What+Would+You+Do?

Back to Assignments and Handouts What would you do? Decisions on the Path to Freedom  High School Lesson Plan for the Underground Railroad  Kathryn Wineland  History shows us that doing the right thing is not always easy. Those who make history have faced situations where the answers are not clearly simple. They have had to make risky choices, which sometimes, though not always, pay off.

 For today’s lab, you’ll need to try on the shoes of several different people who lived some time prior to the civil war. You will read a basic scenario and be asked how you would respond in the situation. You will be given a few ideas to ponder before making your final choice. For each decision you make, you will have to clearly justify why you took those actions. You will want to compose a minimum healthy paragraph as a response to each—acknowledging why the choice you picked is superior to other options. If you do not like any of the suggested responses, you are free to create your own so long as it is realistic and you justify your actions. Also note that some of the choices may overlap, so if you need to take multiple actions, then feel free to do so. Always keep in mind the advantages and disadvantages of each action. Make sure you address some of these advantages and disadvantages in your response.

 Following your response, you will learn of someone in the past who experienced a scenario similar to the one you faced. You will read to discover how they responded to the circumstance. In some cases, you will read primary sources and be asked a few questions to guide you in evaluating this person’s actions.

 At the end of the lab, you will review your responses. As a class, we will conduct a discussion, analyzing the many hard choices people had to make along the road to freedom.  Scenario 1