Module 3
Slavery - The People Could Fly
Anchor Text
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Below is a brief description of each unit we will cover in this module.
Click the units below to find copies of assignments and other information
In unit 1, we will begin by reading the folktale The People Could Fly, followed by a study of a variety of texts that will give background knowledge of slavery and abolitionists during the time period of when Frederick Douglass was alive. We will then take a close look at select chapters from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The mid-unit assessment will entail a reading of a short excerpt from the narrative followed by four text dependent questions. The end-unit assessment will test students on their knowledge of figurative language and ability to analyze a poem.
This unit is centered on the analysis of excerpts from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Students will read three excerpts, analyze how each excerpt served Douglass' purpose, and consider how he used language to convey meaning. Students will have continued practice with short constructed responses that use evidence from the text. The end of unit assessment is an essay in which students explain how the Narrative conveyed Douglass' purpose and distinguished his position from that of others. In addition, students develop a clearer understanding of how sentence are constructed, and they use this understanding to help them read and write.
In unit 3, students will write their own powerful story, using the Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery as a mentor text. They select one event from the Narrative and rewrite it as a picture book for younger students, making sure that the story they create is powerful, just as the stories they have been reading are powerful.