Level X

Lesson Plan Up From Slavery

About the Book
Text Type: Nonfiction/Autobiography Page Count: 18 Word Count: 1,888

Book Summary
Booker T. Washington was a slave on a plantation in Virginia until he was nine
years old. His autobiography offers readers a look into his life as a young child.
Simple pleasures, such as eating with a fork, sleeping in a bed, and wearing
comfortable clothing, were unavailable to Washington and his family. His brief
glimpses into a schoolhouse were all it took to make him long for a chance
to study and learn. Readers will enjoy the straightforward and strong voice
Washington uses to tell his story.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy
• Make connections to prior knowledge

Objectives
• Make connections to prior knowledge to understand the text
• Make inferences and draw conclusions
• Identify and form complex sentences
• Use content vocabulary

Materials
Green text indicates resources available on the website
• Book—Up From Slavery (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry-erase board
• Make inferences / draw conclusions, complex sentences, content vocabulary worksheets
• Discussion cards

Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be demonstrated
by projecting the the book on an interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and pencil if
the books are reused.)

Vocabulary
*Bold vocabulary words also appear in a pre-made lesson for this title on VocabularyA–Z.com.
• Content words:
Story critical: Emancipation Proclamation (n.), flax (n.), manual labor (n.), overseer (n.),
plantation (n.), self-reliance (n.)
Enrichment: autobiography (n.), big house (n.), entangled (adj.), paradise (n.), quarters (n.),
scolding (n.), trade (n.), woe (n.)

Before Reading
Build Background
• Pair students and have them discuss what they know about slavery. Then have the pairs share
their information as you record it on a fact web.

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 Level X
Lesson Plan (continued) Up From Slavery
Preview the Book
Introduce the Reading Strategy: Make connections to prior knowledge
• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers of the book
and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what
kind of book this is and what it might be about. Help them make connections between the book
and the Build Background discussion.
• Direct students to the table of contents. Remind students that the table of contents provides
an overview of the book’s contents. Each section heading provides an idea of what they will
read in the book. After reviewing the table of contents, model using it to make connections
to prior knowledge.
Think aloud: As I preview the table of contents, I think about what I already know about slavery.
I use this knowledge to picture what the home life of a slave boy might be like. I predict that this
book will give me more details about the life of a slave. I will add new information to what
I already know.
• As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted
strategy presented in this section.
Introduce the Vocabulary
• Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they don’t know. For example,
they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondences to figure out a word. They
can look for base words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of
unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Point out the word woe on page 11. Model how
students can use the context to figure out the meaning of the word. Have them read the last
paragraph on page 11. Explain: The main idea of the paragraph is that the slave owners wanted
to keep their valuable possessions safe, so they buried them in the woods and posted a slave as
a guard. Slaves would give the soldiers anything else but not the valuables. That makes me think
that the word woe means something bad or some kind of trouble might happen to anybody
who tries to take the master’s valuables. Let’s read the sentence with the words bad luck. Have
students follow along as you read the sentence to confirm the meaning of the word.
• Remind students that they should check whether words make sense by rereading the sentence.
Set the Purpose
• Have students read the book to add to their knowledge about slavery. Remind students to think
about what they already knew about slavery.

During Reading
Student Reading
• Guide the reading: Have students stop reading at the end of page 7 and refer to the fact web you
made during the Before Reading discussion. Ask students if the book confirmed or disproved what
they already knew about slavery. Ask if students added to their previous knowledge about slavery.

Have students make a small question mark in their book beside any word they do not
understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

After Reading
• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how
they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.

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 Level X
Lesson Plan (continued) Up From Slavery
Teach the Comprehension Skill: Make inferences / Draw conclusions
• Explain that in order to make a book interesting, a writer does not always tell the reader every
detail. Writers often provide enough information or clues for readers to make guesses, or
inferences, about why something happened or how a character thinks or feels. It’s then up to the
reader to put the pieces together to understand the meaning of the book.
• Check for understanding: Have students reread the first section, titled “Home Life.” Ask them
to figure out why the slaves wore clothes made of rough flax.
• When they have finished reading, ask students why the slaves had to wear clothes made of flax.
Ask them what clues or information helped them make the guess.
• Model making an inference.
Think aloud: The first thing I did was to ask a question: Why did the slaves wear clothes made from
flax? I read the last paragraph on page 6, and then I looked for clues that would help me answer
the question. I circled the words worst thing in the first sentence; cheapest and roughest in the
second sentence; and But I had no choice in the fifth sentence. When I put these clues together
with what I already know about slavery, I can make the following inference: Slave owners wore
clothes made from the best part of the cloth. Slaves were given the cheapest, roughest part of
the cloth because they were considered to be inferior people.
• Ask students to identify any other words or phrases that helped them make the inference.
• Reinforce that an inference is a guess based on evidence, or clues, in the story. It is not a wild
guess. An inference can tell why something happened or why a character thinks, feels, or acts
the way he/she does.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the make inferences / draw
conclusions worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Extend the discussion: Have students use the back cover to write a paragraph about what they
think was the worst thing about being a slave.

Build Skills
Grammar and Mechanics: Complex sentences
• Explain that one of the ways writers make their books interesting and easy to read is by using
complex sentences. Choppy sentences cause the reader to have to stop and start. Complex
sentences usually make the words flow more smoothly, which makes a paragraph or passage
easier to read. Write the following sentences on the board: As a slave, I was cleaning yards. As
a slave, I was carrying water. As a slave, I was going to the mill. Ask students to think of a way
these three sentences could be combined into one that is less choppy and more interesting to
read. Direct students to the bottom of page 8. Ask them to identify the sentence the author has
written that contains the ideas of the three sentences you have written on the board.
• Check for understanding: Write the following sentences on the board: The slave would give the
Northern soldiers food. They would give them drink. They would give them clothing. Ask
students to combine these shorter sentences into one complex sentence. Have students write this
sentence on a separate sheet of paper. Write the following sentences on the board: My mother
prayed that Abraham Lincoln and the armies of the North might be successful. She prayed that
one day we might be free. Ask students to combine these sentences into one complex sentence.
Have students write this sentence on a separate sheet of paper.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the complex sentences
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Have students underline sentences in the book that are examples of complex sentences.
Discuss their responses.

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 Level X
Lesson Plan (continued) Up From Slavery
Word Work: Content vocabulary
• Tell students that many of the words they read in Booker T. Washington’s autobiography are
words they will read again when they study American history and the Civil War. Direct students
to page 11. Ask them to find a bold word that names the person in charge of watching over the
slaves (overseer).
• Direct students to page 13. Ask them to find another bold word. Explain that the Emancipation
Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It freed
the slaves in the South. (Note to teacher: You may want to explain to students that the 13th
amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States, was ratified in Congress in 1865.)
• Check for understanding: Write the following words on the board: flax, manual labor, plantation,
self-reliance. Have students work with a partner. Give each pair of students a large piece of
paper and ask them to divide the paper into four sections. Instruct students to write one content
vocabulary word in each section. Have students work with their partner to draw or write a
definition for each word. Then, have students look in the text and in the glossary to locate each
word and compare their definitions with the definitions provided.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the content vocabulary
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Build Fluency
Independent Reading
• Invite students to read their book independently. Additionally, invite partners to take turns
reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection
• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Extend the Reading

Writing Connection
Have students write their own autobiograpy. Encourage them to include important information,
such as when and where they were born, the things they do on an average day, as well as any other
interesting information about themselves.

Social Studies Connection

Discuss slavery as it exists in the world today, what it means to the enslaved people, and how, even
on a small scale, everyone can help. Provide resources for students to research cultures that still
practice some forms of slavery. Ask students to report to the class what they have learned.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book
are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used
with students:
• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more cards and write a response, either as an essay or as a
journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose
for reading.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.

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 Level X
Lesson Plan (continued) Up From Slavery
Assessment
Monitor students to determine if they can:
• consistently connect to prior knowledge to understand the text
• accurately make inferences and draw conclusions during discussion and on a worksheet
• correctly identify and form complex sentences during discussion and on a worksheet
• correctly use content vocabulary during discussion and on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks
• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric

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