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    African American Spirituals

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    Subject: Social Studies

    Lesson Length: 50 - 55 mins

    Topic: Underground Railroad

    Grade Level: 5

    Standards / Framework:

    Brief Description: Students will learn how some African American spirituals became necessary for exchanging secret messages among fugitive slaves for safe movement along the Underground Railroad.

    Know Before You Start: Before you begin, prepare to play several African American spirituals, including Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Print the lyrics to several of these songs for the class, linked below. 

    Hook:

    • Play the Swing Low, Sweet Chariot spiritual for your class. 

    • Explain that during the time of the Underground Railroad, songs such as these included secret codes which helped slaves escape to the North. Some spirituals served as maps, some gave directions, while others warned of danger.

    • Play the song a second time. Have students listen for hidden meanings or codes. 

    • When the song is done, ask them to turn to their partner and share what hidden meanings or codes they figured out. 

    • As a class, discuss the coding found in the words; emphasizing words/phrases with dual meanings.

    Activity:

    • Introduce the following vocabulary:
      • Underground Railroad
      • spiritual
      • enslavement
      • slavery
      • codes
      • decoding
      • faith
      • religion
      • fugitive
    • Share the lyrics of several spirituals and have students select one.
      • Can they find any codes?
      • What hidden meanings might the lyrics convey? 

    • Read and discuss the sample comic, and have students work in groups to create a comic that decodes this African American spiritual.

    • The comic should convey the hidden message from the spiritual they believe the fugitive slaves might have used to guide them along the Underground Railroad.

    Closure:

    • Conduct a gallery walk for students to view the other groups’ decoding.
    • Give students the opportunity to listen to the song each group used.
    • Discuss the spirituals further:
      • How did spirituals help to preserve African culture during slavery?
      • How can lyrics of spirituals reflect personal meanings?

    Differentiation:

    • Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
    • Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.

    Resources:

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