Traveling the Road to Freedom Through Research and Historical Fiction

Materials and Technology

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

• Escape North! The Story of Harriet Tubman by Monica Kulling (Random House, 2000)
  
  
• True North by Kathryn Lasky (Point Signature, 1998)
  
  
• Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen (Laurel Leaf, 1995)
  
  
• Chart paper
  
  
• Computers with Internet access

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PRINTOUTS

• Book Discussion Group Roles and Procedure
  
  
• Novel Discussion Questions
  
  
• Character Role: Graphic Organizer
  
  
• Character Motivation Brainstorming sheet
  
  
• Character Sketch Handout
  
  
• Road to Freedom WebQuest Rubric
  
  
• Historical Fiction Analysis Rubric
  
  
• Road to Freedom: Historical Background

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WEBSITES

• The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850
• The Road to Freedom WebQuest
• "Looking for the History in Historical Fiction: An Epidemic for Reading"

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PREPARATION

1.	To prepare for this unit, begin by reading the three texts suggested in the Materials and Technology section. You should modify any of the suggested readings for the grade level you teach, or choose other texts from the time period if the content of these books is too difficult for your students.
2.	Visit the ReadWriteThink lesson "Looking for the History in Historical Fiction: An Epidemic for Reading" and view the definition of historical fiction provided. You can use this definition to plan the brainstorming activity in Lesson 1.
3.	Although novel discussion questions have been provided, you may also want to create specific questions for the book discussion groups in Lesson 2 if these do not fit your needs.
4.	Before Lesson 3, view the Road to Freedom WebQuest and its links to be sure that all content is appropriate for the grade level you teach and that all links are active.

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