Twelve Years A Slave

Essential Question

How can our understanding of the past impact our current lives?
How do our various group identities shape us as individuals?
What part do culture and history play in the formation of our individual and collective identities?

Texts

Literature

On Being Brought From Africa to America

In this poem, the speaker explores the relationship between her Christian beliefs and her enslavement. She reminds her readers of the Christian belief that anyone, regardless of their race, can follow Christianity and be saved.

Phillis Wheatley

Grade Level

9-12

Subject

History

Geography

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Religion Rights & Activism

July 7, 2014

Literature

Barracoon

This excerpt from Barracoon, which provides a first-person account from the last living man transported from Africa to America as an enslaved person. The excerpt shows Zora Neal Hurston arriving at Cudjo Lewis’ house to speak with him about his past in only the way he can.

Zora Neale Hurston

Grade Level

6-8

Subject

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Religion Class

June 18, 2019

Informational

Bill Clinton apologizes for Tuskegee Experiment

This speech, delivered by then-President Bill Clinton, recognized and apologized for the study conducted by the United States government on more than 500 unknowing African-American soldiers at Tuskegee for untreated syphilis.

Bill Clinton

Grade Level

6-8

Subject

Social Studies

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Class

June 18, 2019

Informational

Frederick Douglass Describes Enslavers

In this specific passage, which comes from the book’s first chapter, Douglass describes his enslavers. The passage focuses on Douglass’s memory of his first encounter with the brutality of his enslavers.

Frederick Douglass

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Subject

History

Topic

Slavery

January 6, 2018

Literature

Autographs for Freedom

An anti-slavery poem by Harriet Beecher Stowe from 1852.

“Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Thirty-five other Eminent Writers.”

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Subject

History

Topic

Slavery

December 13, 2017

Teaching Strategies

Community Inquiry

Say Something

A comprehension strategy during which student take turns reading aloud to each other, stopping occasionally to comment on the text.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RL.6-12.2, RI.6-12.1, RI.6-12.2, SL.6-12.1, SL.6-12.2, SL.6-12.6

July 13, 2014

Community Inquiry

Socratic Seminar

A structured discussion in which students examine issues and respond to open-ended questions about a text. Students use dialogue rather than debate to communicate with each other.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RI.6-12.1, SL.6-12.1, SL.6-12.3, SL.6-12.4, SL.6-12.6

July 13, 2014

Close and Critical Reading

Thinking Notes

Thinking notes are text annotations (highlights, underlines or symbols made on the text or in the margins) that document student thinking during reading. Depending on how you structure the task, these notes can indicate agreement, objection, confusion or other relevant reactions to the text.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 19, 2014

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tcd1288

Twelve Years A Slave

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