Overview

Author

Audience

Objectives

Materials

Procedures

Extension

Evaluation

Appendix

Using Primary Documents while Teaching Huckleberry Finn

Lesson Overview

In the midst of teaching the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, I find it helpful for historical context and the students’ fuller understanding to use primary documents as supplements to the novel itself. I have embedded these documents at various stages of the novel and use them for various purposes, which I will explain.

Lesson Author

Name:	Le Cox
School:	Vinton-Shellsburg High School, Vinton, IA

Lesson Audience

Grade Level	11-12	# of Class Periods	Varies
Class	American Literature	Length of Period	60 min.

Objectives Back to Navigation Bar

Student will:

1. Note different kinds of appeals in rhetorical persuasion (logical, emotional, ethical), as well as, other stylistic choices made by the author.
2. Evaluated persuasive rhetoric for effectiveness.
3. Compare and contrast the character of Jim to real life slaves. Also evaluate Jim as a round or flat character.
4. Compare and contrast Huck and his motivations to help Jim with real people who helped fugitive slaves.
5. Will gain a little understanding of the antebellum time period through primary sources.

Materials Back to Navigation Bar

General

1. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (free ebook)
2. The Civil War by Ken Burns – section “All Night Forever” Chapter 3 and “Are We Free” Chapter 4, episode 1 “The Cause”

Online Resources (hyperlink)

1. Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Speech -

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=38&page=transcript

2. Frederick Douglas – July 5^th Speech - http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html

3. Alexander Stephens - Cornerstone Speech – http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=76

4. John Ross Miller – Fugitive Slave Information - http://www26.us.archive.org/stream/annalsiowa05parvgoog/annalsiowa05parvgoog_djvu.txt

5. Charlotta Pyles – Fugitive Slave Information - http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownhal/brownhal.html

6. Rev. John Todd – Reminiscences – http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cooverfamily/chapter_8.html

7. James Curry – Fugitive Slave Information - http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/curry/curry.html

Handouts (Handouts embedded in Appendix)

1. Evaluation for Speeches

2. “Challenges to Slavery” by Leonard F. Parker

3. “Slavery and the Lessons of Recent Events” by William Slater

4. Sarah Parker’s letter about Grinnell

5. Ed Heizer’s letter

6. Letter to Elvira Gaston Platt

7. Article “No Questions Asked”

8. Handout for Rescuers

Classroom Procedures Back to Navigation Bar

Prior Learning (background information, vocabulary)

The student will need to know:

1. The three types of appeals of persuasive rhetoric, as well as other stylistic choices made by authors of that rhetoric. (We have already introduced and evaluated this material in an earlier unit.

Activity 1: (Where these fall in the novel is completely up to the teacher. I will be inserting these in this order because of the way I teach H.F. How you insert these readings is completely up to you and your objectives.) Early on in the novel – maybe even before we start reading the novel.

1. Break up into five groups. Each group will receive a different speech.
2. The group will read their speech in class and then evaluate it using the rubric marked “Speech Evaluation” in the appendix. The speeches are Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural,” Alexander Stephens’ “Cornerstone Speech,” Frederick Douglas’ “July 5^th Speech,” William Salter’s sermon “Slavery and the Lessons of Recent Events,” and Leonard F. Parker’s sermon “Challenges to Slavery.” All of these I’ve either hyperlinked or have provided the transcript for in the materials section. Most of these are in their complete form. I will be not always use the whole piece, but I left it up to you to excerpt if you want.
3. They will be presenting their findings to the class. This might take some time so I would plan on having the presentations on a second day.

Activity 2: Comparing and Contrasting Jim with real fugitive slaves

1. Watch the beginning segment of documentary “The Civil War” by Ken Burns
2. Notes on Frederick Douglass – PowerPoint
3. For next class period everyone will read an excerpt from Frederick Douglass – the Covey incident. They will also read one of the following slave narratives – James Curry, Charlotta Gordon MacHenry Pyles, John Ross Miller. Some of these are in the handout section. Some are hyperlinked.
4. Each student will be writing a response comparing/contrasting Jim to these real people. Answering the question is Jim a realistic slave or a stereotype?
5. Small group/large group discussion the next day.
6. At the end of the book one of the essays for the test will include this material. I’ve included the rubric for that in the rubrics section.

Activity 3: Evaluating Huck’s motivation vs. real people (Since the articles are relatively short I will do this in only one class period – 60 min.)

1. Once again I want students to compare/contrast a character (Huck) to real life people. I again will jigsaw the articles – small groups; each group will have a different person who helped a fugitive slave escape. The people you use might depend on where you are – I tried to pick people with Iowa connections to help hook my students – Rev. John Todd, Sarah Parker, letter to Elvira Gaston Platt, Ed Heizer and article “No Questions Asked.”
2. Each group should read about their person and fill out the handout that asks questions about them.
3. Then they will report back to the main group. These reports will not be graded. I’m just using it for information only.

Extension Back to Navigation Bar

Evaluation Back to Navigation Bar

Rubrics

The rubric below may be used to grade the participants in Activity #1 presentation.

	Exceptional	Proficient	More Effort Needed
	10 pts	8 pts	3 pts
Topicality	Totally on topic; all parts of the assignment are fully addressed; everyone involved and part of presentation	Mostly on topic; all parts of the assignment are generally addressed OR one aspect of the assignment is not addressed; most of the group involved	Vaguely or not at all on topic; many parts of the assignment are not addressed or are only superficially addressed; one person says it all
	10 pts	8 pts	3 pts
Substance	Fully developed ideas with coherent reasoning and/or supporting examples	Ideas not completely developed; some sloppy reasoning or poorly selected examples	Ideas not developed; lacking sufficient detail to understand the thoughts behind the words
	5 pts	3.5 pts	1.5 pts
Clarity	Logical organization of ideas; complete sentences; presentation was easy to follow	Somewhat logical sequence of ideas; mostly complete sentences; presentation was not always easy to follow	Disorganized thoughts; the presentation was disorganized and difficult to follow

Creativity Bonus – You may earn up to 3 extra credit points for taking an exceptionally creative approach to the assignment or for being particularly insightful.

The rubric below may be used to grade the participants in Activity #2 Essay. Please note that I grade the essays as rough drafts, so the element for grammatical errors and spelling has been deleted. You may want to add it again.

GRADING RUBRIC for EXAM ESSAYS

An “A” essay:

• Answers the specific central question that was asked
• Incorporates pertinent and detailed information from both class discussion and assigned readings (whenever applicable), providing needed evidence.
• Maintains focus/avoids being sidetracked by tangents
• Presents all information clearly and concisely and in an organized manner
• Does much more than merely restate the question and offer a brief response

A “B” essay:

• Answers the specific central question asked, but not as well as an “A” essay
• Incorporates some information from class discussion and assigned readings, providing some necessary evidence, but less thoroughly and/or relevantly than an “A” essay
• Usually maintains focus, but may occasionally digress from the specific topic
• Presents information fairly clearly and concisely, and may have minor organization problems
• Does more than merely restate the question and offer a brief response

A “C” essay:

• Addresses the specific central question asked in part, but does not relate directly to the question or does not address all required elements
• Does not adequately incorporate information from class discussion and assigned readings, and may rely on unsupported statements or generalities
• Sometimes strays from the specific topic (more often than a “B” essay)
• Presents information in a manner that is sometimes unclear, and/or has significant organization problems
• May merely restate the question and offer a brief, undeveloped response

A “D” essay:

• Does not directly answer the specific central question asked
• Does not incorporate information from class discussion and assigned readings, or does so minimally and/or irrelevantly 
• Substantially digresses from the specific topic
• Has significant problems with clarity, concision, and organization, making the information presented difficult for the reader to understand
• May merely restate the question and offer an irrelevant or undeveloped response

An “F” essay:

• Does not answer the specific central question in any way
• Does not incorporate information from pertinent class discussion and/or assigned readings
• Provides no information that can be understood or related to the specific topic
• May lack any recognizable organization

Plusses and minuses may be used for finer-grain letter assignments.

Appendix Back to Navigation Bar