Certain historical facts and ideas should be covered in this unit including economic factors of slavery, the importance of the North Star, geography of the Underground Railroad, abolitionism, impact of the Fugitive Slave Law, tensions leading to the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the influence of certain people including Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Nat Turner, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Levi Coffin. Assessment Informal assessment can take place daily through observation, dialog and discussion. Quizzes are given on historical facts including dates, laws, people involved and relevant vocabulary in order to assess general familiarity with the material and the ability to explain certain ideas. The diary project is the culminating activity and is used to assess perspective, empathy and a synthesis of the material. Provide an opportunity for student self assessment.
Students can use the rubrics to evaluate their own work.
Solicit student feedback on the unit in the form of suggestions to the next class of students who will take the unit. Also solicit suggestions for the teacher on ways to improve the unit, possibly as an anonymous survey. The follow through for this unit is to have students consider what they feel strongly about, what is important to them,what values they have, and to think of ways that they can express those values in the community. The webquest part of the unit exposes the students to some very resource-rich web sites which include a wealth of primary source materials relating to the Underground Railroad. The web sites and classroom materials give students a chance to explore various mediums to support and expand on the teacher guided lessons.