Student Name: Karlee Wilson

I. General Information:
Grade Level: 4th
Discipline: Social Studies
Unit Topic: Slavery and the Underground Railroad
Time Frame: 1 day, 50 minute period
Text: Dear Austin: Letters from the Underground
Railroad by Elvira Woodruf
Other Materials: Copies of the book, index cards
II. Standards/Indicators
RL2: Summarize a literary text either orally or in writing. (See CCSS RI.4.2; W.4.9; SL.4.4, 6.)
Determine the key events from the beginning, middle, and end of the text.
W.4.9: Describeindepthacharacter,setting,oreventinastoryordrama,drawingon
specificdetailsinthetext[e.g.,acharactersthoughts,words,oractions

III. Lesson Objectives

5.4.a- Compare the lives of slave families and free blacks
5.4.c Describe the growth of the Underground Railroad
IV. Procedures: The class will go over what they have learned
about slavery from Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation
and Henrys Freedom Box.
Teaching/Activities:
1. The class will discuss how the two stories they have
already read are based on real people, and how the
next thing we are going to read is fiction.
2. The class will read in pairs one letter from Dear Austin:
Letters from the Underground Railroad; each pair will be
given a diferent letter beginning where Austin and
Jupiter begin their travel to the South to save Jupiters
sister.
3. Once all pairs read their letter, they will summarize
their letter so everyone knows what happens as Austin
and Levi come to the South to save Jupiters sister, and
the path they travel on the Underground Railroad.
4. The class will compare the diferences between how
Jupiter was treated in the North versus the South.
Closure: The class will discuss why Jupiter wanted to go to
the South.
VI. Evaluation/Assessment:
Assessment of Objectives: The teacher will assess the
students by using the 4 corners method; the teacher will ask

the students 3 questions about the letters: Who will be mad

that Austin and Jupiter ran away to the South to save
Jupiters sister? Who do the boys meet on the way to the
South? Why does Austin decide to help Jupiter?