Ashley Allen

DIFF 598
Lesson Plan
Unit essential questions: How was daily life changed throughout
American History?
Lesson question: What were the living conditions like for American slaves?
Lesson objective: Given content pertaining to American slavery from three
websites, the students will be able to correctly describe 5 living conditions of
slaves in America.
NYS or other appropriate standard(s) addressed:
NYS K-8 Social Studies Framework Gathering, Interpreting and Using
Evidence -Identify, select, and evaluate evidence about events from diverse
sources (including written documents, works of art, photographs, charts and
graphs, artifacts, oral traditions, and other primary and secondary sources).

Assessment:
Exploration Guide-As the students explore different websites they will keep a
packet with them. This packet consists of several questions that students will
answer as they look at each website. There will be three sets of packets,
each set will contain questions that vary in levels of difficulty. As the students
are completing this packet, the teacher will circulate the room and note
students' responses on the packets' questions. This will allow the teacher to
observe whether or not the students are comprehending the content and to
give students corrective feedback if needed.
Individual Assignment-The last page of the exploration guide will have a task
for the students to complete. These tasks are tiered by challenge.
1. Newspaper Article: Students completing the newspaper article will act
as reporters who visited a southern plantation. They will write an article
describing the conditions for the slaves that they saw while they visited the
plantation.
2. Interview: These students will take on the role of slaves whom work on a
southern plantation. They will be given the scenario that they have been
asked to do an interview with a reporter. The students will be asked a variety
of interview questions focused on the conditions they live in, along with their
feelings about those conditions. This will require the students to recall
conditions of the slaves and also analyze the feelings the slaves may have
carried.

3. Debate Cards: These students will take on the role of a colonists who is
part of the great debate on slavery. The student will have to list the pros and
cons of slavery. Then, with the information they have learned about the
conditions for the slaves, they will need to prepare debate cards that they
will use to support or argue against slavery.
Rubric-Below is a rubric that lists many of the conditions for American Slaves
(there is a blank space for any other conditions not present). The teacher will
check off each condition that the student correctly referred to their individual
assignment. The student must discuss 5 conditions in their assignment,
therefore to successfully meet the objective, the student must earn 5 check
marks.
Conditions For the Slaves

Illness and disease spread easily

Many chores and responsibilities

expected to be completed all day,
from sun up until sun down(list
responsibilities as well)
Slaves were ruled by Slave Codes
which banned slaves from doing
many things

Slaves were violently punished if

rules were broken

Slaves were sold and sometimes

separated from their families
Slaves were given little food to eat

Slaves were given only a few pieces

of clothing to wear

Used Correctly in Assignment (check)

Other (record what the student

wrote)

Opening: The teacher will remind the students that they have been
learning about colonial life and slavery. She will ask the students to explain
the reason colonists owned slaves. She will then ask students to predict
what living conditions were like for the American slaves.

Procedure:
1. After predicting what living conditions were life for American slaves, the
teacher will explain that today the students will be exploring these conditions
more in depth. She will explain to the students that three I Pad/ Laptop
stations will be set up around the room. The teacher will show the students
they will have an exploration guide as well. Each I Pad or Laptop will have a
different website that the students will explore. For each station they visit,
there will be questions the students will need to answer in their exploration
guide.
2. The teacher will direct each student to a station (Each station will consist
of two laptops or I Pads, therefore there will be two students working per
station). She will explain to the students that they have 8 minutes at each
station. During this time, they will explore the webpage and answer the
corresponding questions.
3. After 8 minutes is up, the teacher will instruct the students to move to the
next station. This will continue until each of the three stations are completed.
4. The students and the teacher will then review what they have learned.
The teacher will create a Semantic Web on the board with the topic "living
conditions for slaves" in the middle. The students will then share and discuss
some of these conditions.
5. The teacher will then instruct the students to begin the assignment found
on the last page of their exploration guide. The teacher will circulate the
room as the students work to answer any questions the students may have
and ensure they are staying on task.
Tiered by: Challenge

Tier 1(comprehension level)-Newspaper Article: Students completing the

newspaper article will act as reporters who visited a southern plantation.
They will write an article reporting the conditions for the slaves that they saw
while they visited the plantation.
Tier 2 (Application level)- These students will take on the role of slaves whom
work on a southern plantation. They will be given the scenario that they have
been asked to do an interview with a reporter. The students will be asked a
variety of interview questions focused on the conditions they live in, along
with their feelings about those conditions. This will require the students to
recall conditions of the slaves and also analyze the feelings the slaves may
have carried.
Tier 3(Evaluation level)-Debate Cards: These students will take on the role of
a colonists who is part of the great debate on slavery. The student will have
to list the pros and cons of slavery. Then, with the information they have
learned about the conditions for the slaves, they will need to prepare debate
cards that they will use to justify or argue against slavery.
Closure:
The teacher will instruct the students to stop what they are doing. The
students and teacher will then discuss the living conditions for the slaves.
The teacher will ask questions such as "Were the slaves living in desirable
conditions?" "How would you feel if you were in that position?" "If you were a
colonist in that time period would you take a stand against slavery?"

Materials:
Exploration Guide
I pads
Labels for stations