Abolitionist Museum

As a part of a cross curricular unit students in my regular class read several texts about slavery and the abolitionist movement.  Some of the text that we read were an excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas and an except from Harriet Tubman Conductor on the Underground Railroad.  After reading these two selections, the students selected an abolitionists to research.  For the research the students had three guided questions.  One, What did this person do as an abolitionist?  Two, why did he/she become an abolitionist? And three, how did he/she impact society?  After the students researched their selected abolitionist, they created a board builder via Discovery Education.  The students then took their learning a step further and synthesized the information into a one to two minute oral presentation.   Another teacher's eighth grade social studies class visited our Abolitionist Museum.  During their visit they listened to the presentations and asked the students questions about the abolitionists.

Project requirements

This project meets the redefinition stage of the SAM-R model.  While the focus of the lesson was certainly to develop guiding questions and to use research skills the students could not have accomplished this without the use of technology.  They used technology from start to finish.  They used various websites and SC Discus to complete their research and Discovery Education to comply their research.

Discovery Education Board Builder:

Recently, the students in my class read a self-selected novel or biography. As the students read the novel or biography they were instructed to think about the current events that the character or biography subject would have been interested in.  After completing the novel the students had to find online articles that represented their character or biography subjects interest.  Next, the students created a Board Builder in Discovery Education.  On their Board Builder, the students placed the links to their selected articles and then wrote a response for each article they selected.  For each response, the student had to explain, using textual evidence, why the character would have read the article and what the character's thoughts, opinions, and reactions to the article would have been.  

This task meets the requirements  for the redefinition portion of the SAM-R model.  The students  would not have been able to complete this task with out technology.  The students used various news websites, SC Discus, and other online sources.  Also, the students used technology to present their work.  All work was created, designed, and submitted through the use of Discovery Education's Board Builder tool.    

The assignment was also differentiated for my honors classes and my general class. Students in my honors classes had to select and respond to four articles and students in my general classes had to select and respond to two articles.  

Honors Assignment instructions 


General Assignment instructions

Student Board Builder sample one

Student Board Builder sample two

Student Board Builder sample three

Student Board builder sample four

Student Board Builder sample five

Student Board Builder sample six