Unit Title: Underground Railroad

 Lesson 2: Safe House

Type of teaching unit: Lesson Plan

Grade Level(s): 2nd

Time Frame: 3 days

Subject matter: Social Studies

Teacher information:

Charlotte Edwards
Officer Elementary School
AAM affiliation: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
cjeteach1@hotmail.com

Lesson plan description and rationale:

The students will be able to compare/contrast safe houses to homes of today. Students will enhance and expand their technology skills by researching primary sources on the American Memory website.

State Standards/s:

Social Studies Standards:

 A. Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation. 16.A.1a Explain the difference between past, present and  future time; place themselves in time. 16.a.1b Ask historical questions and seek answers  from historical sources (e.g., myths, biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork, other visual or electronic sources).

Objective:

Students will locate visual images of a safe house and compare/contrast to homes of today using the website.

Resources:

No photographer given.
Moses Vance Rawlings Home
Moses Vance Rawling's Homestead
[http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=4618]
No  digital identification number.
(March 2004).

No photographer given.
Reuben Benedict Home
Underground Railroad Small Picture Collection
[http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=4612]
No digital  identification number.
(March 2004).

No photographer given.
Winder Station 
Underground Railroad Small Picture Collection
[http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=4621]
No digital identification number.
(March 2004).

No photographer given.   
Thomas L. Gray and Home  
Underground Railroad Small Picture Collection
[http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=4614]
No digital  identification number.
(March 2004).

No photographer given.
William Thorne and Family 
Wilbur H. Siebert Collection
[http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=5610]
No digital  identification number.
(March 2004).

No photographer given.
William Woodward
Wilbur H. Siebert Collection
[http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=5617]
No digital identification number.
(March 2004).

 

No photographer given. 
Ashtabula Harbor
Wilbur H. Siebert Collection
[http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=5563]
No digital identification number.
(March 2004).

No photographer given. 
Light to Signal Slaves
Ripley (Ohio) Small Picture Collection
[http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=4626]
No digital identification number.
(March 2004).

Underground Railroad Resources

Methods:

Students will review the lesson on Harriett Tubman. Students will discuss and identify a safe house. Students will discuss the historical significance of a safe house. Students will make historical connections to safe houses and the plight of slaves as they attempted to escape to freedom.

1 (1st day) Students will view images of various safe houses using the website. Students will observe and list the characteristics of a safe house. Students will make observations that a safe house was not always a house. For example, harbors, barns, and train stations were considered to be safe houses.

2. (2nd day) Students will view images of homes of today and list the characteristics.

3. (3rd day) Students will compare/contrast the characteristics of a safe house to homes of today using a Venn Diagram. Students will write a report on a safe house and its’ historical connection to the underground railroad.

Evaluations:

Students will be able to successfully compare/contrast a safe house to homes of today. Students will successfully discuss and write about the safe house and its’ historical connection to the underground railroad.

Link to Rubrics

Keywords for this lesson:

structure, materials, foundation, compare, contrast, safe house, lantern, abolitionist