North American Slavery Through the Eyes of the Enslaved

A Project Based Learning Unit designed  for grades 5-8

Introduction
Objectives
  • Social Studies 
  • Language Arts 
  • Art and Music 

    • Technology 
Tasks
  • Research 
  • Storyboarding 
  • Power Point 
  • Summative Reflection
Resources
  • Books 
  • Video 
  • Audio 

    • Web
  • Email an Expert
Student Work
Teacher Section
Replication Suggestions
Assessment Rubrics
About Us
Translation Tools

 
This unit was created by
Robert Curry
of
Vinci Park School
Berryessa Union School District
San Jose, CA

Web Units

Our Class On-Line
 
Introduction
Project Plan:
 View the detailed Project Plan at the link above.

Overview 
  In the study of American history, there can be little doubt to the moral evil that was slavery.  In this project, students will endeavor to study the lives of slaves and their relationships with  slaveholders from primary documents where available and other resources and write either a non-fictional response or a fictionalized account as a first person narrative. 

     Student groups will choose subjects from a specific time period and tell the historical account from the slave's  perspective.  To present their stories, students will create Power Point Presentations.

Background Knowledge :  Prior to starting this project, students will spend several monthsas they study the institution of slavery in the Americas.  The class will view videos, both before and during the project.  Among the videos will be Africans in America, Roots and Colonial Williamsburg's The Runaway. They will also hear audio recordings of former slaves recorded by the WPA in the 1930's which have been remastered and released by the Smithsonian Institute along with the companion book, Remembering Slavery.

We will use many resources and use primary sources wherever possible, such as the WPA project Slave Narratives.  Many of those can be found at the 
American Memory site of the Library of Congress.

After doing the research as a group, the stuidents will plan and create a Power Point Presentation to demonstrate their newly acquired knowledge by using words, images and sounds in creative ways to retell the slave narratives.
Likewise, the groups will be challenged to do a dramatic reading or play
based on the Slave Narratives. 
Lastly, they will write compositions expressing what they have learned by doing this project.

 
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