Calvert County Public Schools

Instructional Lesson Plan

English Language Arts
Grade:
Length:

4
Unit Title: Intro to Pathways to Freedom
4 lessons

Lesson Overview:
This Media Integration Lesson will teach the concepts of Primary and Secondary Resources.
Students will use the resource, Thinkport, Pathways to Freedom to learn about and/or reinforce
their understanding of the Underground Railroad.
Students will analyze both primary and secondary resources within Thinkport to determine
What one little person can do.
Topical Question:
How do primary and secondary resources help us understand the past?
Student Outcomes:
Students will learn that we can use primary resources of the past to help us analyze events
and make decisions today.
CCSS Grade Level Standards Applicable to Lesson: (include the strand, number and
complete descriptor; see below)

Reading Informational Text

RI.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
RI.4.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.
RI.4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including
what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
RI.4.5 Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of
events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.
Writing
W.4.6 With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and
publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of
keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.
W.4.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a
topic.
W.4.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital
sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.
Speaking and Listening
SL4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led)
with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly.
SL4.2 Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats,

Grade 4 ELA Unit: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Media Lesson Plans

including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

Materials:
Witness PowerPoint, page 3 of PowerPoint- prepared, page 5 of PowerPoint- copied for
students,
song lyrics: What One Person Can Do,
website: Thinkport/Pathways to Freedom.org
1-Media Specialist Planning and Preparation:
a. Collaborate with classroom teachers to ensure relevant timing of lesson.
b. Read the entire lesson plan prior to teaching the lesson.
c. Have Witness PowerPoint available for Smart board.
d. Copy page 2 and cut into strips for students.
e. Bookmark Thinkport website on all student computers and Smart board.
f. Preview all tabs and interactives on the Thinkport website. NOTE: Charles Balls narrative
has a content alert.
2-Strategies:
Think/Pair/Share strategy will be used in table teams, not necessarily in pairs.
3-Differentiation:
a. This website has a read aloud function so students can listen to the text and not be
hindered by reading ability/text complexity.
b. Students can work with a partner as they navigate the website.

Lesson Pre- Assessment: (Will not assess until Day 2)

Oral discussion> What is the Underground Railroad?
> If it was so secret, how do we know it even existed?
Lesson Procedure:
Day 1 (30 minutes)
>On Smartboard, show students slide 1 of the Witness PowerPoint.
Ask: What happened? Have students Think/Pair/Share in their table teams to come up with an
idea of what may have happened. Allow 3-5 minutes of discussion time.
Share ideas.
Ask: How do we know what really happened? We had a lot of guesses based on the picture but
who would investigators need to talk to?
>Pass out 2 or 3 witness slips to each table. They will discuss as a team if the person
represented on their slip will be a credible witness and why. Allow 3-5 minutes of discussion
time.
Using page 2 of PowerPoint, go through each scenario and have the students tell if theres was
a credible witness or not and why. Mark an X or a on the table as you go through each
scenario.
>Conclusion: just as each credible witness of the accident had to be a person who was there
and had first-hand knowledge of it, so are our primary resources.
>On slide 3 of PowerPoint, go through examples of primary and secondary resources.
Closure: next week we will look at some primary and secondary resources on the computer.
Day 2 (30 minutes)
>Pre-assessment discussion.
>On Smart board, demo the Thinkport Pathways to Freedom website by showing students
each tab on the left and the options and interactives available for each.
>Highlight the questions on the About the Underground Railroad tab and show that the
answer is found by clicking on the question. Look at the answer to #1 to compare with some
of their answes to the pre-assessment.
Grade 4 ELA Unit: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Media Lesson Plans

>Also highlight the Eyewitness to History tab. Each person listed on the right has a narrative
from their diaries or journals that students can listen to. Remind them that this is a Primary
Resource. **Do NOT allow them to listen to Charles Bell. There is a warning that content may
not be appropriate for students. It describes a brutal torture.
The students will explore this website on their own so the purpose of this is to show them the
many aspects of the site so they can navigate it later.
Closure- Next week you will explore the Pathways website on your own.
Day 3 (30-40 minutes- will depend on if you do rotations to the computers or if the whole
class can access a computer at the same time.)
>Show and explain recording sheet on page 5 of PowerPoint.
>Students will explore the website, using the read aloud function and interactive activities.
You can have them sit with a partner and explore together or takes turns at the computers.
When they have 5 minutes left, they need to go to the witness tab and list to one of the
narratives and answer question on the recording sheet.
Closure- Next week we will discuss what you learned and recorded from the website.
Day 4 (30 minutes)
>Pass out recording sheets. Share some of their responses.
>Ask: How does what we learned about slavery and the Underground Railroad relate to today?
>Why did the conductors of the Underground Railroad risk their lives to help strangers? What
lesson can we learn from them?
Lesson Post-Assessment:
Informal observation of student use of Thinkport website as noted in unit lessons.

Lesson Closure: Listen to the song, What Can One Little Person Do on slides 6 and 7.
We learned a lot about how the acts of one little person could help many slaves escape to
freedom. Think about what one little person can do to help people today (bullying would be a
great example).

Grade 4 ELA Unit: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Media Lesson Plans