writing effectively for a higher academic institution using the Underground Railroad (UGRR) as their theme. The overall unit when finished will give them an understanding of the UGRR through pictures/photographs and also slave narratives/testimonies. </p><p>Time Allowance: Entirely up to the teacher dependent on how much UGRR content will be used. However, at minimum 4-5 class periods.</p><p>Standards: NYS Language Arts Standards 1-4, NYS Social Studies Standards 1, 5</p><p>Objectives: Students will:</p><p>*use powers of observation in viewing the art works about the UGRR to give detailed responses to questions and understand thought process for writing *describe the possible thoughts, feelings, situations of the people in works art in a piece of writing *read several slave testimonies/narratives and use inference and synthesis to find the common links in an understanding of slavery and UGRR *show an understanding of focus and type of thinking in a written piece using the information garnered from the narratives and artwork</p><p>Resources: Blight, David. W., ed. Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Books in association with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 2004.</p><p>Brown, Henry “Box”. Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself. Manchester, 1851. Documenting the American South. Ed. Chris Hill and Natalia Smith. 1999. Academic Affairs Lib., U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 24 Aug. 2007 http://www.docsouth.unc.edu/boxbrown/boxbrown.html.</p><p>Still, William. The Underground Railroad. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872 United States. Library of Congress American Memory. Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project. 2007. 24 Aug. 2007 http://www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html</p><p>United States. National Endowment for the Humanities. Dickinson College Landmarks of the Underground Railroad: From Christiana Harpers Ferry. Jan. 2007. 1 August 2007 http://alpha.dickinson.edu/departments/hist/NEHworkshops/NEH/resource /gallery.htm</p><p>Activities/Procedures:</p><p>1. Students are to familiarize themselves with the concept of the UGRR using a couple of general websites: http://www.albany.edu/~sg0068/isp523/isp02/urrnys.htm (Underground Railroad in NYS) and http://www.nyhistory.com/ugrr/index.htm. and http://www.ugrworkshop.com. Students will write their own definition of the UGRR.</p><p>2. Students will view several pictures from the UGRR (Christiana, Henry Box Brown etc.) website at Dickinson College. They are to answer questions based on these artworks asking about details, interests, feelings, reactions, links in subject matter, composition, what ideas are conveyed, connect this to the concept of writing. </p><p>3. Students will compose their own descriptive piece about the scenario depicted in the artwork. Variation: Students can compose their own poem or narrative after viewing the artwork.</p><p>4. Either students singly or teacher and students together will read the narrative of Henry Box Brown. Students will the use the Library of Congress website to read slave/escape stories. They will come up with their own list of commonalities or interesting points they would like to discuss. Class discussion will follow. </p><p>5. Students will generate their own focus paper (examples might be but are not limited to comparing stories or meanings of the UGRR, contrasting feelings the artwork evoked, describe similarities in subject matter or arguing their own interpretation found in the stories or artwork).</p><p>Evaluation/ Assessment:</p><p>Class discussion Question sheets Descriptive piece Focus Paper Extension: This leads into the next phase of the course which is academic writing focusing on building a research paper. The skills needed to begin research are established with this beginning set of lessons, especially using primary source documents and a variety of sources, not just textbooks and google.</p><p>.</p>