Brief Description

Students assume the identity of former slaves and plot their course from Ripely, Ohio to Canada in an effort to evade slave catchers who have been empowered by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 to capture and return them to southern plantations. The students are placed into groups and plot their daily course based on estimated walking speeds and current weather conditions obtained online. Consulting the daily weather forecasts, students make adjustments. Students keep a daily log and record daily travel conditions on a migration chart. The journal and travel time is kept over a 15-day period. Students reflect weekly on issues via email with other students who are studying the Underground Railroad.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

Academic Standards Objectives

Academic

Technological Pre-Requisite Technology Skills Materials Accommodations for Special Needs

Gifted students will be required to research the history of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and write a five paragraph essay on its creation, meaning, and the impediments it created for runaway slaves.
Suggested sites:

Special needs students are to have URL addresses bookmarked in advance and the daily trips outlined on a planning sheet with the estimated distances pre-booked. The weather log should be pre-outlined to accelerate ease of entry. Journal entry requirements will be decreased requiring only a sentence or two to describe the daily trip. Distance walking speeds need to be pre-calculated for these students.

Procedures

Step #1: In class provide background information of the Civil War period. Introduce the concept of the Underground Railroad; how it worked, where it began and ended, who operated it, and how slaves used it as an escape to freedom.

Step #2: Take your students to the computer lab and introduce them to the “Miles to Go Before I Sleep” http://exchange.co-nect.net/Teleprojects/project/?pid=3&cid=1. Have them pay particular attention to the link “here to see a profile” under “How Did I Get Here.” Students should explore the authentic stories of former runaway slaves.

Step #3: Have students select a slave profile based on their exploration of authentic former runaway slaves. Students should create their own slave name and record their name and profile in their student journal. Have students email at least one other student and communicate under this assumed identity discussing their slave life. Have students print the email communication and insert it in their journals.

Step #4: Place the students into groups that will become their escaping slave companions in the Underground Railroad. Have students go outside in their groups (preferably on a track) and measure how long it takes them to walk a mile (quarter mile if time is limited). The time used for measuring their walking speed will be based on the slowest walking speed of their team members. Review the “pace charts” and the “miles to feet conversion chart” listed under “Preparing for the Trip” in the Teacher’s Guide & Student Materials section of “With Miles to Go Before I Sleep” website: http://exchange.co-nect.net/Teleprojects/project/?pid=3&cid=2#chart.

Step #5: Have students explore “Real Time” data sites pertaining to heat and river conditions. Locate this under “Your Daily Log” in the “With Miles to Go Before I Sleep” site: http://exchange.co-nect.net/Teleprojects/project/?pid=3&cid=1. The teacher should navigate these sites with the students pointing out details within the site and instructions on how to find and use the information effectively.

Step #6: Students should be placed in their groups to determine the exact starting points of their journey in Ohio and their escape route to freedom into Canada. Start all students south of the Ohio River to ensure a river crossing and suggest one of two routes: (1) Ohio through Michigan near Detroit and into Canada or (2) Ohio through New York State into Canada. Some students may request a boat ferry across the Great Lakes, however, for the educational objectives to be met, this should not be allowed.

Step # 7: Have students keep weekly migration charts of their journeys. See the “migration chart” under “Your Daily Log” section of “With Miles to Go Before I Sleep.” (http://exchange.co-nect.net/Teleprojects/project/?pid=3&cid=20.)
If access to the computer lab is not available on a daily basis, one student in each group should be assigned the responsibility to retrieve the daily weather and river conditions for the day from a classroom computer. This information can then be communicated to other group members. The students retrieving this information should be rotated to insure that all students are becoming skilled at using real time data sites.

Step # 8: Have students meet daily from ten to twenty minutes in their runaway slave groups to record the following information from the real time data sites and an atlas: (1) how many miles they walked, (2) the path they walked, (3) the weather conditions, and (4) the conditions of any rivers they may have forged. Have them fill out the migration chart accurately and completely.

Step #9: Create a visual log in the classroom that charts how many miles each group has walked and their approximate location.

Step #10: Have students reflect daily in their journals on details of the trip and have them email at least one other student concerning their feelings of the imaginary journey. Two of these emails should be inserted in their journals weekly.

Step #11: Students should turn in their journals and migration charts for final assessment.  Gifted students should include their essay on the Fugitive Slave Law.

Assessment

Assessment will be made by grading the student’s daily journal, weather and travel logs.

A capstone product will be required. This can be either a poem, song, drawing, etc. that recaps the imaginary journey.

Teacher Name: Don Dickinson
Site: Coronado K-8
Date Submitted: January 21, 2003