Lesson Plan

March 24, 2011
Instructors/Teachers: Mr. Ralph, Ms. Natalie,
Ms. Vanessa, Mr. Yahya, Ms. Angelina
E6H
Period. 6

Lesson Plan

Objectives (Students will be able to):
1) Understand the Fugitive Slave Act and relate it to Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
2) Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individual, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

Aim: What effects did the Fugitive Slave Act have on slavery?

Do Now: Write a five sentence journal entry about if you were a runaway slave. What hardships would you face? Where would you plan to escape to? What would you do if you were captured?

Procedures:

• Have students do Do Now and share out
• Go over the Fugitive Slave Act and describe what it was.
• Ask class questions to answer.
• Talk about runaway slaves and compare to Harriet Jacob’s life.
• Give out Venn Diagram handout on comparing and contrasting Harriet Jacob’s life to Fugitive Slave Act.
• Give examples of what should be on Venn Diagram
• Have the students share out their answers
• End class with homework assignment

Mini Lesson: Fugitive Slave Act and Harriet Jacobs
I. Fugitive Slave Act:
a. Encouraged all people to hunt down and aid in the capture of runaway slaves.
b. Created a much greater animosity between the blacks and whites of the time period.
c. Gave an excuse for racist violence to carry on in the excuse of maintaining the act’s parameters.


II. Harriet Jacobs:

1. Young African American woman whom was born into slavery.
2. Went from a serene environment with her female master, to a hostile environment with the doctor.
3. Eluded the slave acts and hid with her grandmother to escape the reach of the racism and eventually raised children.

Small Group Learning: Compare the life of Harriet Jacob to the life of a runaway slave before the Fugitive Slave Act

Homework: Pretend you were living in the 1850’s, would you have helped runaway slaves or not? Explain in a well developed paragraph.

Sources Cited:
http://www.fortat4.com/education/printact/comparisons/Making%20Comparisons4.jpg
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/fugitive-slave-law.htm
http://www.harrietjacobs.org/bio.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2923.html

Fugitive Slave Act

Fugitive slaves acts were made to hurt runaway slaves in anyway possible. These laws were made throughout the 1800s to encourage whites to report and do whatever means necessary to aid in the help of the capture of slaves. these laws made escape much harder for the runaway slaves and they were sought after and hunted like animals. Revolution was growing in the eyes of the slaves who were losing hope in freedom because the evils of slavery were making it impossible for that shot at redemption. Rewards for capturing runaway slaves were quite common while punishments to instill fear were guaranteed to those who aided or even avoided an opportunity to capture a slave.

Slavey In The Northern Setting

Slavery is notorious for being centered in the south but little do most people know is that slavery was a major aspect of the northern way of life. Slavery was originally everywhere but as the nation advanced and views varied the north attempted to eradicate the institution. Even though the north attempted to hide their involvement in the evils of slavery they still were involved. the north was the industry and the supplies and goods came from the plantations to grow on the land in the south. The north needed the goods in order to create business so even if they denied slavery, they had a direct involvement through economics. Abolitionist made it hard for slavery to exist peacefully. The north made itself safe for slaves so the north became a beacon of salvation to runaway slaves who dreamed of freeing the opression they were entagled in and escaping to the north but fugitive slave laws made this dream harder than anticipated.

Plantation Life

The plantation was the place where thousands o0f slaves would work and bleed in the hot sun to make life easier for the white man. The plantation was where the crops and raw goods were grown to be manufactured and slaves were the manual labor that insured the products were cultivated. If a slave were to slack or become tired most often the owners would become enraged and attack and beat the slaves senselessly. This is why slavery is considered evil because of the forced labor and the evil and cruel beating that went on during this time. The harsh mentality of the slave owners is what cause a major outbreak and force to create an abolition movement.

Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs was a strong woman who had to deal with the violent and deadly situation of slavery in the 1800s. Harriet was born into slavery in the year 1813 and was sold and ended up with a good natured woman. Harriet was shielded from the major evils and torture of slavery but when the owner died, she was passed down to a much darker and sexually abusive owner by the name of Dr. Flint. Harriet was then put in a situation where her life and safety put in jeopardy. From then escape and salvation where in her eyes. She ended up having a romance and having several children who she fought and suffered to do whatever she could to save them from the life of slavery. Through her pain and anguish she wrote a biography titled "Incidents In The Life Of a Slave Girl" which revealed the horrors of slavery and what she went through to capture what we take for granted.

Symbol

Symbol
: What do the "dead walls" and Bartleby's "dead wall reveries" represent?
What's the significance of the setting? Why is it a story
of "Wall Street"?
Why do Turkey and Nipper have nicknames, but the Boss is never named, and we never learn Bartleby's first name?
What's in a name?

The dead walls represent Bartleby's mental entrapment. The setting of wallstreet is a center of commerce and money but also it is not a heartfelt job and it is very cold and straight to the point. The other clerks have nicknames to represent stereotypes or just a difference from the norm while the boss represents power and the leader which a name is not needed to replace his title as leader. Bartleby is alost soul and a first name reflects a person much deeper while a last name carries on. a name is an identity which in essence Bartleby has lost.

Ambiguity

Ambiguity: 
Exactly why does Bartleby always "prefer not to"? Why can't he make friends, or communicate? What's at the heart of his
rebellion? Why doesn't he quit and get a different job?
Why does the Boss have sympathy for Bartleby?
What else in the story seems open
to individual readers' interpretation?

Bartleby is very hurt in his mental state he is dead inside, he can't communicate because in a way he has lost hope in himself and humanity.Bartleby wont quit because this job because he doesn't have to talk much with others and this is good for him because he is lost himself. The boss has sympathy for Bartleby because he sees a young man who is conflicting with himself and has issues that even time couldn't mend. The reader sees that even though he is annoying with his preferences and mood there is a deeper meaning and problem behind his sorrow.

Ambiguity

Ambiguity: 
Exactly why does Bartleby always "prefer not to"? Why can't he make friends, or communicate? What's at the heart of his
rebellion? Why doesn't he quit and get a different job?
Why does the Boss have sympathy for Bartleby?
What else in the story seems open ?

Bartleby prefers not to do anything that includes social activities he cant communicate because his spirit is dead inside of him. He is sick of sorrow and the sadness in life . Bartleby likes the job because he wants to avoid contact. The boss feels Bartleby has no existence and feels bad about his lost soul but the story also explores the boss' problems and how he becomes defensive toward these actions.

Paradox

Paradox
: Bartleby is stubborn, self-absorbed, rebellious, and insubordinate, yet many readers, and even the narrator, the Boss himself,
have a deep sympathy for him. Why?
Others?

The sympathy for Bartleby comes from his loss of life. That this character is completely lost and destroyed from a cruel and sad world that he has lost his humanity. readers may feel that he has died inside which is very sad that a person's life was dominated by sorrow and remorse

Irony

Irony
: The Boss doesn't recognize that his own passiveness is as persistent and frustrating as Bartleby's. Or that his genteel, self-
interested interest in Bartleby is leading to no good.
Can you think of other ironies?

Other ironies is that Bartleby is full of sorrow that he loses interest in his work and this causes the boss to feel sorry for someone who doesnt care about anyone or anything and eventually this isolation that Bartleby has created ends up to be the death of him.

Meaning (Theme)

Meaning (Theme) : 
Does the story leave you thinking anything? Feeling anything? What do you make out of it all?
Passive aggressive
people are difficult to accommodate, difficult to ignore.
Passive resistance is a radical form of rebellion. 
Offices, where Americans spend
the greater part of their lives, are not democracies.
Have a life outside work! Don't expect your occupation to bear the burden of your
existence.
What other ideas does the story suggest to you?

The story made me see that the word can be a depressing place and this sadness can destroy a person and make him less than human and in essence destroy his soul. The story tells us that in a world of sadness a person can lose their humanity and like bartleby function like a soulless machine with no emotion just cold and mechanical functionality. The ideal of isolation of the mind is widely expressed.

Plot Exposition

Plot
Exposition:-what background information does the narrator relate that gives us a greater understanding of the events unfolding?
Why does the information about Bartleby's previous employment come at the end of the story rather than at the beginning?
Complication-
how does the Boss react when Bartleby repeatedly refuses to perform his duties? How does his reaction intensify? What is the Boss's
dilemma?
Climax-Where do you feel the events reach their pinnacle? Where is the conflict most intense, the clash most "explosive"?

Resolution-What's the outcome of the explosion? 
Epiphany-who has gained insight in this story, Bartleby or the Boss, or anybody?

We find that Bartleby worked in a dead letters office in a post office sorting mail that cannot be sent.

the ending information is placed there because that is the mystery behind the story that kept the readers wondering why he is twisted. The boss became agitated with Bartleby and tried to fire him but could not succeed so when things failed he moved to evade Bartleby. the Boss cannot escape Bartleby. The story becomes most explosive when the boss leaves the office and Bartleby is stuck behind and slowly starts to wither away and die. The boss becomes enlightned by Bartleby and the misery that surrounded him.

Point of view

Point of view
: Who tells the story? - the first person narrator, who is flawed but human…He's reliable, we trust him. His actions
definitely support what he tells us about himself; especially the part about being a man who likes to take the "easy" way. What else is
gained by telling this story from the Boss's perspective? Why not Bartleby's perspective? Why not one of the other clerks?

The boss is telling the story. the boss' perspective is a good way to portray the story because he sees the change of Bartleby through his eyes and he explains the aftermath of the story and the actions to come. Bartlby would not have a perspective because he is a loner. The other clerks dont play an important role in the story and seem simpleminded and would not be any perspectives.

Character Protagonist/Antagonist

what is the Boss up against in the person of Bartleby? Does Bartleby represent a force beyond
himself as an individual?
Major / Minor (Who are the major players in the story? What do we know about them? Are they likable?
Sympathetic? Realistic? What's the function of the story's minor characters?)
Dynamic / Static-Who changes? Who stays the same? Is
the story about growth or change? 
Round / Flat-Who is the round character? Who are the flat characters?

The story of Bartelby The Scrivener includes characters of the Boss, Nippers, Turkey Gingernut and Bartelby. The boss is firm but somewhat insecure. Nippers is hotheaded and has a bit of an attitude that shows his energetic charisma. Turkey is senior and follows orders and becomes aggitated with Bartleby's passive and firm attitude. Gingernut is the office boy who is a child that works to run around for the men of the office. Bartleby has a very dense attitude in which he "prefers not to" carry out actions that the boss instructs him to. Bartleby becomes extremely stubborn and refuses to leave when prompted to. He was fired and would noty leave the office in which he worked. Then the boss moves his bussiness to another location and Bartleby stays which causes Boss major stress in his life. the characters all have flaws that make them distinct in the story but Bartelby quickly becomes an agitation to the other characters. The boss begins to sympathize Bartleby due to the condition of him in the story. The boss changes through the story but Bartleby stays exactly the same through the story and all that changes is is humanity. the story changes around Bartleby.