Human Trade Memorial Plaque and Gallery Walk

Unit Overview:

Title: Africa Case Study

Grade: 9th Grade High School World Studies

Author: Andrea Thanos

Number of Class Periods: 3 (50-minute class periods)

Compelling Question: How can communities meaningfully reconcile injustices in order to heal?

Lesson Plan:

Title: Human Trade Memorial Plaque and Gallery Walk

Supporting Question:

1. How effective do you think memorials and monuments are in reconciling injustices?

Lesson Objectives:

1. Empathize with an enslaved African kidnapped during the Transatlantic Human Trade
and Middle Passage.

Content Standards:

P4.2 Assess options for individual and collective action to advance views on matters of public
policy and to address local, regional, or global problems.
5.2.2 The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade – analyze the causes and development of the Atlantic trade
system with respect to the capture and sale of Africans, the creation of the gun-slave cycle, the
Middle Passage, and forced migration of Africans to the Americas, the establishment of the
plantation complex, and the rise of slave resistance in the New World.

Resources and Materials:

● Presentation
● Zora Neale Hurston Video
 ● Wreck of the last slave ship found after long, often frustrating search.
● Graphic Organizer
● Memorial Plaque Template

Modifications and Accommodations:

1. All videos are to be played with subtitles in Spanish for students who need them.
2. All written resources available in Spanish.
3. All resources are available on Google Classroom.
4. Be flexible with students to make the lesson work for them.

Procedure:

Bell Ringer:

1. Ask students to look up Zora Neale Hurston, and share out what they find on her.
2. Watch a short video on Hurston and her accomplishments.

Main Activity:

1. Read article, Wreck of the last slave ship found after long, often frustrating search.
2. Review the purpose of memorial plaques and provide examples.
3. Ask students the following questions:
a. What plaques, memorials, and/or monuments do you pass in your daily life?
b. Do they have an impact on you? Why or why not?
4. Work on the Memorial Plaque Graphic Organizer for the plaques in breakout rooms.
5. Have students work independently to create a memorial plaque using the Memorial
Plaque Template.

Exit Ticket:

1. Once everyone has finished, complete a Nearpod gallery walk of the plaques students
created.
2. Reflection on the validity of memorials and monuments as a form of reconciliation.
3. As a class, discuss the following questions:
a. What memorials and monuments do you pass in your daily life? Do they have an
impact on you? Why or why not?
b. How effective do you think memorials and monuments are in reconciling
injustices?

Total Time: Around 200 minutes (can be shortened if needed)