Abolitionists
From: Zinn Education Project
Grade Level: (MS), HS
Remote Ready: With Modifications for Part 2
Time: 1-2 Class Periods for All Activities
Length of Reading: Pages
Meet the Abolitionists. This lesson comes in 2 parts. The first is a role-playing activity where each student is an abolitionist, and the second is "talk-back" journaling exercise based on an 8 page reading on the Abolition Movement.
Role play: Each student is assigned one of 21 abolitionist historical characters. Students read their paragraph-long bio, slap on a name tag, and engage in a meet and greet as their character, asking provided questions and writing down answers. The class discusses their findings using provided discussion questions.
Reading and talk back: Students read 8 pages from Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the Abolition Movement." Students then write a "talk-back" journal. They pick out several sections from the reading that they found interesting, important, confusing, or peculiar. Then they detail their reactions. The class discusses what they've written as well as student questions and provided questions.
More Information:
Grade Level:
(MS), HS: This lesson is meant for middle school students; however, we thing it would be well suited for high school students too
This Activity Involves:
Secondary Source: This activity utilizes secondary sources.
Group Work: This activity calls for working in pairs or groups or having a group discussion.
Writing Exercise: This activity requires a writing assignment such as a discussion post, journal entry, or lengthy response to a prompt. Almost all of our activities require students to answer questions with short responses, but this icon refers to a slightly longer writing assignments.
Image: “Thus saith the Lord, Execute judgement in the MORNING, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor,” in Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1838, Vol 1., Number 3, Page 1, N. Southard editor. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/americanantislav1838chil/page/n1/mode/2up. Accessed 6.10.2020.
