Lisa B. Randle
College of Charleston
randlel@cofc.edu
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College of Charleston Honors College
College Reads!
◦ The Known World by Edward P. Jones
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Ellen and William Craft
Avery Research Center for African American
History & Culture
◦ Craft/Crum Collection
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Four 45-minute classes
Four week period
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Week
Week
Week
Week
1:
2:
3:
4:
Introduction & Comprehension Strategy
Readers’ Theatre
Found poetry writing
Graphic Illustration
Honors mentors role assigned classes
◦ Lead identified parts of the curriculum
◦ Share their love of literacy
◦ Share experiences as college students
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To cultivate fourth grade students’ love of
reading through social studies
Themes
◦ Mistreatment of African Americans
◦ Sense of Community for Freed/Escaped Slaves
◦ Perseverance
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Social Studies
Standards
◦ SC History – 3rd Grade
◦ Slavery
◦ Abolitionist Movement
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ELA Standards
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Books
◦ The Known World (novel)
◦ Running a Thousand Miles to Freedom
(autobiography)
◦ Ellen Craft’s Escape from Slavery (picture book)
◦ The Brave Escape of Ellen and William Craft (graphic
novel)
Primary Sources Documents from the
Craft/Crum Collection
Objects
Curriculum
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4-2: The students will demonstrate an
understanding of the settlement of North
America by Native Americans, Europeans, and
African Americans and the interactions
among these people.
◦ Indicator 4-2.6: Explain the impact of indentured
servitude and slaves on lives in the New World and
the contributions of African slaves to the
development of the American colonies, including
farming techniques, cooking styles, and languages.
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4-6: The student will demonstrate an
understanding of the Civil War and its impact on
America.
◦ Indicator 4-6.1: Compare the industrial North and the
agricultural South prior to the Civil War including the
specific nature of the economy of each region, the
geographic characteristics and boundaries of each
region, and the basic way of life in each region.
◦ Indicator 4-6.2: Summarize the roles and
accomplishments of the leaders of the abolitionist
movement and the Underground Railroad before and
during the Civil War, including those of Harriet Tubman,
John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
and William Lloyd Garrison
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4-1: The student will read and comprehend a
variety of literary texts in print and non-print
formats.
◦ Indicator 4-1.1: use information from text to draw
conclusions and make inferences
◦ Indicator 4-1.4: understand character traits and motives,
theme, and main ideas
◦ Indicator 4-1.6: understand the effect of author’s craft
including word choice, figurative language, and dialogue
on meaning
◦ Indicator 4-1.7: create responses to text through a
variety of methods such as writing, creative dramatics,
and visual and performing arts
◦ Indicator 4-1.9: paraphrase text to demonstrate
understanding of the main ideas
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4-2: The student reads and comprehends print and
non-print information.
◦ Indicator 4-2.1: analyze evidence which supports the
central idea
◦ Indicator 4-2.2: use information within and across texts to
draw conclusion and inferences
◦ Indicator 4-2.3: use text features including titles, print
styles, chapter headings, caption, subheadings, and white
space
◦ Indicator 4-2.4: use text structures such as tables of
contents, glossary, index, and appendices.
◦ Indicator 4-2.5: interpret graphic features
◦ Indicator 4-2.6: create responses to text through a variety
of methods such as writing, creative dramatics, and visual
and performing arts
◦ Indicator4-2.9: analyze text to locate cause and effect
relationship
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4-4: The student creates writing which includes a clear
focus, cohesive organization, sufficient elaboration,
effective voice, and appropriate use of conventions
◦ Indicator 4-4.1: use pre-writing strategies such as graphic
organizers, brainstorming, and literary models
◦ Indicator 4-4.3: create writing that maintains focus across
multiple paragraphs
◦ Indicator 4-4.4: use a variety of words to make writing precise
and vivid
◦ Indicator 4-4.5: use transitional devices; future verb tenses;
adverbs of time, place, manner and degree; conjunctions (while,
although, when); nominative and objective pronoun cases; and
pronoun-antecedent agreement in writing
◦ Indicator 4-4.7: use previously learned revision strategies to
enhance meaning, clarity, tone, and progression of ideas
◦ Indicator 4-4.8: use proofreading to edit for previously learned
conventions
◦ Indicator 4-4.9: integrate expanding vocabulary from reading and
listening into writing
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4-5: The student will write for a variety of
purposes and audiences
◦ Indicator 4-5.2: create descriptive writing
◦ Indicator 4-5.3: create reflective writing
◦ Indicator 4-5.4: create narratives using dialogue
and a specific point of view (first and third person)
◦ Indicator 4-5.5: create expository writing such as
biographies and content-area reports
◦ Indicator 4-5.6: create writing such as plays and
songs
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Texts for Students
◦ Ellen Craft’s Escape from Slavery by Cathy Moore
◦ The Brave Escape of Ellen and William Craft by
Donald B. Lemke
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Primary Source Documents
Objects
◦ Cotton boll, powdered ink, chocolate brick, glasses,
sling, compass, etc.
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Christmas just meant more work
Bone tired
Slaves had no freedom
Travel many miles and fool many people
They had to try
Ellen asked for two tickets
The railroad officer looked serious
What would a man do? He would not be afraid
It was Philadelphia!
We will never be slaves again
Finally we are safe
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You have just created your own Found Poem
Please be brave and share what you have
created
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Story of Ellen and William Craft:
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Readers’ Theatre:
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Teaching using graphic novels:
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Found Poetry:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-GreatEscape-From-Slavery-of-Ellen-and-William-Craft.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyPZB5hnPc (video created by
students)
http://www.literacyconnections.com/ReadersTheater.php
http://bms.westport.k12.ct.us/mccormick/rt/RTHOME.htm
http://teachinggraphicnovels.blogspot.com/2009/05/nctes-tipsfor-teaching-with-graphic.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=teaching+with+graphic+novels&
ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5780
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lessonplans/poetry-from-prose-49.html
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Bogin, R., Loewenberg, B. J. (1978). Black women in the nineteenth-century American
life. Pennsylvania State University Press, 104-126.
McCaskill, B. (1994). “Yours very truly”: ellen craft—the fugitive as text and artifact.
African American Review, 28 (4), 509-521.
“William and Ellen Craft (1824-1900: 1826-1891)” The New Georgia Encyclopedia
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-622
R. J. M. Blackett, Beating Against the Barriers: Biographical Essays in Nineteenth-Century
Afro-American History (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1986).
Sarah Brusky, "The Travels of William and Ellen Craft: Race and Travel Literature in the
Nineteenth Century," Prospects 25 (2000): 177-91.
William and Ellen Craft, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: The Escape of William
and Ellen Craft from Slavery (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999).
Barbara McCaskill, "Ellen Craft: The Fugitive Who Fled as a Planter," in Georgia Women:
Their Lives and Times, vol. 1., ed. Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood (Athens: University
of Georgia Press, 2009).
Ellen Samuels, "'A Complication of Complaints': Untangling Disability, Race, and Gender
in William and Ellen Craft's Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom," MELUS 31 (fall
2006): 15-47.
Dorothy Sterling, Black Foremothers: Three Lives (Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press,
1998).
Daneen Wardrop, "Ellen Craft and the Case of Salomé Muller in Running a Thousand
Miles for Freedom," Women's Studies 33 (2004): 961-84.
Patricia Williams Lessane
Education & Outreach Coordinator
Avery Research Center
College of Charleston
66 George Street
Charleston, SC 29424
(843) 953-7234
lessanepw@cofc.edu