Follow+the+Drinking+Gourd+Reinforcing+Activity-2

//Follow the Drinking Gourd// A downloaded Youtube video of the song, “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and a video projector with sound. Numerous cut out pieces of the star constellation, the Big Dipper Pictures of historic slaves, slave conditions, and historic Underground Railroad monuments. An Underground Railroad conductor costume.
 * Materials:**

Students will recognize the meaning behind the drinking gourd and its significant role in the underground railroad. Students will be able to recognize the star constellation that helped the slaves locate the north. Students will understand the horrible conditions that led to slaves desiring to run away as well as the punishment they would face if they were caught. Students will be able to describe the hard conditions that slaves faced on the underground railroad.
 * Objectives:**

Note: This lesson will be used to introduce the unit on the Underground Railroad, which eventually leads to the Northern/Southern relation studies and the Civil War unit.
 * Procedures:**

The students will walk into an empty classroom at the beginning of class and take their seats. After the class settles for a moment the teacher will enter dressed as an old Underground Railroad conductor. The teacher will be humming the song, “Follow the Drinking Gourd.”
 * Exploration/** **Introduction:**

The teacher will gather the class together and read Jeanette Winter’s story of //Follow the Drinking Gourd.// As the teacher is humming the song, he will turn on the video that plays the song with lyrics, “Follow the Drinking Gourd.” The teacher will explain to the class in a storyteller mode the meaning behind the lyrics of the song. As the teacher explains songs use as a map for slaves to escape toward the north, the students will be given the assignment to follow their own drinking gourd.
 * Development: **

The teacher will explain that there are mini cutouts of the Big Dipper hidden all around the school grounds. Just like the Big Dipper pointed the slaves north toward their freedom, the mini cutouts of the Big Dipper will point the students towards there next destination within the school.

At each station with a Big Dipper, students will also find pictures of historic conditions that slaves faced under persecution as well as on the Underground Railroad. At each station the teacher will explain to the students the significance and meaning behind each picture. Stations will include pictures and information of typical slave conditions, the conditions that slaves faced on the Underground Railroad (hunger, cold, loneliness), families broken apart by slavery, Underground Railroad houses/smuggling conditions, famous conductors such as Harriet Tubman/John Parker/John Rankin/Levi Coffin, the Fugitive Slave Act, slave catchers, the importance of the Ohio River/Canada, abolitionists, and Quakers.
 * Expansion:**

The teacher will observe and listen to students’ responses to the conditions that the slaves faced on and off the Underground Railroad. Students will receive a participation grade for talking about their reactions to the slave conditions that they learned from their teacher.
 * Assessment: **

Students will also take a worksheet with them as they go from station to station. At each station, the students will log two facts they learned about slavery and the Underground Railroad. The students will also have to draw a picture that resembles the Big Dipper. Students will be evaluated on the information they discuss within their worksheet.


 * Suggested** ** Extension **** Activities: **

Students could write their own song lyrics from the perspective of a slave. The song must entail pieces of information that give other slaves advice as to the best way to survive the Underground Railroad. The song could describe the preparation that runaway slaves should take, the time of year that is best to go, or even safe house locations that slaves could stop at along the way. In order to challenge the students, the teacher could encourage the students to have the song written in a code that represents the same format as the drinking gourd song.

Furthermore, students could also listen to an audio recording that I created at Wright State. The recording is an audio dramatization of the Underground Railroad conductor, John Parker, helping another slave escape to freedom. The recording was based off a real letter that Parker wrote in the 1800’s and accurately displays the terrifying conditions that many slaves faced on the infamous journey.

[] [] [|http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3693061079263073672#]
 * Additional** **References &** **Web Links:**