This class is taught in English.

Students will be able to describe elements of the slave experience on a tobacco plantation. Students will be able to explain that the Underground Railroad did not relate to literal train tracks. Students will be able to identify symbols and songs that helped slaves get to freedom along the Underground Railroad. 

I am a history major at Gonzaga University and a secondary education teacher candidate. My course work to this point has included classes such as African American Religion that focused on the music of slaves and the role religion played in arguments for and against slavery, and US history classes covering from pre-Columbian times to modern-day. My education courses have taken a heavy focus on diversity in the classroom, further, I have worked in local schools, teaching first, second, and seventh grade. This semester, I am teaching ELD in a mostly seventh-grade level 2 classroom. For this class, I have created several lessons surrounding the Civil War and slavery appropriate for ELD students. 
I am also an avid Civil War historian. I have spent most of my life reading books surrounding this time period and then completing research to find out how true to reality the books were. As such, I have done ample reading from leading African American historians in the US to find to the best of my abilities the realities of slavery, the Civil War, and the Underground Railroad. When engaging with this topic, I approach it from the lens that it is important history to be taught but not something to be celebrated. As such, all discussions will focus on what people believed in 1864 and how they acted in 1864. 

The presentation and worksheet used in class are my own, but I used the American Girl website and my university coursework to inform both. Additionally, I consulted resources and interviews of prominent African American studies historians that are experts in the field.