Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unitplan 438
Unitplan 438
Unitplan 438
Students will analyze important primary source documents that ignited the
debate of many issues surrounding slavery. They will evaluate and discuss
the role that these documents played in the division of the country on
controversial issues, like slavery, during the civil war. Using the information
they gather through class discussions and the power of visual
representations, students will create their own form of visual propaganda to
persuade either a pro-slavery or anti-slavery agenda. Students will illustrate
the critical mindsets of the public during this time period.
-How does the propaganda surrounding the civil war affect current views of
the time period?
-Is history inevitably biased?
-Why is propaganda most discussed surrounding historical times of war?
-Is propaganda positive or negative?
-What purpose is there in studying propaganda and primary sources from the
past?
What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this
unit?
One student and a partner will be provided with a visual piece of propaganda
from the proslavery movement. Together they will complete a short analysis
of the image that will then be shared with the class. These two will be our
experts on the given image. Their understanding of the image will be
assessed by the new knowledge your classmates receive.
-On the final quiz, students will have to list any topics that they feel they
need to further examine to reach a better understanding.
-Students will reflect on the primary source they found most valuable in this
lesson.
-Students will rate the importance they find in examining primary sources.
Students will begin the unit examining propaganda. We will watch and view
numerous forms of propaganda. (Commercials, posters, etc.)--H
Revisit the discussion that was occurring in the United States surrounding
slavery and the disagreements between the popular parties: the North and
the South.--W
As a class, we will examine Harriet Ann Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl, specifically the chapter WHAT SLAVES ARE TAUGHT TO THINK OF THE
NORTH.--E
Examining this primary source, students will begin to practice their
understanding of a primary source and the discussion on the reasons for
textual propaganda like this against slavery. --E
There will be three surrounding stations students will visit to decipher other
documents: the 1843 Platform of the Liberty Party, What to the Slave is the
Fourth of July by Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truths Aint I a
Woman? --E
Regathering as a class, we will discuss the information that students learned
and explored in the three stations. --R
The ticket out the door for students will be briefly writing three reasons that
these documents examined people should be against slavery. --E(2)
Students will each have two post-it notes on their desk. At the beginning of
the hour, students will be instructed to provide an example of negative
propaganda (urging people to go against a certain topic) and an example of a
positive piece of propaganda (encouraging people to support an issue.)--H
Together as a class, we will examining a visual form of propaganda that is
antislavery to allow students to warm up to this style of primary source. --E
After the introduction, students will be placed into pairs. These pairs will each
be assigned an image of a propaganda that is proslavery. --T
Each pair will be given a list of questions to help them prepare a 3-5 minute
presentation of the image. --T
The three images will be individually shared over the doc-cam and explained
by the students. --R
As a class, we will discuss some of the key reasons the proslavery argument
existed in the nation. --E(2)
For a ticket out the door, students will write down three reasons that people
were proslavery. --E(2)
Leaving class, they will take with them their assigned category and thought
provoking questions that they will want to start considering for the
completion of their in class poster. --O
Students will have a half hour to complete a poster based upon their
argument. In class, they will be provided with markers, construction paper,