A Day in the Life of Me: Grateful to be

Free, A Day in the Life of you: Things I

Never Knew.
A WebQuest for 5th Grade Social Studies
Designed by
Amanda Kincaid
amandakincaid.ak@gmail.com

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher Page

Introduction
Freedoms to speak, to learn, to choose, among many others, are all freedoms
that were fought for. To you, these things are just a regular part of your life, but
there were times, when these things were not so, for many. It is time to gain a
new perspective, a perspective of someone who was once not free. Slavery in
America lasted for quite some time. It is hard to imagine a time like this, so we
will explore the many aspects of what life was like during this time in American
history. You will write a two-perspective journal, including several entries about
the days in your own life, as well as the days in the life of a slave. You will play
the role of both yourself and of a slave. While most slaves did not know how to
read or write, you will pretend be one of the few slaves who were literate (able to
read and write).
You will describe what freedom means to you, while learning all about slavery in
America, and the fight to become free. You will explore different times and learn
about the hardships and difficulties that those who were enslaved had to live.
You will also learn about the Civil War, the anti-slavery war, fought within our

country. What does it mean to be free or to live in a country where we are

allowed to be free? What was life like as a slave? How did slaves become free
people? What was the Civil War?

The Task
You will use your new knowledge about slavery and the Civil War to create a
comparative journal depicting or describing the life of yourself, to that of a slave,
during these harsh times in our nations history.
You will have gained a new perspective and respect for this period in America
when freedom did not come so easily, to many. Appreciation for the freedoms we
all have because we are Americans in todays America will be discovered. You will
accomplish this through various research on the Web, watching videos on
YouTube, and using interactive sites that I have found for you. Additionally, you
and 3 partners will choose an appropriate book from our classroom library to
read together, for fun and to help you put your new knowledge to use.
You will write a summary of 5-7 sentences about what you have learned about
the cost of freedom, and the processes that lead up to such freedom.

The Process
To accomplish this task you will each do the following, in this order:
1. Explore the timeline of slavery in America using this interactive site.
2. Discover and learn about the Civil War and how it all began using the
timeline in this link.
3. Read a book with 3 assigned partners from our classroom library.
4. Watch a video on YouTube about slavery.
5. Watch another brief video about the slave trade process as well as
one that will tell you about the harsh punishment the slaves endured,
or went through.
6. We will compare our freedoms today, to being enslaved as an African
American during these times. This step will include learning about
the Underground Railroad.

7. Listen to the voices of slaves about their experiences as slaves.

8. Design a journal including 5 entries about your life, from your own
perspective, prompted with a beginning sentence that I have written
for you.
9. Design a journal including 5 entries from the perspective of a slave
during these times. These too will be prompted with a beginning
sentence that I have written for you.
10. Last, you will write a 7-10 sentence paragraph about what learned
about this time in our nations history. Then you will briefly describe
what freedom means to you, and the 3 things that you are most
grateful to be free to do. This summary should include what the Civil
War was about and what the outcome was.

Evaluation
This is the rubric by which you will be individually evaluated. It will be based on
a point system ranging from 1-20 points. You will be evaluated in the described
areas earning a maximum of 4 points per area, and a minimum of 1 point, based
on your work and efforts. A 4 in each area is the desired score for each section,
while a 1 in any given area is the least of the points earned, in a given area. If
you earn between 16 and 20 points, you will receive the letter grade of an A. If
you earn between 11 and 15 points, you will earn the letter grade of a B. If you
receive between 6 and 10 points, you will earn the letter grade of a C. If you
receive between 1 and 5 points, you will earn the letter grade of a D.

The student
performed all
assigned tasks to
learn the material
and did so in the
appropriate order.

Beginning

Developing

Accomplished

Exemplary

The student
The student
performed very performed
few tasks and several tasks,
did not follow but did not
the given
follow the
order.
given order.

The student
performed
most of the
tasks, in the
given order.

The student
performed
each assigned
task and did so
in the given
order.

Score

The student
participated in their
group reading
selected from the
class library.

The student wrote 5

journal entries from
their own perspective
and 5 from the
perspective of a slave

The student
The student did participated
not participate very little in
in the group
the group
reading and
reading and
selecting of the selecting of the
group book.
book, with my
prompting.

The student
The student
fully
fully
participated in
participated in the group
the reading and reading and
selecting of the selecting of the
book with my book on their
prompting
own, without
my prompting.

The student
wrote 2 journal
entries from
their own
perspective
and 2 of from
the perspective
of the slave.

The student
The student
wrote all 5
wrote 4 journal
journal entries
entries from
from their own
their own
perspective
perspective and
and all 5 of
4 of from the
from the
perspective of
perspective of
the slave.
the slave.

The student
wrote 3 journal
entries from
their own
perspective
and 3 of from
the perspective
of the slave.

The students
entries were
somewhat
The students journal The students
creative, but
entries were creative entries were
were not
and well written, with very brief and
written with
poorly written.
proper use of
proper
grammar and
grammar or
spelling.
spelling.

The students
summary of what
they learned and
what freedom means
to them was well
written with proper
grammar and
spelling, and
indicated an
understanding of the

The students
entries were
creative and
well written,
with a few
grammatical
errors.

The students The students The students

summary was summary was summary was
poorly written written fairly
well written
with many
well, but still
with few errors
grammatical
did not indicate and indicated
and spelling
an
some
errors. Student understanding understanding
did not indicate of the lesson. of the lesson.
an
understanding
of the lesson.

The students
entries were
very creative
and well
written with
proper
grammar and
no spelling
errors.
The students
summary was
very well
written without
errors and
indicated a
complete
understanding
of the lesson.

lesson.

Conclusion
Now, after doing this assignment, you understand how different your life is from
that of a slaves life. You now have a new appreciation for the basic freedoms,
such as the freedom to choose, to read books, to attend school and learn, etc.
You understand the timeline of events that took place and can summarize how
slavery began in America. You can describe the harsh conditions that the slaves
lived in, as well as describe what the Civil War was and what they outcome of
that war turned out to be. You are able to compare and contrast the life that you
are free to live versus the life that a slave was forced to live. Freedom is a
beautiful gift of our nation, isnt it? Sometimes, in order to really understand our
nations history and all that took place, it takes learning things from the
perspective of those who lived during a different time than we live. When the
shoe is on the other foot, we really begin to understand how times have changed
and how grateful we should really be that we are given the freedom to live our
lives how we want and that we are allowed choices. You never knew reading a
book and learning was actually a privilege did you? Now we know, there were
many hardships endured by others that have allow us to be free Americans,
today.

Credits & References

Thank you to all the wonderful sites we were FREE to use, in order to help us
learn. Thank you YouTube, Pbs.org, and Radford.edu for your help with our
journey to learn about slavery and the Civil War!
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/memories/index_flash.html

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/index.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvnrhRhwotQ
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/index.html
http://www.radford.edu/~sbisset/civilwar.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NXC4Q_4JVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pud5WgDlGc0

Last updated on August 15, 1999. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page