Category: TWTW

This week, I wanted to focus on the second part of our Revolution and Reform unit, specifically on the topic of abolitionism. With only 28 or 29 days of school left, it’s crucial that I carefully select the most important content to cover. Although I would love to delve into all aspects of reform movements, time constraints simply won’t allow for it. Therefore, I chose to concentrate on abolitionism and slavery this week, as it provides a smooth transition into exploring the causes of the Civil War. To build a solid foundation, I began by discussing the impact of the cotton gin, the lives of enslaved people, and the resistance they exhibited. Finally, we concluded the week by examining abolitionist reformers, which ties in nicely with some local New Richmond history.

Monday – Cotton Gin Lesson

Tuesday – Life of Enslaved People

Wednesday – Resistance

Thursday – Abolitionists, Assessment

Friday – Citizens of Sardinia

Monday

On Monday, we wrapped up our lesson on the cotton gin, which we had started the previous Friday. The central question was, “What were the consequences of the cotton gin?” I utilized various activities such as “Annotate and Tell,” “Graph and Tell,” and a “2xPOV” (two points of view) activity. Initially, I had planned a “Sketch and Tell” where students would sketch different viewpoints on the consequences of the cotton gin, but I ultimately decided to switch to the “2xPOV” format to make the summative assessment clearer and more straightforward for the students. I allocated 20-25 minutes for them to complete their work on the consequences of the cotton gin. To reinforce their learning, we concluded with a “Fast and Curious” activity on Gimkit, where class averages ranged from 83% to 95%.

Tuesday

Tuesday marked the beginning of our exploration of the lives of enslaved people. To start, I explained the importance of using person-first language, such as “enslaved person,” “enslaver,” and “freedom seeker.” I then adapted a lesson from a textbook that my co-author, Dr. Scott Petri, contributed to – a resource written for schools in Texas that incorporates background information and primary sources to help students learn history. I was particularly impressed by the selection of primary sources and background information compiled for this lesson on the lives of enslaved people. The lesson included excerpts from Solomon Northup’s “12 Years a Slave,” Fanny Kemball’s diary, and a book written by Harriet Jacobs. These diverse perspectives provided valuable insights into the experiences of enslaved individuals.

For the lesson, I used an “Annotate and Tell” activity where students read the excerpts and highlighted instances of cruelty. To conclude the activity and elevate the depth of knowledge, I incorporated a “Thick Slide” with questions such as, “Imagine you are an abolitionist. Find quotes you could use to show people about the cruelties of slavery.” I explained to the students that during this time period, people primarily obtained news and information through stories and hearsay. Additionally, I included a “Number Mania” activity, asking students to select one number from the excerpts that surprised them. To further engage with primary sources, students were tasked with finding a newspaper advertisement seeking a freedom seeker. In the image caption, they had to explain what they could learn or conclude about slavery from the advertisement. Finally, students were asked to give the slide a title. We ended the class with another “Fast and Curious” activity to reinforce their learning.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, I started class by presenting a quote from George Fitzhugh: “The slaves of the South are the happiest, and in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care or labor. The women do little hard work, and are protected from the despotism of their husbands by their masters.” The students were understandably confused by this quote, especially considering the previous day’s lesson on the harsh realities of enslaved life. They expressed their puzzlement and disagreed with the sentiment expressed in the quote, which I validated. However, I pointed out that this was how information was disseminated and often believed during that era, given the absence of modern media like TV, radio, and social media. I instructed the students to keep this quote in mind throughout our lesson on resistance to slavery, as we would revisit it at the end of the lesson.

For the resistance to slavery lesson, I adapted materials from the Zinn Education Project. The lesson categorized resistance into different forms, such as maintaining family, running away, revolting, or expressing resistance through culture, religion, and music. I cut out various stories of resistance and placed them in seven envelopes around the room, each representing a different category. Students were given a series of questions and had to move around the room, find the appropriate resistance category, and write down an example. This interactive portion of the lesson took approximately 25 minutes.

At the end of class, we revisited Fitzhugh’s quote for a “Thin Slide” activity, which I conducted using Padlet instead of Google Slides. On the Padlet, I displayed the original quote and asked students to share a form of resistance that contradicted the quote’s assertion. I encouraged them to do this from memory, without consulting their notes, and to include a relevant image with their example. One feature I appreciate about Padlet is the “I can’t draw” option, which uses an AI image generator to create images based on a prompt. The students did an excellent job with this portion of the lesson.

The assessment for the Resistance lesson was a Bento Box template created by Amanda Sandoval. Or the students could create blackout poetry using a biography about Harriet Jacobs I created with AI.

Thursday

Thursday marked the beginning of our lesson on abolitionism, which ties in nicely with local New Richmond history. New Richmond, Ohio, is a town situated along the Ohio River, directly across from Kentucky. The river served as a dividing line between free states and slave states. New Richmond has a rich history of abolitionism and involvement in the Underground Railroad. Having built up the context of slavery throughout the week and discussed the cruelties endured by enslaved people, I wanted students to examine abolitionists and consider the methods and motivations behind their efforts to end slavery.

For this lesson, students chose an abolitionist to research, such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison, Sarah Grimké, or local figures like John Rankin and James G. Birney. They read a one-page summary about their selected abolitionist and designed a “Thick Slide” detailing the methods, motivations, and conflicts faced by that individual. Students then shared their “Thick Slide” with all of my classes through a Google Form. Next, I had students use a Frayer Model to read and take notes on four other abolitionists, focusing on their methods, motivations, and conflicts.

To assess their understanding, students had a choice between three options:

1. A “Dinner Party” activity, designed by Amanda Sandoval, where they arranged the abolitionists at a table and discussed the potential conversations they might have.
2. Creating sketches depicting the abolitionists’ methods and motivations for wanting to end slavery.
3. Designing an “Instastory Abolitionist” post. This lesson spanned two days, extending into Friday.

Friday

On Friday, most of my classes were working on the Frayer Model and taking notes on four different abolitionists. However, one class was ahead, so I used AI to create a tailored lesson. In our abolitionist lesson, we learned about James G. Birney, a local abolitionist who published an anti-slavery newspaper called “The Philanthropist.” I found a front page of that newspaper from December 18, 1838, and took a screenshot of a portion of it. I then input the image into the Claude AI and asked it to rewrite the article for me.

The AI-generated article discussed a community called Sardinia, Ohio, which most of the students were familiar with. It described an incident where a reverend was taken by slave catchers into Kentucky and put on trial for helping enslaved people. Using the AI, I generated a prompt: “What can we learn about the abolitionists from ‘The Philanthropist’ newspaper?” I turned this into a “Cybersandwich” lesson, with the following prompt for the notes section: “Read the article ‘Citizens of Sardinia’ carefully and identify at least three specific details or events that provide insight into the tensions and conflicts surrounding the issue of slavery in this community in 1838.”

The students were highly engaged with this lesson, as it incorporated local history that they could relate to and tied in with our study of abolitionism. This experience reinforced my appreciation for AI, as it enables me to bring more local history into the classroom using newspapers that might otherwise be challenging for students to read due to the print quality or archaic language.

This was our first week back from spring break, and just before spring break began, we finished up our unit on Westward expansion. I usually follow up Westward Expansion with some Industrial Revolution and reform movements. However, I am running out of days and just need to focus on what is important with these final days of school. So, I decided to cover the Industrial Revolution with some differences between north and south and how they developed differently in terms of geography, their economies, and transportation. The essential question was: How was life different in the North from life in the South? This blog post will be very short and to the point as we covered the differences between North and South for much of the week.

Monday

On Monday, our first day back from spring break, I began class with a Fast and Curious on Gimkit. I had 12 questions related to differences between North and South. The class averages ranged from 42% all the way to 52%. After the Gimkit and some feedback, I then switched gears to the Repuzzler EduProtocol. I used some vocabulary words such as agrarian, Industrial revolution, cotton gin, and etc. I gave students 2 minutes to share the Repuzzler with each other and 12 minutes to complete all of the slides together as a group.

Next, we moved on to the Sketch and Tell-O where students read about differences between North and South in terms of geography. Recently, I have been reading Gene Tavernetti’s book called Teach FAST. In this book, he discusses using preview activities to help students use things they already know and relate them to what they are getting ready to learn. I really like the examples he used in the book and it gave me some ideas to use in my current unit. For example, with the students getting ready to read and learn about the differences of geography in terms of northern and southern United States, I had them think about the geography in their community of New Richmond, Ohio. This way, when they got ready to read about northern and southern United States geography, they would have an idea of the importance of geography and how it impacts the way of life. I had students read and as they read, I had them complete a Sketch and Tell-O on paper. I really like this because they act as sketch notes. Students had until the end of class to read and complete their Sketch and Tell-O and explanations of their sketches.

Tuesday – Wednesday

Tuesday through Wednesday was a rinse and repeat type of lesson. I began class with a Gimkit Fast and Curious, we followed that up with a Repuzzler, and then students thought about the economy of New Richmond and then read about the different economies between North and South. They completed a Sketch and Tell-O. Then on Wednesday, it was the same style of lesson: the Fast and Curious, the Repuzzler, and then reading about transportation of north and south and completing a Sketch and Tell-O. Everything that I have students complete in my class I want it to serve a purpose. In this case, I wanted the students to be able to use their Sketch and Tell-O drawings to help them complete a map. On the map, I wanted students to cut out their Sketch and Tell-O circles, organize them in terms of North and South, add some labels, and then answer a few questions.

Thursday

On Thursday, I got to school and printed off 11×17 papers with blank outlines of the United States in the middle of each paper. On the back, I copied instructions for making an annotated map. Students were to cut out their Sketch and Tell-O circles and organize them on a map into North and South. I didn’t want them to label the circles, and then I had them answer three questions on the map which were:

1. What is the purpose of this map?
2. What similarities and differences do you see?
3. Create a claim about why the North and South developed differently, and provide at least two pieces of evidence from the map to support your claim.

Students really had to think about organizing and planning as they cut out circles. They had to think about organizing the circles on their map to make them fit and where they should go. Some students just started gluing stuff down and then realized that they ran out of room and didn’t glue things correctly. Some students cut out circles and forgot which ones went with North and South. I’m only 50 total minutes over two classes. We also did a Fast and Curious, and this time the class averages all ranged from 83% to 95%.

Friday

Finally, on Friday, some students still needed to finish their map so I gave them 20 minutes to finish up. Then, we began a new lesson on the cotton gin which will then get us into a lesson on slavery, abolitionism, and resistance to slavery. I put together a lesson on the cotton gin and I asked the students: What were the consequences of the cotton gin? I put together a mini lesson where students started off thinking about an invention that had unintended consequences. Next, they read about Eli Whitney and background information on him and the cotton gin and completed an ArchType for Square. Then, I had students read two primary sources about Eli Whitney and the cotton gin and do an Annotate and Tell. Afterwards, I had the students do a Graph and Tell as they looked at statistics about slavery. Finally, we wrapped up with a Sketch and Tell where they retold the consequences of the cotton gin from two points of view. We only began this lesson in class and didn’t get all the way through it.