Dangerous Escape – Choice Activity
Purpose:
The purpose of this activity is to give a sense of great danger that slaves faced when trying to escape from
slavery.
Grade Level: 4th & 5th
Objectives:
Students will be able to decide as a slave would they take on all of the risks after learning about the dangers
in escaping.
Students will calculate the probability of making it to freedom on one of the Underground Railroad routes.
Students will be able to list the dangers in escaping.
Materials:
Calculators
Books –3 to 4 copies of each
The Underground Railroad – P.M. Boekhoff and Stuart A. Kallen pg 24-30
Escape to Freedom: The Underground Railroad Adventures of Callie and William – Barbara Brooks Simons
Get on Board: The Story of the Underground Railroad – Jim Haskins pg 2-13
Underground – Shane W. Evans
Inspiration account - http://www.inspiration.com/WebspirationClassroom
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Probability of escaping worksheet
Dangerous escape worksheet
Underground Railroad Escape from Slavery
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/index.htm
Opening:
Ask the students if they were slaves would they try to escape to freedom? Complete a classroom tally and
bar graph to show all of the yes’s and no’s.
Begin a KWL chart. Ask the students what they know about the journey of escaping slavery to freedom.
Ask students what they want to know specifically about escaping. Teachers should begin this portion with a
question themselves.
Procedure:
Teacher may use the scholastics website to go over the journey of a slave. It begins learning about the life
of a slave, on the plantation, the escape the slave made, reaching safe grounds, and then finally making it to
freedom. Each tab will give the student a synopsis of that particular part of the journey. Teacher will have
to click the listen button where students will be able to listen to the dialogue. Teacher may choose some of
the following activities to complete after reviewing the website.
Students will discover the concept of escaping slavery in small groups. Students may review the previously
view website, read one of the selected sections of the books provided, or do their own internet research.
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Guided Practice:
Begin by asking the students how many slaves do they think made it to freedom? Please give students wait
time to answer.
Inform the students that there is not a definite answer to this question because no records were kept at
the time of these encounters, but it is believed that over 100,000 slaves successfully made it to freedom.
Imagine if there were 1,000,000 slaves that tried to escape to freedom. What would be the probability of
reaching freedom?
Begin the teaching the students that probability is how likely something is to happen. Go through both
examples as well.
Probability = QUOTE
Examples 1: Getting tails on a quarter.
There is one possible way to get tails and we have two possible outcomes so our fraction would look
like this:
QUOTE = .50 = 50%
We have a 50% percent chance of getting tails.
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Example 2: Rolling a number 3 on a number cube.
There is one possible way to get the number 3 and a total of 6 different outcomes so our fraction
would look like this: QUOTE
number 3 on a number cube.
= .16 = about 16%.
We have about a 16% chance of rolling the
Ask the students to convert the probability of successfully making it to freedom. Student should come up with
the answer 1/10 = .10 = 10%
Slaves had a 10% chance of making it to freedom successfully.
Independent Practice:
Part A
Based off the findings students will need to complete a graphic organizer on Inspiration answering the following
questions. Have students create drafts on paper before beginning their creation online.
What was life like as a slave? What did they do on the plantation? What made them want to flee the
plantation? Was there anything holding back?
What was the best time to escape and why? What are the slave’s means of travel? How did they escape?
What was it the journey like escaping? Was it fearful? What dangers did you encounter on your journey?
How did they survive such a long travel?
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. How did the conductors help guide the slaves to the path of freedom?
Part B
Students will write an essay based off the information deciding whether they will take a chance at escaping
to freedom. Students will evaluate all of the circumstances and make one final decision.
Closing
Discuss the student’s findings. Go back to the KWL chart. Ask the students what new information they
have learned. Fill in the remainder of the chart.
Complete another class tally and bar graph now. Compare the two bar graphs. See if any of the students
have changed their mind about going.
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. KWL CHART
K – What I know
W – What I would like to
know
L – What I have learned
I
source ©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Mind Mapping
Using the following questions, you will create a Mind Map that will depict the dangers the slaves encountered as
they ran to freedom. Be creative as you put your map together. Create a rough draft first on this sheet. Please
use the back if needed.
What was life like as a slave? What did they do on the plantation? What made them want to flee the
plantation? Was there anything holding back?
What was the best time to escape and why? What are the slave’s means of travel? How did they escape?
What was it the journey like escaping? Was it fearful? What dangers did you encounter on your journey?
How did they survive such a long travel?
How did the conductors help guide the slaves to the path of freedom?
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. When you have finished your rough draft, you will use the Inspiration software to make your mind map. Remember
this is an individual assignment. I should be able to see the answers to the questions on your mind map.
Below is an example of how you may set up your map.
Source: Google Images
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Your Final Decision
Imagine you are a slave. Knowing all of the information you have just learned, would you still try to escape to
freedom? Using supporting details, write a one-page essay describing your thoughts about the topic.
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©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. ______________________________________________________________________________________
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©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. KnowledgeComprehensionApplicationAnalysisSynthesisEvaluaContributions
Banks-Bloom
Navigator
Knowledge
Contributions
KWL chart –
What do you
know about the
slave escape?
Additive
Transformation
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Based off student
research, students
will answer
comprehension
questionnaire.
Creation of the
mind map.
Comparing the
number of
successful slave
escapes to the
number of people
that tried.
Probability
activity.
Synthesis
Evaluation
Imagine you are a
slave. Would you
take the risk
knowing all of the
facts? Write a
one-page essay.
Social Action
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program.