...If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine
Language Arts
Activity #1: Students will be introduced to new vocabulary words in regard to the story. Examples of vocabulary words from the book are the following: conductor, fugitive, station master, free papers, and plantation. (Resource 1 and 3)
Activity #2: Students will journal about different aspects of the Underground Railroad. Their first entry could be the following: "What stands out about you? How would you disguise yourself to make it safely to the North?" Students can also draw a before and after picture of themselves. (Resource 1 and 4)
Activity #3: The class will discuss the importance of reading and writing, and the teacher will take notes of the key discussion points. The students will then experience what it would be like to try to learn how to read in a foreign language. The students will understand the difficulty, frustration, and confusion of being illiterate. Students will reflect in their journals upon this activity writing from the perspective of a slave. (Resource 1 and 4)
Activity #4: Students will listen to Ellen Levine read her book "Henry's Freedom Box." Afterward, the class will collaborate in choosing the most significant events of Henry's life as seen in the book. Students will be split up into small groups of three or four each. Each group will receive an event in Henry's life. With that event, they will write the main points on a piece of white cardstock paper, and on the other side, they will illustrate what is happening in the scene. Finally, a visual timeline will be made with the pictures. (Resource 1, 4, and 5).
Activity #5: The students will create a collaborative Prezi about the important historical figures during the time of the Underground Railroad. Each student will choose one person to research and create a slide on that person. Once the information has been compiled, each student will present his or her portion of the research to the class. (Resource 1)
Related Arts
Topic #1: The teacher will read the poem/song "Song of the Free" aloud to the students. Students will reflect on what they heard and compose their own poem/song about how they would feel as a slave or a fugitive. (Resource 1, 4, and 5)
Topic #2: The students will get into small groups to create a secret signal that represents a signal that could have been used to ensure the safety of fugitives. For example, on page thirty-eight some of the secret signals of the Underground Railroad are listed. They will act out their secret signal in front of the class as if the events were actually happening. (Resource 3 and 4)
Topic #3: The class will discuss the important symbols of our nation's freedom such as the American flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the bald eagle. Students will use watercolors to create their own symbol of hope and freedom. Students will share their symbols with the class, and the symbols will be displayed on the wall. (Resource 1)
Topic #4: Students will review the safety routes for their school for fires, tornados, and/or earthquakes. Students will learn of the importance of the safety routes for themselves as well as how important a carefully chosen safety route was for fugitive slaves. Students will create their own safety route using the school's layout showing how they can get safely from point A to point B, just like fugitive slaves would have to think about how they could safely travel from point A, the South, to point B, the North. (Resource 4)
Topic #5: As a class, the students and the teacher will take time to create a fictional script based off the Underground Railroad. Students will be split up into 3 groups: the slaves, the slave hunters, and the Underground Railroad workers. They will brainstorm ideas about how their group of people played a part in history. The teacher will facilitate the compilation of the script so that it makes sense and is historically accurate. The students will have a chance to act out their play. (Resource 1, 3 and 4)
Social Studies
Activity #1: Transportation: Students will research the different modes of transportation that the slaves used to flee the South including railroad, horse-drawn carts, fancy carriages, boats, and horseback. Then creating a Venn Diagram, students will compare and contrast the transportation then and now. (Resource 3 and 4)
Activity #2: Geography: As a class, we will use the available technology in our classroom to explore the places mentioned in the text. This will include the different routes taken by the fugitives. For example, on page ten of the story, David, the fugitive, escapes across the Ohio River to arrive in Ripley, Ohio. Using google maps, we will see the location of the event. (Resource 1, 3, and 4).
Activity #3: We will study both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War noting their impacts upon the Underground Railroad. (Resource 1, 3, and 4)
Activity #4: As a class, we will study the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Students will create a codex about different aspects of his life including family life, views on the war, views on slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation, and other significant contributions. (Resource 4 and 5)
Activity #5: The students will choose an influential female figure from this time period (ex. Harriet Breecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, etc.). They will compare and contrast the rights of these women compared to male and female slaves, free black men and women, and white men. Students will work in small groups to create a graphic organizer displaying both the contributions of the influential women and the rights that each person had during that time period. (Resource 1 and 4)
Science
Activity #1: Students will research rice, cotton, and bean plantations in the mid to late 1800s. They will learn how the crops were planted and harvested by the slaves. Additionally, they can discover what the working conditions would have been like for the slaves. (Resource 1 and 4)
Activity #2: Students will research the biomes that would have been encountered by those traveling on the Underground Railroad. Example biomes would be the forest and the swamp. In small groups, the students will create a miniature Biome which replicates the conditions of that area. (Resource 1)
Activity #3: Students will be put into small groups to brainstorm the conditions within each season of the year. Students will research weather, food availability, terrain, animal predators, and water sources. They will use that information to determine how dangerous the journey would be during each season. (Resource 4)
Activity #4: In our classroom we will study how the moon could have been used during the slaves' journey to the North. The students will learn how to use themselves as a human protractor in calculating the position of the moon. Students will identify how the moon phases could have helped the slaves in keeping track of the time they traveled. (Resource 4)
Activity #5: Students will participate in a discovery learning experience about how traveling at night would have been beneficial to the fugitive slaves (other than the fact that it was dark). During this process the students will discover that the constellations would have been an enormous help in guiding the travels of the fugitives in the dark of night. (Resource 1 and 4)
Math
Activity #1: Students will research what the price of the dollar in the 1800s was compared to today's market. They will use that information to discover how much the different reward amounts for the capture of historical figures and fugitive slaves would be equivalent to today. ( Resource 1 and 4)
Activity #2: Students will be given the assignment of creating a mapped design of a secret room in their house, similar to one that could have been used to harbor fugitives. They will do their best to use the accurate measurements of their house in creating the space. They may complete this with the help of a family member. (Resource 4)
Activity #3: Students will learn how to use patterns through the following activity. The students will step into the shoes of station masters who need to find a secret way to communicate with the fugitives using patterns on the clothesline, on the window sill, or on the front porch. Using construction paper, colored pencils, scissors, and glue, students will create their own patterns using practical household materials with distinct shapes such as: cookie sheets, blankets, candles, frying pans, and brooms. (Resource 1, 2, and 4)
Activity #4: The students will research the area of Ripley, Ohio, especially focusing on the Ohio River. After finding the approximate distance across the river at a certain location, students will also find how fast the average person can swim. Using that information, they will calculate approximately how long it would take the average person to swim from the Kentucky side to the Ohio side. (Resource 1 and 4)
Activity #5: Each student will create his or her own coding alphabet using sequences of numbers and symbols. Along with the coding alphabet, students will create a secret message for the transportation of fugitives that corresponds to the unique code they created. Once they complete their code and message, the teacher will make stations around the room for the different codes. Students will rotate through the different stations trying to decipher each message. (Resource 1, 2, and 4)
Related Books
Book #1: Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Patricia Lantier
Book #2: North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad by Katherine Ayres
Book #3: Stealing South: A Story of the Underground Railroad by Katherine Ayres
Book #4: I Came as a Stranger: The Underground Railroad by Bryan Prince
Book #5: Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole
Ethics
Topic #1: The students will think about what it means to give something of importance away. Students will be guided to reflect upon the sacrificial love that was displayed in some of the book's stories. For example: Hezekiah's friend gave up his son to Hezekiah so that the son could reach freedom even if he could not be with him (Levine 23). There would be an opportunity to insert the gospel here if permitted. (Resource 1, 3 and 4)
Topic #2: Discuss the implications of the opposing views of slavery within families. In the book, a wife of a judge opposed slavery, but her husband, the judge, followed the law of that time which said it was illegal to assist fugitive slaves (Levine 39). Have the class split up into two groups. One group will represent the judge, and one group will represent the wife. Making a t-chart, the students will recognize the different views within that family. (Resource 1, 3, and 4)
Topic #3: In the book there were people called the Quakers who helped the fugitive slaves. There were many people during that time who used their abilities to sew clothes, to collect money, and to make speeches explaining the faults of slavery (Levine 50). Our students will be encouraged to discuss and discover that they can make a difference in their community by helping the less fortunate. We will brainstorm ideas as a class and implement at least one of those ideas that year. (Resource 1, 3, and 4).
Topic #4: Discuss the following question: "Have you ever known something was wrong, but you were too afraid to do anything about it?" (Levine 51). Offer scenarios: a friend being bullied or gossiped about, witness cheating taking place, heard mean words at home. (Resource 1, 3 and 4)
Topic #5: If you were a slave in the South, would you have chosen to stay or run away to freedom? What would be some reasons that would guide your decision? Have students first think on their own and journal about their thoughts. Afterward, allow the students a chance to share their thoughts and decisions. (Resource 1 and 4)