What is the focus of your investigation? The focus of my investigation was to determine broad themes connected to the UGRR that I could use with my class. One of the themes I have identified as being pertinent to my students is courage. So I chose the lesson plans on the Safe Harbor website dealing with ordinary "heroes" in the Underground Railroad. Two books that I ran across at the Lancaster Historical Society that might be enjoyable for children were: Lest We Forget by Velma Maia Thomas - a three-dimensional interactive book William Parker by John Rosenburg - an historical novel ordinary people in the UGRR HOW I PLAN TO FOLLOW UP ON THIS WORKSHOP In order to teach this unit, I will need to do a lot of study on the UGRR on my own. I will be interested in browsing through and reading more thoroughly some of the websites listed in our daily agendas and the UGRR websites. I can see developing this into a month-long unit using some of the activities listed in the safe harbor website. then I can bring some of my other themes in to the base unit on the UGRR. My challenge is to make each day's lesson self-contained so that the kids I might have for only 2-3 days do not need extensive review or follow-up to get something from the lesson. I usually use more familiar lessons such as the vertebrate animal groups. My situation is very different from the regular classroom. I teach each child for 5 hours per week as long as they are in my program. My purpose is teaching appropriate classroom behavior, as well as using some reading, writing, math, and whatever else I can fit in to just keep up basic skills while the student is at Philhaven. These days have shown me how broad an issue this really is and the many facets involved. Just the fact that we usually dwell on the escape piece and not enslavement or emancipation. This workshop may turn out to be more for my personal enlightenment and enrichment as opposed to actually being useful to my teaching. We'll see!

MY RATIONALE FOR THE THEME OF THIS UNIT I would use this unit along with an existing unit I do on Martin Luther King in Jan. and focus on courage. I have several children's books that I read to the class that show how black Americans showed courage, especially children. I found a great picture to use as an introductory activity that shows ten black children. I would make a poster of it along with words like COURAGE, BRAVERY, GOOD DECISIONS, etc. to use as a starting writing exercise with questions like Do you think these children are brave? Have they had to show courage? How? Give an example of when you showed courage. This would then go into a discussion based on what they had written. Depending on the group, I might ( most likely) have to preface this whole activitiy with an introductiion to the vocabulary of courage, bravery, etc. I would relate this unit to how children can show courage today in their daily lives - like using positive means to deal with bullies rather than just hitting, talking about their issues and developing strategies to deal with their problems ( usually anger) in more positive ways, how to deal with friends who are doing wrong things, cheating, living in dysfunctional families, etc. Face of Slavery COURAGE BRAVERY click on the underground railroad for a good overview http://www.padutchcountry.com/

What was your approach and/or what evidence have you gathered? Since I have students such a short time, I tried to focus on broad themes connected with the UGRR rather than dates, times, places, etc. My kids are in need of character education and I can think of many themes that could emerge such as courage, discrimination, resistance to evil, doing what is right, how to see more than one side to an issue, perspective, point of view, how to read between the lines, how to empathize, etc. RESOURCES THAT I ALREADY USE THAT COULD RELATE "Weapons in the Schools" a Nick News video that reports on a program used in the Memphis City School District as a way for kids to report weapons in the schools related questions - Would you report a fellow student for having a weapon? Would you consider this snitching? How did the students in the video show courage? Have you ever witnessed someone with a weapon in school? What would you do? What would take the most courage? With older students, have a debate instead of just a discussion For very young students, I use the video "Ira Sleeps Over" where a little boy is invited to a sleep-over at a friend's house and must decide whether or not to take his bear which he has always slept with. Let the kids decide if it takes more courage to leave his bear at home or to take his bear and risk getting made fun of.