The Underground Railroad

A Webquest Adventure for 3rd Grade Social Studies

Introduction/Task/Process/Evaluation/Conclusion/Credits/Home

Introduction

During our African American Unit of study we have been learning about the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad, but rather it was a series of underground tunnels and above ground paths that helped slaves travel to freedom in the North. In this activity your Buddy team will be historians tracing a route that a slave deep in the South could have traveled to find freedom in the North. Each Buddy team will be locating one station of the railroad during their quest, and in the end all of the stations will be recorded on our classroom map. Thereupon, a route, or possibly routes, will appear that may have been used by many couragous slaves.

But this is only one of your tasks. Read ahead for more...and when you are ready put your traveling hats and fancy eyeglasses on and get ready to search!

The Task

In this assignment you and your Buddy team members will be learning about Slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the people responsible for fighting against it. During this assignment you will be finding answers to these questions...

What does "abolish" mean?
What is an "abolishonist"?
Why did some people want to "abolish" slavery?
What were the names of some of the more famous abolishonists?
Where is the station you found located on the Underground Railroad (include city, state, the name of the family/people who ran it, and why they wanted to abolish slavery)?
What special means did the conductor take to keep slaves a secret at their station?
List any extra interesting facts about your Underground Railroad station.

When our path to freedom is finally complete we will share what we learned about each station as we travel to it along our imaginary path to freedom.

Process

Each Buddy team of historians will be completing the following requirements as they find their way to an Underground Railroad station...

Slavery/Underground Railroad worksheet-You will learn more about the railroad, and share new discoveries made during your quest. (to be completed during one or two mornings of classroom time)
Sticker Marks the Spot-You will add a sticker marking the station in the underground railroad that you discovered on the classroom map. (to be completed after worksheet is completed)
Journal Writing-you will write a journal entry from an escape slave's point of view. You (the escaped slave) will share your experiences during your travels North. (to be completed during Read Aloud classroom time)

Evaluation

Each team will be evaluated in both team and individual performances.

Team grades:

Participation-Teams will be given credit for team participation. This will be done to ensure that each team member is participating equally.

Individual grades:

Worksheet-Although one team will be completing one worksheet, each team member will be receiving a grade for the Slavery/Underground worksheet.
Sticker Marks the Spot-Each team member will receive a grade for correctly locating the Underground Railroad station on the classroom map with a sticker.
Journal Writing-Each team member will be given a grade over their individual journal entry from a escaped slave's point of view.

Rubric grades:

A rubric will be used to grade team participation, worksheet completion, and sticker accuracy.
Another rubric will be used to grade the journal entry based on CUPS and audience awareness.

Conclusion

After completing the Underground railroad assignment, each student will get to reflect on what they learned during the internet and book quest used to complete the team worksheet and finding the location of their station. This reflection sheet will be provided at the end of your quest and you should hand this in with your team's worksheet. These reflection sheets will help me to know how your quest went and any changes I will need to make to help next year's classroom. Therefore, be very honest in your reflection...I will listen to your comments very closely.

CREDITS

BOOKS

Scholastic Children's Dictionary

A helpful resource to locate definitions.

A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman, A Picture Book of Frederick Douglas, Sojournor Truth

Biographies on some important Black Americans

INTERNET SITES

An internet site with dictionary help

http://dictionary.com

Aboard the Underground Railroad: A list of state sites with stations on the Underground Railroad. Just click on "List of States".

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/states.htm

Operating the Underground Railroad: Missouri's decision to enter the Union as a slave or free state?

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/opugrr.htm

Operating the Underground Railroad: Early Antislavery

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/antislav.htm

Encarta Encyclopedia offers an online resource for locating information. Just enter in the information you are looking for in "Search Encarta", and you are on your way.

http://encarta.msn.com

A Social Studies site with historical information. Just click on "Underground Railroad" and learn some interesting facts.

http://mmwww.northville.k12.mi.us/LOCAL/soc.htm

National Geographics Underground Railroad sight-travel the railroad here.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/j1.html

Now it is time to put your traveling hats and fancy eyeglasses because your adventures of the Underground Railroad are over, at least for now. I hope that you learned all that you could about the people and places that made the railroad a success for all the slaves dreaming about freedom. Be sure to hand in all of your materials and be ready to share your adventures through the...UNDERGROUND RAILROAD!

Last updated

March 2, 2004