The Underground Railroad
Grade Levels: 6 - 8
Objectives
- Students will use vocabulary related to the Underground Railroad.
- Students will identify key facts related to the Underground Railroad.
- Students will evaluate their personal responses to the Underground Railroad.
- Students will make a judgment about the morality of the Underground Railroad.
Materials
- The Underground Railroad Worksheet website and follow the directions to take the journey.
- Set aside time for students to gather as a group and share and discuss their activity worksheet responses.
- Challenge the whole group to discuss the moral issues (e.g., right vs. wrong) that the Underground Railroad posed.
Assessment
- Use a checklist to assess students' understanding of the factual, legal, and moral implications of the Underground Railroad. Assign a point value to each item.
- Find a variety of assessment techniques to use with this lesson.
Extension Activities
- Choose from a large collection of cross-curricular activities for all grade levels.
- Explore outstanding lessons and activities in the Black History Month theme.
- Have students use the Internet to select slavery topics they are interested in learning more about. Direct students to work in small groups and conduct panel discussions on the practice of slavery.
- Have students find a timeline showing the order of events in the history of slavery. After studying the timeline, students can write questions about the timeline to quiz each other.
