Lesson Title Grade Level Lesson Topic SC Standards and Indicators Academic Vocabulary Lesson Materials Sharecropping, the new Teacher slavery? 5th Grade Duration of Lesson Scott Holcomb 60 minutes Sharecropping 5 – 1.4 Compare the economic and social effects of Reconstruction and different populations including the move from farms to factories and the change from plantation systems to sharecropping. Sharecropping, contract, landowner SMART board equipment and software, paper, pencil, 2 copies of sample sharecropper’s contract per student Lesson Set Content Objective(s) The student will summarize and explain why freed slaves decided to become sharecroppers. Literacy Objective(s) Generate writings that contain a main idea and supporting details for a variety of audiences. Lesson Importance Students will understand the treatment of African Americans early after the conclusion of the Civil War. Connections to prior Connections to prior learning: Treatment of African Americans up through and future learning the Civil War. Connections to future learning: Major resentment that starts to build over the next 100 plus years of American history. Anticipatory Set/ Hook 1. Teacher will say: “What if you were out of work, needed a place to (Engage) live, and were poor? Would you be willing to accept a deal that offered you land to own after producing the owner of the land a set amount of crops? What if the amount you owed to the owners was so large that it would take years to fulfill their demands? How would this be like slavery?” 2. Teacher will call on students and listen to their comments. Teacher and other students will respond to shared responses. Skill Development Introduce
content
components “I do”
Skill from literacy
objective
1. Teacher will say: “Today we are going to learn about the positives and negatives of sharecropping.” 1. Teacher will say: “The Civil War ended during the spring. In the south this meant it was time to plant crops. The slaves have always done the work on plantations for free.” 2. Teacher will say: “Landowners had thousands of acres of land that needed to be planted quickly.” 3. Teacher will say: “Freed slaves were also faced with some problems. They now had to pay for their own food and provide their own shelter but didn’t have jobs.” 4. Teacher will say: “Both groups still needed each other. However, the south was left in extreme poverty following the Civil War.” 5. Teacher will say: “All of this led to a Southern landowner giving a former slave a place to live, a plot of land, and a mule. As well as seeds, tools and food. At this point slaves had no money so they had to sign agreements to pay back landowners later. At the end of the year, the slave would share the crop with the landowner. This was known as sharecropping.” 6. Teacher will say: “Even though this often resulted in years of debt to the landowners many freed slaves looked at sharecropping as a step up from slavery. They got to live with their families and when they wanted to work.” Guided Practice “We do”
Activity
Description
1. Teacher will say: “Turn your attention to the SMART board” while displaying a sample sharecropper’s contract. 2. Teacher will also hand out copies of contract to all students. 3. Teacher will say: “This is from a sharecropper’s labor contract from 4.
5.
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Checking for
Understanding“Informal”
Assessment 1.
1882.” Teacher will say: “This is a writing outlining what a worker and landowner would sign as a sharecropping contract.” Teacher will divide students into pairs. Teacher will display the following three questions on the SMART board: 1. How much of the proceeds will the sharecropper receive according to this contract? 2. Which parts of the contract would lead to problems for the sharecroppers? 3. Many sharecroppers found that sharecropping was a lot like being a slave. Explain three ways in which sharecroppers were treated the same as they were during slavery by landowners. Teacher will tell students they will have an opportunity to share responses with the class and give them ten minutes to work on the three questions using the sample contract to answer the questions. Once the teacher has told groups to begin the assignment, the teacher is to walk around to each group to make sure that they understand the wording of the contract and clarify any questions they have. Closure Content
Solidified
1. Teacher will bring the students attention to the front of the class and ask several groups to share their responses to comparing slavery to sharecropping. 2. Teacher will read contract agreement to the class. 3. Teacher will call on groups to share responses to the first two assigned questions. 4. Teacher will record student responses on the SMART board. Examples of student responses may include: -­‐ They were forced to accept the landowner’s rules -­‐ They were forced to accept the landowner’s working conditions -­‐ The sharecroppers pay was still not comparable to the work they completed. Independent Practice “You Do”
1. The teacher will have students share the benefits to becoming a sharecropper. 2. The teacher will ask students to state some of the negative aspects of agreeing to the contract shared earlier. 3. Teacher will ask students if they would have agreed to become a sharecropper at this time if they were faced with this choice. 4. Teacher will explain to students that they are to write an essay deciding whether or not they would choose to sign the sharecropping agreement analyzed earlier in class. The teacher will have extra copies of the agreement for students that have misplaced the agreements. 5. Teacher will provide students with 30 minutes of class time to write their explanation. 6. Teacher will go over the grading rubric for the writing with the students. Summative/ “Formal” Assessment Assessment
1. Student will write a response to the proposed sharecropping agreement discussing whether or not they would sign the agreement or not and why. 2. Teacher will grade student writing using the attached rubric. Differentiation During Lesson Assessment John: Needs to work with a classmate that is willing to share their group’s ideas. He has severe speech problems and when he speaks in front of his classmates he suffers severe setbacks. Mary: Has very poor fine motor skills, thus her writing is illidgible. She will have the opportunity to orally depict her response to the essay question. Resources: Kuligowski, Stephanie. 2010. Reconstruction. Huntington Beach, CA: Teacher Created Materials.