Social Studies — Grade 8

Underground Railroad quilts: Fact or folklore?

In this lesson, students explore the controversy surrounding a book entitled Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, which was published as a non-fiction account of fugitive slaves sending coded messages through quilt patterns. Students evaluate numerous sources and assess the validity of each in an attempt to determine if the quilt codes are fact or folklore.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 11–12 Information Skills and Social Studies)

By Abby Stotsenberg.

Teaching about slavery through newspaper advertisements

In this lesson for grades 8 and 11, students will analyze a selection of advertisements related to slavery from an 1837 newspaper in order to enhance their understanding of antebellum North Carolina, U.S. history, and the history of American slavery.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 11 Social Studies)

By Kathryn Walbert.

Slavery across North Carolina

In this lesson for grade 8, students read excerpts from slave narratives to gain an understanding of how slavery developed in each region of North Carolina, and how regional differences created a variety of slave experiences.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

By Dayna Durbin Gleaves.

Mountain dialect: Reading between the spoken lines

This lesson plan uses Chapter 13 of Our Southern Highlanders as a jumping-off point to help students achieve social studies and English language arts objectives while developing an appreciation of the uniqueness of regional speech patterns, the complexities of ethnographic encounter, and the need to interrogate primary sources carefully to identify potential biases and misinformation in them. Historical content includes American slavery, the turn-of-the-century, and the Great Depression.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Kathryn Walbert.

An introduction to slave narratives: Harriet Jacobs' Life of a Slave Girl

This lesson is intended to enhance student knowledge about the life experiences of a slaves in America during the 1800s by using the story of a North Carolina slave woman who eventually escaped.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

By Joe Hooten.

Freedom with Harriet: Life on the Underground Railroad

This lesson for grades 6–8 will help students understand the experiences of slaves in the South who sought freedom via the Underground Railroad. Students will analyze a painting and create a living tableau that reflects the issues and emotions the painting evokes.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Dianne Harlow.

"For What Is a Mother Responsible?" -- Idealized motherhood vs. the realities of motherhood in antebellum North Carolina

In this lesson for grade 8, students analyze a newspaper article about motherhood from a North Carolina newspaper in 1845 and compare it to descriptions of motherhood from other contemporary sources. Students will also compare these antebellum descriptions to the modern debates over mothers' roles in American society.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

By Kathryn Walbert.

Exploring the church in the southern black community

Students explore the Documenting the American South Collection titled, the “Church in the Southern Black Community.” Beginning with a historian's interpretation of the primary sources that make up the collection, students search the collection for evidence to describe the experiences of African Americans living in the south during the Antebellum through the Reconstruction Period centering on their community churches. The activity culminates in student presentations of a digital scrap book.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 11–12 Social Studies)

By Meghan Mcglinn.

Creating museum exhibits to understand slavery

In this lesson students will analyze primary source documents from the Built Heritage collection at the North Carolina State University. They will use their textbooks, knowledge of history, observation skills, and inference to draw conclusions about slavery in North Carolina.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

By Loretta Wilson.

Resources on the web

Would you have helped out?

Students will investigate the dangers faced by escaping slaves and their helpers on the Underground Railroad. Students consider whether they would have helped the escaping slaves. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts, Guidance, Information Skills, and Social Studies)

Provided by: National Geographic