African American Experiences: Window to the Past

Standard:
United States History, Era 2: Standard 3C
The student understands African life under slavery

Lesson Summary:
In this lesson, students learn about the experiences of African-Americans under the institution of slavery using primary and secondary sources. Students search, examine, and analyze primary and secondary sources from a variety of digitized materials on the Internet. Students apply this knowledge by creating a digital scrapbook depicting a Day in the Life of an African-American during this time period.

Commentary:
Students will be learning how to apply the inferences made while deconstructing primary and secondary sources to a specific event, African-American Experiences under the institution of slavery.

This lesson will exemplify how reading a text changes with technology. No longer will the reader be looking at printed text on a page, but multimedia and text elements on a screen. Take for example, primary and secondary sources. A primary source can be current or historical. It might include newspaper stories, motion pictures, sound recordings, documents, photographs, posters, diaries, sheet music, articles of clothing, and other artifacts that happened at the time of an event or through an eyewitness account. The Internet provides portals to many digitized materials.

A secondary source is created by someone removed by time from the event. Examples of secondary sources include textbooks, journal/magazine articles, histories, and encyclopedias.

Many of the artifacts on the Internet are in raw format without any supporting information. Since primary sources are fragmentary, students may not relate to these bits and pieces. This is when interrogation techniques can be employed where students ask questions on their own terms and begin to make sense of the artifacts. Reading these artifacts becomes an essential part of the learning process.

In utilizing technology, there are many modalities for reading a variety of texts, including various documents, still and moving images, and sound. The African-American Experiences lesson will incorporate various types of media formats to address various learning styles.

Estimated Duration:
5-7 Class Periods

Pre-Assessment:
• Identify firsthand (primary) and secondhand information (secondary) by labeling a set of materials (small groups: word processing or paper-pencil).
• Explain why it is a firsthand (primary) or secondhand (secondary) source (individual: word processing or paper-pencil).
• Primary Source Tool Kit

Scoring Guidelines:
Students are being assessed on their knowledge to identify firsthand and secondhand sources as evidenced by their ability to categorize/label and explain their selections.

Post-Assessment:
• Analyze primary source and secondary source materials and how they can be used to investigate African-American experiences. (whole class: discussion).
• Create a digital scrapbook showing the Day in the Life of an African-American during the time of slavery using primary and secondary sources (individual: word processing, multimedia slide show, or publication).
• Label each item as a primary or secondary source (individual: word processing).
• Provide a brief description of each item in the scrapbook (individual: word processing).
• Provide the reference/source for each item in the scrapbook (individual: word processing).
• Material Cultural Analysis Guide
• African-American Experiences Primary Sources Website List

African American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920
African American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record
Been Here So Long: Selections from the WPA American Slave Narratives
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1938
Documenting the American South
From Slavery to Freedom: The African American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909
Voices from the Days of Slavery

Primary Sources in the Classroom

Monticello Home of Thomas Jefferson
Primary Source Toolkit

Scoring Guidelines:
Students are being assessed on their ability to apply their knowledge of primary and secondary sources while investigating African-American experiences during the institution of slavery. (Post-Assessment Rubric)

Instructional Procedures:
Day One
1. Administer the pre-assessment.
a. Differentiate between primary and secondary source materials by identifying and labeling a set of materials created by the teacher (small groups: word processing or paper-pencil).
b. Explain why it is a primary or secondary source (individual: word processing or paper-pencil).
c. Use the Primary and Source Tool Kit as a guide for putting together selections for your students.
d. Use the scoring rubric to determine what concepts have not been mastered.

Day Two
1. Review any concepts that have not mastered using illustrations of primary and secondary sources from the Web (whole class: discussion).
a. Use a data projector to illustrate pre-selected primary and secondary sources to students.
2. Analyze primary source and secondary source materials and how they can be used to investigate African-American experiences. (whole class: discussion).
a. Pre-select a set of primary and secondary source materials.
b. Use the Material Cultural Analysis Guide.
3. Introduce Vocabulary Words.

Day Three – Day Four
1. Have students search the Web for primary and secondary source materials about the daily experiences of African-Americans during the institution of slavery (small groups: pre-selected Websites, Web browser).
a. Provide students with links to Primary and Secondary Source Websites.
2. Bookmark or save primary and secondary sources such as images to a floppy disk, thumb drive, or hard drive. Any files that are saved must conform to copyright laws and fair use guidelines (small groups: Web browser).

Day Five – Day Seven
1. Create a digital scrapbook showing the Day in the Life of an African-American during the time of slavery (individual: word processing, multimedia slide show, or publication).
a. Students select and organize items for their digital scrapbooks (individual: organizing files in a folder).
b. Students label each item as a primary or secondary source (individual: word processing).
c. Students provide a brief description of each item in the scrapbook (individual: word processing).
d. Students provide the reference/source for each item in the scrapbook (individual: word processing).