Kaihla Smith

3/21/14

Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and Freedom Song by Sally M./ Qualls Walker

Whole group 25 students

Selection:

When starting to get ideas for social studies unit I took many things into consideration. I had

to consider and respect what my mentor teacher wanted me to teach in her classroom but I also

more importantly needed to observe what the students seemed to be interested in. It is so

important to me that the lesson I would be teaching the children in my classroom would be based

off of their prior knowledge so I can build off what they already know and almost add to their

ideas they have now already. I also want my students to be engaged and interested in the topic

that I choose. If I were to pick a topic no student was interested in then what is the point? If a

person is not engaged in the topic they are learning (this can be applied to both children and

adults) then they won’t do much learning; and they definitely wouldn’t remember what they

were supposed to be learning in the first place either.

I like to observe my students, if you are a good listener you can actually find out so much

about someone or something. I based my lesson around conversations I heard children talking

about recently and through my interview with multiple children. I previously did a short

interview with some of the children in the classroom to see how they felt about the topic of

slavery and the Underground Railroad. I was looking for things they knew about this topic,

misconceptions they had about this topic, and most importantly if they thought this topic was

interesting and if they wanted to learn more about it.

I noticed many great things from my interview. Some of my conclusions are that most of

these children need guidance with what the Underground Railroad is. Some were not sure, others

thought it was an actual railroad, and only two knew it was a network of secret passages. I also

noticed that only one of the students knew that there was slavery today in the world. One of the

students responses that I found interesting is when they ask if slavery is just about African

Americans. I believe they had a notion that there might have been people out there that were

slaves but that weren’t African American. This is similar to what I thought in school when I was

younger too, that all slaves in the world had to be African Americans (most likely because in

school we only talked about African American slavery). I liked how all of them described

freedom in their own way. I think it is an open question because we all think of the word

freedom differently as individuals. One student described freedom as a bird flying away traveling

wherever he wanted to go. Another student thought freedom was more about having your own

personal space.

My teacher wanted me to focus on language arts through social studies so I had to work under

these means because it was her classroom. I wanted to do my social studies lesson that my

teacher suggested but also make it meaningful for the children and answer their questions that

they were wondering or had misconceptions about. My mentor gave me some books to choose

from if I liked them and I noticed Henry’s Freedom Box. It was an interesting story and the

illustrations were beautiful. I have seen and read a book called Freedom Song that was also about

Henry Box Brown. These two books were really quite different though but at the same time they

had lots of similarities. I thought that if they enjoyed the book Henry’s Freedom box I would

continue with my idea of comparing with the book Freedom Song (that both are about Henry

Brown but are different in many ways).

Introduction/Text Interactions/Discussion Questions/Conclusion:

Lesson Plan

Field Student: Kaihla Smith

Classroom Teacher:  Mrs. Koby, room 23

Activity/Exploration:  To share a multicultural book with the children

Date of lesson plan:  March 12th 2014 at 10:00 a.m

Subject Area: Read a nonfiction book about slavery and the Underground Railroad.

Topic of Study: Literacy and Social Studies

Objectives/Learning Goals: My goals for the children would be to have a deeper understanding

of what slavery is and what slavery had to do with the Underground Railroad. To deepen these

terms many of my questions are about how they would feel if they were in Henry’s shoes. I

would like the children to think about what it felt like to be a slave and how tough it would have

been. I would also like them to realize how important Henry’s story is as he risked his life to be a

free man; he had a lot of drive, determination, and strength. People like him make a difference in

the world because they do things to make a change in our world. Henry was breaking a law but

for the sake of freedom because he thought he deserved to have equal human rights. For this

lesson we will be focusing on visualization as our comprehension strategy.

Standards/Strands:

Common Core Standards for second grade that apply:

Literacy: Key Ideas and Details

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, andhow to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

Comprehension and Collaboration

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1a Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).

o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1b Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.

o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1c Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.3 Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.4 Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details

Theme: People working together

Topic: Historical Thinking and Skills

Strand: History

Historical thinking begins with a clear sense of time – past, present and future – and becomes more precise as students progress. Historical thinking includes skills such as locating, researching, analyzing and interpreting primary and secondary sources so that students can begin to understand the relationships among events and draw conclusions.

2. Change over time can be shown with artifacts, maps and photographs.

Topic: Heritage

Strand: History

Ideas and events from the past have shaped the world as it is today. The actions of individuals and groups have made a difference in the lives of others.

4. Biographies can show how peoples’ actions have shaped the world in which we live.

Topic: Civic Participation and Skills

Strand: Government

Civic participation embraces the ideal that an individual actively engages in his or her community, state or nation for the common good. Students need to practice effective communication skills including negotiation, compromise and collaboration. Skills in accessing and analyzing information are essential for citizens in a democracy.

10. Personal accountability includes making responsible choices, taking responsibility for personal actions and respecting others.

Groupings of Children: The whole class will be actively listening, discussing, and participating

throughout this read aloud.

Needed Materials:

Children will need: N/A

I will need: Book: Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson Lesson plan notes Map with string and pins Books by the author Ellen Levine (and more slavery books they can read in the

classroom). Examples of Underground Railroads Large chart paper and markers to write down their ideas

Preparation Plans: When preparing for this read aloud I made sure I looked over the standards

for second grade reading, writing, and social studies. I picked a book that goes along with what

my students are currently learning and talking about in social studies which is slavery, important

people in history, and the Underground Railroad. I tried to make connections to other books they

have read as a class as well to try to tie ideas together from past lessons. After creating my lesson

I went over it multiple times to kind of practice what I would say and perhaps what children

might say or ask.

Procedures/Process:

Tell children I am going to be sharing a read aloud with them today. Say a reader’s statement,

“While reading this book today we are going to be focusing on visualization.” Good readers use

visualization in their mind when reading books, especially ones with no pictures. While I am

reading this book I will be reading each page and you will be visualizing the picture in your

mind. Then I will show you the pictures after reading.” I will demonstrate visualizing next.

“When I visualize I will read the words and make almost a picture or movie in my mind. This

helps me understand the story better. I try to visualize what the characters look like and the

setting or anything else the author writes about, while I am reading. You might even try to feel

how the characters might feel in this situation or even smell or hear sounds around you when

visualizing.” I read a small section from the book and told them what I would be envisioning. I

made sure to note that this might be different from what they were visualizing in their own minds

and that is okay because everyone perceives and thinks differently.

Let them know before we start I want them to look around and see if there is anyone around you

that might be a distraction while we are reading this story. Give children time to move if they

need to and thank them for making a good choice. If I see the children are wiggly at the

beginning of the story I will ask them to stand up in their spots with arm distance away from

their friends (to be safe) and either do some stretches or shake our sillies out for about 30

seconds.

Tell the children I am going to hide the cover from them for just a second and just read you the

title. Ask them to try to think about the title and visualize what this book might be about. Talk

about visualization. What does it mean to visualize something? How can this strategy help us

when reading? Get student’s responses (ask them to raise hands).

Start to explain thinking partners. (Choose a student in front of me to use as an example of what

thinking partners should look like and what I will expect from them when they are discussing

with their partner). “(Student’s name-helper) can I have you come up and be an example of what

thinking partners should look like? So usually I will be asking a question about a topic we might

be wondering about and when I ask you to turn to your thinking partner (partner means one-

unless we have an uneven number) you will discuss my question with each other.”Ask the class

to put thumbs up or down on if this is what thinking partners should be as I and my helper do this

demonstration.

Turn to my helper: (Student’s name) “I have to tell you what I did on Mine craft last night…I

built a huge castle but then at night a zombie got in my house and…. “

Have class put thumbs up or down and agree that yea this wouldn’t be a conversation I want

them to have when they are talking with their thinking partners, we need to talk about the

specific question I ask them. Next I will demonstrate how to be a thinking partner. I will ask the

class if this is how we should treat our thinking partners. I will turn away from my thinking

partner and look around the classroom as they are speaking to me. We will briefly talk about how

to be a good thinking partner we need to face our partners and listen to them as they give their

opinion on the question being asked. After they are done speaking you can comment on what

they say and then give your opinion on the question. Thank my helper and ask them to be seated.

Before the reading:

Come back to the question I had at the beginning of the lesson which was, what do you think the

title of this book might mean or what you think the book will be about? Try to visualize what the

story might look or sound like.

Ask students to turn to their thinking partners (they should not need to move much) to talk about

what they think the book might be about. Ask friends to turn back forward so I know they are

done talking and ready to start back up. Also say that I will be counting from five to one and

when I get to one that means we are done talking with our thinking partners and now it is time to

listen. Have children talk for about a minute or less (or when I see the majority of children

turning back around). I will be listening to the children’s conversations as well to get an idea of

what they are thinking. When I see children finishing up their conversations about the topic I will

then count down and ask students to come back together as a group. I will ask one group to share

their ideas then move on.

Next I will show them the cover and read title as well as the author and illustrator. Say that this

story is actually a true story about the Underground Railroad. Ask them if their idea of the title

has now changed after they have seen the picture and I gave them a sentence about what the

book is going to be about. Remind them that just like the book Mrs. Koby read a week or so ago

about bats was also a nonfiction story but had illustrations instead of pictures. Mention that this

book is the same, there are illustrations instead of pictures but this story is a true story.

Ask student’s what they think slavery is and what the Underground Railroad was. (This question

is so I can get an idea of where they seem to be at with these terms and how much I need to

explain them). Ask students to turn to their thinking partner and discuss what a slave is and what

the Underground Railroad is. When they are done discussing I will call on one group to say what

they think a slave is and call on another group to talk about what a master is.

Have children go with their thinking partners about the question, “What does it mean to be free?

Are all people free now?” (United States people are free- unless they are illegally kept as slaves

such as human trafficking or kid napping.) Call on two groups for their response to this question.

During the reading:

Think aloud: I wonder why Henry wasn’t allowed to know his birthday…hmm…

Page 4- I made a text to text connection on this page when Henry says, “Free Bird! Happy bird!”

as he watches a bird soar high above the trees. Ask children if anyone knows what connection I

am making? If no one has any idea bring out the book, Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting and turn

to the page where he describes a bird flying away as his meaning of freedom, similar to Henry’s

meaning of freedom.

Page 10- Ask students if Henry could have done anything to prevent the sale of his wife and

children? Why or why not? Call on two friends then move on. Then have children try to think

about putting themselves in Henry’s shoes. Ask, “How would you feel if your family was taken

away and you couldn’t do anything about it? What kind of feelings would you have? Ask

children to try to visualize this happening to them. How would they feel?

Turn to your thinking partners and discuss how Henry might have felt and how you would feel if

this situation happened to you hypothetically.”

Page 12- Ask students if they think Henry will be successful traveling in a crate to a free state?

(Might need to talk about how some states were Free states which meant that people living in

this state were not allowed to own slaves because it is illegal. Slaves states; where Henry was

living, the owners were allowed to own slaves.) Ask children to turn to their partners and talk

about if they think he will be successful and why they think he will be or will not be. Ask one

group to share when they are done discussing. Then ask the whole group and get some responses

about: Could Henry have been hurt on his journey? What would have happened to Henry if he

had been discovered?

The book does not mention that he was currently in Richmond Virginia (Say that I used my

outside schema to know this) but it does mention that he was being sent to the free state of

Pennsylvania in a crate. I will be using a cloth United States map so we can keep track on how

far Henry had to travel in a small crate. I will ask friends to help me pin where he started and

how he had to travel that far. I will mention that it was 27 hours which is more than a full day he

had to travel in the box and he traveled over 250 miles!

Page 13- Think out loud that it sounds like Henry is going to be mailed to an abolitionist who is

someone who does not believe or support the act of slavery. Remember Dr. Smith who is a white

man he was also an abolitionist who helped Henry get to a free state so he would be safe.

Mention that there were also people both white men and woman and free African Americans

who would risk their own lives to help slaves travel to a safe house.

Page 15- Look at what is happening to Henry’s Box (being moved around, turned upside-down,

squished for many hours!) Ask children to close their eyes and visualize Henry in the box

traveling. Take a second for them to visualize this. Ask how they would feel in this situation. Go

into thinking partners.

Page 18 (last page): Ask children as a group, “Most slaves did not know their birthdays, why do

you think Henry consider March 30, 1849 his birthday?”

After the reading:

As a group ask students if they think slavery is a bad thing and why they think it is or is not? (If

anyone says slavery was a good thing this is an indicator that they don’t really understand what

slavery is and that we should talk about it more).

What are some new things you learned about slavery that you didn’t know before reading this

book? Get ideas as a whole group. Have two or three people share their ideas.

Ask students to take what they learned from the book and their outside schema about what slaves

were not allowed to do:

Examples could be that they were not allowed to sing in the streets, not paid for work they did,

weren’t allowed to know their birthdays and sometimes not even their real names, can be taken

away from their families, could be freed by their owners, could be given away by their masters,

could be bought.

Write their thoughts on the large piece of paper so they can refer back to it if they need to add

more as they learn and explore more if they so choose to. After making the chart comment how it

looks like slaves really couldn’t do much as a person.

Say, “I know we know a lot about Harriet Tubman because Mrs. Koby read a book about her life

as a slave last week. Can you tell me a little bit about who was Harriet Tubman was and what did

she do in her life that was significant?” Ask friends for their response. Then ask them to get with

their thinking partner and talk about what Henry Box Brown and Harriet Tubman have in

common with each other? Finally ask children if they thought we could add Henry Box Brown to

their chart or important people in history that they created last week.

Conclusion:

Talk about how the reading strategy of visualizing helped them understand this story more

clearly. Did this strategy help you picture the story in your mind? Tell them I like to visualize

when there are no pictures it helps me to understand the story more clearly if I can picture what

is going on in my mind. This story has pictures though so that’s why I read the book and didn’t

show you the pictures on each page until I was done reading it, because I wanted you to picture

the story in your mind first. Get some ideas from students about visualizing. Invite students to

use visualizing when they are reading by themselves or even to others. If you read with a partner

today you could have them read a page to you and have them hide the picture while they are

reading and you try to visualize what the characters, setting, story…might look like to you. Take

turns trying this it would be fun to see if what you were visualizing would be the same as the

author’s illustrations. Let students know if there are no pictures in their books that it is especially

important to use visualizing as a strategy. Why? How would it benefit us as readers?

End lesson:

Mention to children that you have more books written by this author if you liked the book we

read today. Also mention that there is an excellent website that they can use next week if they

would like to explore and learn more about slavery. Link:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/slideshows/

safety_slides.htm. Show them some examples of Underground Railroads I have found where we

are living. Invite them to look at these in their spare time and even see if they can find some

Underground Railroads in our area over the weekend and we can add them to the three we have

now.

Documentation/Assessment Plans: I plan to videotape my lesson with my camera so that I can

view it and see some things I need to improve on and what some positive things I did when

teaching this lesson. This will help me come up with an appropriate self reflection for myself. I

will be looking not only at what I did as a teacher but how children responded/reacted/ and took

away from this book and lesson.

Reflection:

The children did enjoy this book. I was worried because it is a sadder book than they are used to

reading but they seemed to take well to this book. I had one child tell me after reading the book

that she liked the illustrator of this book and even though it was sad she enjoyed the pictures and

requested I find books with this same illustrator. I had many children during the reading when

they were sharing their ideas say that they didn’t understand why someone would treat someone

this way and that the African Americans should have fought back. Overall the children had

wonderful powerful conversations when we were reading this book which I really appreciated. I

thought my goals for children to learn more about an important person in history and to learn

more about slavery in general was achieved. I also thought that the children did really well with

using the strategy of visualizing as I read the book. Many children were closing their eyes and

trying to create a picture in their mind. I had many children after the reading tell me that they

already visualize when reading and I told them that this was great! I asked them how this works

for them as a reader and asked them if they would like to share with the class how visualizing

helps them become more efficient readers. For my next lesson since they enjoyed this book I am

going to continue with my previous idea of reading the book Freedom Song which is also about

Henry Brown. We will be picking out main ideas from these books and comparing and

contrasting ideas from these two books (looking at different perspectives based on one story).

The level of conversation was my favorite part of this lesson. The children had so much to say

and many ideas to share. I had one student ask if there was still slavery today because his dad

had told him there was. I invited students to do research of this and come together with their

ideas. During reading children were extremely interesting in learning more about if slavery was

still happening today. I helped them during center time to look up this question and record our

answers and place it in our classroom binder. Something I might do differently next time is to

focus more on our strategy. We talked a lot about visualization and how it can help us as readers

but our whole conversation wasn’t about visualization (I’m not sure if this was a good or bad

thing). I have learned that children are completely capable of learning about tough issues like

slavery and they take it very seriously! We had great conversations that could go on forever and

children now still are doing research about slavery and the Underground Railroad. I have a group

of students in my classroom who are designing a play now on their own about slaves reaching

the Underground Railroad. They are making props and coming up with a script to show the class

which is pretty cool!

Day 2:

Selection:

I chose this book because like the other book the illustrations were beautiful and the text was

meaningful. I also wanted to have the children pick out the main ideas from the book and talk

about similarities and differences. We will use these similarities and differences to put in our

Venn diagram that I will be drawing on a large sheet of paper for all students to see. The

children’s ideas will be placed on the graph and we will be talking about the benefits of using a

Venn diagram when reading and writing or just used when comparing two different sources. I

chose to teach this strategy because I wanted children to notice that all texts can be somewhat

different even if there about the same subject. I wanted the children to realize it takes a lot of

resources to actually understand and know the topic of study they are interested in. Just because

we read one book about Henry Box Brown doesn’t mean that this story is 100% true, we must do

more research to really know and learn the truth about Henry Box Brown, or any other

subject/topic. It is also beneficial for children to pick out main ideas from the story to compare

and contrast because these are the most important happenings in the book that are crucial to point

out. Children had to choose the main ideas of this book (something that they were currently

working on already) and compare and contrast two books about the same topic. I learned from

the article Making Meaning from Text by Gretchen Owocki that deciding what’s important

means using reader purpose to determine important ideas and themes. It also means using text

format, sequence, and features to help make decisions about what is important. Choosing the

main points from the text is something that good readers do.

Introduction/Text Interactions/Discussion Questions/Conclusion:

Lesson Plan

Field Student: Kaihla Smith

Classroom Teacher:  Mrs. Koby, room 23

Activity/Exploration:  To share a multicultural book with the children

Date of lesson plan:  March 13th 2014 around 10 a.m

Subject Area: Read a nonfiction book about slavery and the Underground Railroad.

Topic of Study: Literacy and Social Studies

Objectives/Learning Goals: My goals for the children would be to have a deeper understanding

of what slavery is and what slavery had to do with the Underground Railroad. To deepen these

terms many of my questions are about how they would feel if they were in Henry’s shoes. I

would like the children to think about what it felt like to be a slave and how tough it would have

been. I would also like them to realize how important Henry’s story is as he risked his life to be a

free man; he had a lot of drive, determination, and strength. People like him make a difference in

the world because they do things to make a change in our world. Henry was breaking a law but

for the sake of freedom because he thought he deserved to have equal human rights. This is what

I want the students to take away from this story/lesson. In this lesson I want children to be able to

compare this book we are reading now about Henry Box Brown to the book we read last week.

In this lesson we will be pointing out the main ideas of the book as part as part of our focus. I

will also be encouraging students the importance of research and having multiple resources to

make conclusions (we should not just read one book and think we know everything there is to

know about Henry Brown for instance, exploring multiple resources is more reliable). Inviting

them and interesting them in research is also a goal for this lesson. We will be comparing and

contrasting Henry’s Freedom box and the story we are reading today and making a chart together

as a class.

Standards/Strands:

Common Core Standards for second grade that apply:

Literacy: Key Ideas and Details

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.9  Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.9  Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.

Comprehension and Collaboration

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1a Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).

o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1b Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.

o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1c Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.3 Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.4 Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details

Theme: People working together

Topic: Historical Thinking and Skills

Strand: History

Historical thinking begins with a clear sense of time – past, present and future – and becomes more precise as students progress. Historical thinking includes skills such as locating, researching, analyzing and interpreting primary and secondary sources so that students can begin to understand the relationships among events and draw conclusions.

2. Change over time can be shown with artifacts, maps and photographs.

Topic: Heritage

Strand: History

Ideas and events from the past have shaped the world as it is today. The actions of individuals and groups have made a difference in the lives of others.

4. Biographies can show how peoples’ actions have shaped the world in which we live.

Topic: Civic Participation and Skills

Strand: Government

Civic participation embraces the ideal that an individual actively engages in his or her community, state or nation for the common good. Students need to practice effective communication skills including negotiation, compromise and collaboration. Skills in accessing and analyzing information are essential for citizens in a democracy.

10. Personal accountability includes making responsible choices, taking responsibility for personal actions and respecting others.

Groupings of Children: The whole class will be actively listening, discussing, and participating

throughout this read aloud. We will specifically be using thinking partners to have every child

actively participating.

Needed Materials:

Children will need: N/A

I will need: Book to read: Freedom Song by Sally M. Walker and illustrated by Sean Qualls Book to refer back to: Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Nadir

Nelson Lesson plan notes Map with string and pins (We already put the pins on yesterday so know we are just

referring to this in this text).

Follow the Drinking Gourd - Example of song slaves used to sing or hum when working. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwUsFWIVoYELyric sheets (30 copies)

Books by the author Ellen Levine (and more slavery books they can read in the classroom).

Classroom slavery binder Large chart paper and markers to write down their ideas

Preparation Plans: When preparing for this read aloud I made sure I looked over the standards

for second grade reading, writing, and social studies. I picked a book that goes along with what

my students are currently learning and talking about in social studies which is slavery, important

people in history, and the Underground Railroad. I tried to make connections to other books they

have read as a class as well to try to tie ideas together from past lessons. After creating my lesson

I went over it multiple times to kind of practice what I would say and perhaps what children

might say or ask.

Procedures/Process:

Before Reading (Introduction):

Tell children I am going to be sharing a read aloud with them today. Let them know before we

start I want them to look around and see if there is anyone around you that might be a distraction

while we are reading this story. Give children time to move if they need to and thank them for

making a good choice. If I see the children are wiggly at the beginning of the story I will ask

them to stand up in their spots with arm distance away from their friends (to be safe) and either

do some stretches or shake our sillies out for about 30 seconds. Go over thinking partners that we

did last week. “We need to be facing our thinking partners (knee to knee), when I count from 5

to 1, at 1 we need to be turned facing forward ready to start again, we all need to participate

(everyone will get partner and discuss the question (nothing else besides the discussion

question). To break them into groups this time we are going to play a quick game. We will be

using part of a deck of cards. The job the students have is to find their matching number; they

will not be looking at the symbols on the card only the number. (I have already separated the

deck of cards to make sure there are two matching number cards). Students are to find the

student in the classroom who has that matching card. This will be their assigned thinking partner

for this lesson. This is both random for me and also random for the children. It is exciting too

because children will have to get up and move around in order to find their partners.

Tell the children I am going to hide the cover from them for just a second and just read you the

title. Ask them to try to think about the title and think about what it might be about, just like we

did last week with the book Henry’s Freedom Box. The title of the book is Freedom Song. Have

students turn with their thinking partners and talk about what they think the book will be about

based on the title. Get two responses from two different groups. Then read the

title/author/illustrator. Also read the cover which says, The Story of Henry “Box” Brown. See if

they make a connection that this book is also about Henry Brown, like the one we read together

last Friday. Ask them if their idea of the title has now changed after they have seen the picture

and I gave them a sentence about what the book is going to be about. Then remind students that

just like the story we read last week called Henry’s Freedom Box which was also a nonfiction

story but had illustrations instead of pictures. Mention that this book is the same, there are

illustrations instead of pictures but this story is a true story.

Tell students that we are going to be making connections between this book we are reading today

about Henry Box Brown and the book today about Henry Box Brown. Tell them as our strategy

focus today we will be still working on visualizing the story but also we will be focusing on main

ideas, or main points of the story. Here I will explain my readers statement by saying, “Good

readers need to focus on the main point of their story they are reading so they don’t forget what

the story is about. Often times when reading longer books you need to focus on the more

important ideas rather than the small details because you won’t be able to remember or

comprehend what you are reading.” I will then demonstrate what the main idea of a page is. I

will be reading this page and pointing out what the main idea of this page is. I will then retell

what I read in one small sentence rather than going over each small detail so children will get a

better idea of what a main idea is and why it is important.

Ask if they know what a Venn diagram is. “Has anyone used one before? What are they used

for? Why do we use them?” (It’s important to compare and contrast similarities and differences

in multiple texts so you can organize your ideas and better understand them) Get some ideas

from the students. Draw a Venn Diagram on easel paper. Ask students if they know how we

should label our Diagram if we are comparing Henry’s Freedom Box and Freedom Song.

Mention to children that there will be subtle differences but we are looking for the main ideas

that are different between the books.

Henry’s Freedom Box Freedom Song

Tell the students I need their help explaining what the story Henry’s Freedom Box was about

because we had a few friends who were absent so they were not here to read the story with us

last Friday. It is good for everyone to have a refresher too for all the children since it has been

two days because of the weekend. Have a couple students share what the main point(s) of the

story was about.

During the lesson:

Page 4: Why do you think slaves were whipped by their masters if they sang freedom songs? Get

ideas from whole group. Then ask…what even if a freedom song? What does that mean? Do

thinking partners for this question. Get ideas from a couple of groups.

Throughout this lesson have children help fill out the main points of similarities and differences

for the Venn diagram I am doing with the class. It could look something like this (but we will be

putting ideas in the Venn diagram). This will be the main chunk of our lesson.

Similarities-

Both books were about Henry Box Brown.

Both books have illustrations (no real pictures) Henry liked to sing songs. Henry was owned by a master and worked on a plantation in Virginia. Henry worked in a tobacco plantation in Virginia. Henry’s master let him marry Nancy. Henry had three children with Nancy. Henrys friend warned him that his family had been sold. When Henry’s family was sold he was so sad he didn’t sing for weeks. Henry consulted Dr. Smith (Samuel) to help him get to the freedom land (Pennsylvania) Henry was being sent in a box to the abolitionist William Johnson

Henry’s Freedom Box-

Begins with Henry as a young boy. Henry was afraid they would separate his siblings and parents. Henry burnt his finger with vitriol so he could stay home. Two men in charge of shipping asked what could be in (Henry’s) box, and then sat on his

box. Painted illustrations

Freedom song-

Begins with Henry as a baby with his family. Henry was afraid they would separate his wife and children. Henry went after the wagon for miles and had to be torn away. Henry created the crate he would be traveling in. Henry cut off his finger so he could stay home. Two men in charge of shipping almost opened Henry’s box to see what was inside. Henry sang his freedom song when he knew he was safe. Collage and painted illustrations

After the lesson:

Why was it important to only write down our main points/ideas from the story (because we

would have way too many things to write down and our graph would be really crowded).

Have them go with their thinking partners and talk about why it might be good to read or look up

a number of different resources, for example like we did today and last Friday when we read two

books both about Henry Box Brown.

Let them know that both books WERE really similar but there were some differences in the

story. The differences do not affect the outcome of the story (reaching freedom land) but still

there were a few differences. This is why it is good to always have a few resources because some

books and websites for example are not always as accurate as they could be.

Ask students if they would like to hear an actual freedom song slaves used to sing. Play the song

from the YouTube link. Have students follow along with the song by closing their eyes and

thinking about the words first. Then pass out the lyrics sheet and read through it as a class. Have

students turn to their thinking partners and discuss what they think this song was about. Why do

you think it was considered a freedom song? Invite them to do research on this topic to find out

the real meaning of the song when they are done giving their ideas. Show them the book that will

be available in the basket market Slavery and the Underground Railroad called Follow the

Drinking Gourd (Dragonfly Books) by Jeanette Winter. Also tell them that they can look up

information on the computer too about the meaning of this song. If they decide to do research tell

them to put their ideas in our binder and then they can share the meaning with the class the

following day at some point. Let them know I have also added a page in the binder about this

song that might guide their thinking to know more about what the song might be telling us (what

I put in the binder will not give away the answer at all but it will help them put ideas together to

come up with some sort of conclusion on what it might be about.

End lesson/conclusion:

Show students the bin Mrs. Koby and I have for them so they can look through that all are about

slavery in some way. Explain that through these books they can find lots of new and good

information that we have not covered. Continue to invite them to write down their findings and

add them to the binder. This would also be a good time to share if anyone has written

information down about slavery that they researched over the weekend. Have the child share and

have them explain where they found their resource and why they thought it was important

information to share. Add their information to the class binder about slavery and invite others to

keep doing research about slavery.

Mention to children that you have more books written by this author if you liked the book we

read today. Thank students for their time and for listening then have Mrs. Koby explain what

they should do next.

Invite children to practice using what we reviewed today in our social studies lesson. Picking out

only the main points from the story and looking at these most important parts of your reading.

Invite children to look at two different sources that talk about the same subject and compare and

contrast these using a Venn diagram to keep their thoughts straight and clear. Let them know we

can save some time to share this idea with the class of comparing and contrasting main ideas if

students do this in their own reading. The children really like to share things in the classroom so

I thought this could be a way to invite children to try it on their own and then report to the class

their findings.

Documentation/Assessment Plans: I plan to videotape my lesson with my camera so that I can

view it and see some things I need to improve on and what some positive things I did when

teaching this lesson. This will help me come up with an appropriate self reflection for myself. I

will be looking not only at what I did as a teacher but how children responded/reacted/ and took

away from this book and lesson.

Reflection:

The children really enjoyed this book too and we had wonderful conversations. I liked doing two

days in a row because the children remembered our book we read yesterday quite well and they

were able to make new connections and build off of what we learned about yesterday to today’s

lesson. I think that we will need to continue working on what the main ideas of the story are and

why they are important. Many of the children were looking for smaller details when comparing

and I pointed out how wonderful it was they made that observation and used it as a comparison. I

tried though the write down on our Venn diagram only the main points that could possibly affect

the story. The children did a really nice job looking for comparisons; similarities and differences

and knowing where to put them in the Venn diagram. Next, my mentor teacher is going to

continue working on main ideas in different stories and she will be doing a lesson with the

children about more important people in history. She will be focusing on inventors and how

these people shaped our world today. Our level of conversation again was fabulous! It was my

favorite part of the lesson. Children were making connections and asking questions that I didn’t

even think of. One student asked me during the reading if slaves had to be black or if they could

be a different color like Mexicans. I thought this was a wonderful question and I invited children

to focus on this topic as a research question during center time. Many students were also able to

make the connection why we only talk about the main points in the story. Children were also

able to tell me again why it is beneficial to use the Venn diagram for comparing and contrasting

ideas. I was worried they might have never been introduced to a Venn diagram before and would

be confused by the idea of using it and why we use it. But the children caught on rather quickly

and I think the majority of the students would be able to do a Venn diagram on their own when

reading. For this lesson I fit a lot into one lesson and even though the majority of the children

were involved and enjoying the book and discussions many children were starting to get fidgety.

I should have taken note of this and maybe spread out the lesson over two days because it was

about an hour the children had to sit. I think this may have been too long for some of the

children. I learned that children are completely capable of learning about tough issues as stated

before and that they are able to extend on their own ideas based on their interests. The book

Other kinds of families: Embracing diversity in schools mentions an excellent quote that explains

my thinking as to why I think it is okay to talk about slavery in my second grade classroom.

Children are curious about one another and seek the common threads among their peers. It is

important for children to learn to accept others and relate to others that are different from

themselves in the early years. The article Social Justice in Early Childhood Classrooms by Nora

E. Hyland quotes, “By attending to the empowerment needs of children through culturally

relevant pedagogy, teachers can engage all children in the class in exploring issues of fairness

and justice and thinking about their role in making a more just world for themselves and others.

With raised consciousness and a determination to expose injustice, early childhood teachers can

begin to create a more equitable society by teaching its youngest members to be advocates for

justice.” The book Black Ants and Buddhists by Mary Cowhey mentions on many occasions that

she is not afraid to tell her children important things that they think they should know. I think

Cowhey would agree that talking about the issue of slavery is more important than not bringing it

up in fear that they are too young. Not bringing up certain topics is just sheltering children from

the truth of society which in itself can be a bad thing. Children are naturally curious about the

world and most of the children had an idea about what slavery or the Underground Railroad was

anyways. Children are smart and are capable of learning about even the saddest topics, it is what

happened in our society and the children deserve to be told the truth about issues such as these

even though some teacher may think it is not age appropriate. Many children even wanted to do

more research on something we didn’t have time to talk about so they did research by looking

through books and on the computer. They wrote down their ideas and were able to share them

with the class. I think this is great because rather than me telling them the answer to some of

their questions I opened it up to doing research to find out more about this topic. The children

were capable and able to do this and then share their ideas with their peers and place it in our

classroom binder.

Works Cited

Cowhey, M. (2006). Black ants and buddhists . Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers

Hyland, N. (2010). Social justice in early childhood classrooms what the research tells us. NAEYC: Young

Children.

Owocki, G. (2003). Making meaning from text. 1-27.

Turner-Vorbeck, T., & Marsh, M. (2007). Other kinds of families: Embracing diversity in

schools. New York: Teacher's College Press.