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To Tell the Truth...or The Truth About Sojourner Truth_LP1YR3
Carlene Jennings
Overview of The Abolitionist & Suffrage Movements
In this lesson, students will begin to examine the main ideas of the abolitionist and suffrage movements. They will read biographical information about Sojourner Truth and discuss their interpretations of her quotations. They will explain the significance of her address to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention.
American Speeches: Political Oratory From The Revolution To The Civil War, New York: The Library of America, 2006, 524-525.
Callella, Trisha, Integrating American History With Reading Instruction(Huntington Beach: Creative Teaching Press, 2002), 45.
Sweeney, Jacqueline, Incredible Quotations(New York: Scholastic, 1997), 16-25.
Computer(s) with internet access
4 sticky notes or 4 blank pieces of paper per student
Links to biographical information websites:http://www.sojournertruth.org/,http://www.okwdpl.org/trut-soj.html,http://www.womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/truth.html
Links to websites with speech to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention:
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4972
http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/sojourner-truth.htm
50 minutes
1Y3
What was the significance of Sojourner Truth's Address to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention?
Write on the board:
Unscramble the name of this woman who was born into slavery and spoke against slavery and for women's rights:
REOJONURS RUHTT
Answer: SOJOURNER TRUTH
Ask provocative questions such as, "Do you think that women are by nature weak and inferior to men? Why or why not? Should women have the same rights as men? Should women be allowed to vote? Did you know that one hundred years ago women did not have the right to vote in the United States?"
Tell students that they are going to look and listen for three interesting facts that are true about Sojourner Truth such as the fact that she was both an abolitionist and a suffragist. They are to write these 'truths' or facts on three of their sticky notes as they read about her (on handouts and/or websites) , and they are to write their answers to the essential question on the fourth sticky note.
Provide students with biographical information about Sojourner Truth that they will use to look for their facts to write on their three sticky notes. (The teacher may wish to use the linked file with biographical information, and/or links to websites, nonfiction books,or an encyclopedia article with biographical information.)
Links to biographical information websites:
http://www.sojournertruth.org/,http://www.okwdpl.org/trut-soj.html,http://www.womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/truth.html
The teacher might say, "Now let's pretend that we are getting aboard a time-travel ship. We are going back in time and our time-travel ship has landed in Akron, Ohio, on May 29, 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. What do you think we will see there? What will we hear? One person we will see and hear is Sojourner Truth. When a man at the convention said that women are weak, she stood up quickly and answered the man. Her convention address with its refrain, 'Ain't I a woman?' called new attention to the prevailing view of a woman's place. Let's 'listen' for her main ideas."
Have students read her speech to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. (See link to website http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4972 or The Library of America volume listed in materials.)
Sojourner Truth: Ain't I A Woman? speech links: http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4972
http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/sojourner-truth.htm
After reading the speech, ask students to dramatize and/or read some of her quotations aloud with expression. Discuss the quotations. Such as:
"I'm a self-made woman." -(question for students: What do you think she meant?)
"Look at me! Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me-and ar'n't I a woman?"-(quote from Sojourner Truth's speech to the Women's Rights Convention in Library of America book on page 524)
(Possible questions for discussion: What kind of person would make statements like these? Would you label these activities as 'men's 'work' or 'women's work'? What other tasks have traditionally been labeled as 'feminine' or 'masculine'? Do you agree or disagree with these labels?)
Allow students to share the three 'truths' or facts that they wrote about Sojourner Truth on their sticky notes with a partner or small group. Review the essential question and have them write their answers on their sticky notes as their "tickets out the door."
The teacher may wish to use the sticky notes for a display on a bulletin board or poster.
Sources:
Callella, Trisha, Integrating American History With Reading Instruction (Huntington Beach: Creative Teaching Press, 2002), 45.
Sweeney, Jacqueline, Incredible Quotations (New York: Scholastic, 1997), 16-25.
Links to biographical information websites:
http://www.sojournertruth.org/
http://www.okwdpl.org/trut-soj.html
http://www.womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/truth.html
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