Joel Hebert
TAH Making Freedom Project
Lessons Plans Reviewing Major Antebellum Reform Movements
Fall 2010
Overall Objectives:
-Review major figures and movements of the Antebellum era in American history.
-Formulate questions through inquiry and determine importance of historical events.
-Analyze primary and secondary sources.
-Utilize technology in your study of history.
Day One
Objectives:
Formulate questions through inquiry and determine importance of historical events during Antebellum era.
Determine significance of different kinds of change during Antebellum era.
Materials:
Students- Pen/Pencil, binders with paper
Teachers- Reformers handouts; laptop carts or computer lab
Activities: -Do Now: What ideas/names/images enter your mind when you hear the phrase “Antebellum Reform”? -Distribute handouts featuring names of reformers from Antebellum era (some famous, other not as famous). Students will examine their textbooks (The Americans) to identify some of the reformers who appear in the textbooks.
-Students will use computers to identify those reformers not mentioned in their textbooks.
-Students will get in groups of 3-4 and discuss why some reformers are mentioned in the textbook while others are not.
-Share key points of discussion: why did some reformers make the textbook while others did not? Who made that decision? What does that tell you about the nature of history as a discipline? How would you determine the importance of historical events/figures?
Review: What were some of the major movements during Antebellum reform (woman’s rights, abolitionism, educational reform, etc.)?
Homework: Write a 2-3 paragraph explanation outlining how you would determine whether someone deserves to appear in a U.S. history textbook OR design a rubric measuring their worthiness.
Assessment: Informal questioning of individual students to check comprehension
Day Two
Objectives:
Formulate questions through inquiry and determine importance of historical events.
Analyze primary and secondary sources.
Materials:
Students- Pen/pencil; binders with paper
Teachers-Northrup excerpt handouts; Uncle Tom’s Cabin handout; Smartboard and LCD Projector
Activities:
Do Now: What is the difference between a primary source and a secondary source? List three examples of each that would relate to Antebellum reform and/or slavery. Which do historians generally deem more reliable and why?
-Discuss homework assignment from last night: how did you decide who was worthy of making history and who wasn’t.
-Adapted Lesson Plan 1 from Eve’ry Voice
-View frontispiece from Twelve Years as a Slave by Solomon Northrup, 1853
-Read excerpt from Northrup’s book. Is this a primary or secondary source on slavery? What makes it so?
-Divide students into small groups. Have them answer the following questions:
Why did Northrup react the way he did?
Why did Burch behave so brutally?
-Show clip from Roots of Kunta Kinte being whipped. Compare and contrast with Northrup’s events. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRtuxjHBmi4&has_verified=1
-Review definitions of primary and secondary sources
Homework: Read excerpt from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Assessment: Students will have a mini-quiz tomorrow on today’s lesson and the homework
Day Three
Objectives: -Analyze primary and secondary sources.
-Utilize technology in your study of history.
Materials: Students- Pen/pencil
Teachers- Quizzes; computer lab/laptop cart
Activities: Do Now: Students answer questions regarding material from last class to demonstrate knowledge.
-Go to computer lab. Direct students to voicethread.com
-Assist students as they register for a voicethread account.
-Instruct students to view a voice thread featuring documents from slavery era.
-Have students leave written comments on primary documents.
-Assign students a voice thread to leave comments on for homework.
Homework: Leave comments on three of the documents on a voice thread. http://voicethread.com/?#u1021955.b1281342.i6875450
Assessment: I will grade students on completion of comments and depth of commentary.
Antebellum Reformers: Who is History Book Worthy and Why?
- Look at the list of names/events below. Do they appear in your history textbook? If so, write “HB” next to them.
- If their name appeared in the history book, write a brief description identifying their achievements in 20 words or fewer.
- If their name does NOT appear in the history textbook, look them up online and write a brief description identifying their achievements in 20 words or fewer.
_____ Joseph Smith
_____ Joseph Rutherford
_____ Susan B. Anthony
_____ Louisa May Alcott
_____ Harriet Tubman
_____ Robert Smalls
_____ Horace Mann
_____ Samuel Gridley Howe
- Why do some of these people appear in the history textbooks while some of them don’t?
- Evaluate the decisions to include or exclude these people: should any who were included have been left out? Should any who were excluded appear in the textbook?
Deserving but absent:
Undeserving but present:
