Individual Lesson View
Twelve Years a Slave (Paragraphs and Census Records)
From: DocsTeach
Grade Level: (MS), HS, (College)
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: 2-3 Class Periods
Length of Reading: Paragraphs
Twelve Years a Slave
Students read several short sections from Twelve Years a Slave (just a paragraph or two each) along with corroborating documents (sections from 3 different census records are featured). They answer questions online and have the option to write 3 paragraphs online answering overarching questions. Students enter their teacher's email address with their written responses, and their answers show up via a link in your inbox. While this is remote ready (and we love it). We would recommend paraphrasing the questions into your LMS so that they are easier to access and grade.
OR
The full written version of Twelve Years a Slave is available for free online
here from Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill). It's 110 pages printed.
OR
Watch the film. Unfortunately, we don't have a free link. It's rated R so you'll need permission slips to show your class.
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Grade Level: (MS), HS, (College)
- This lesson is intended for high school students
- Though HS is the specified grade level, this might work for middle school and college also
Remote Ready: With Modifications
- Students answer questions online and send their answers to their teacher by entering in their email address
- Teachers receive an email from each student with a link to their answers
- Clicking through each of these links will be time consuming.
- Consider paraphrasing questions into your LMS instead
Primary Source Icon
This means that this activity utilizes primary sources
Writing Icon
This activity asks students to write a 3 paragraph answer to a questions. There are also short answer questions in this activity, but this icon refers to longer writing requirements
Computer Icon
This means that a computer is required for this activity.
Reviews of This Lesson Plan
We would really appreciate your thoughts on this lesson at the bottom of the page. With that said, please review this lesson ONLY if you’ve used it yourself and can comment authoritatively about how it works. Thank you for bringing broken links and other issues to our attention; if we can fix those issues, we might delete the comment so as not to confuse readers. We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, un-helpful, or political.
Twelve Years a Slave (Paragraphs and Census Records)
Pros
- Remote Ready
- Short Sections are chosen from the reading
Cons
- Teachers have to follow a link and click through sections to grade answers from each student
Historical Material
10
Teaching Methodology
9
Student Engagement
9
The choice of short sections from Twelve Years a Slave and their pairing with corresponding Census records is genius! The fact that this can be done remotely is wonderful. One possible downside is that teachers receive a link from each student who completes the questions online. After teachers follow the link, they have to click through each section to look at student answers (this link has the same screen as students do). This will be time consuming , especially if you have a lot of students. And there is no place for teacher feedback. It might be better to paraphrase the questions into your LMS.