clara night sky

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
by Deborah Hopkinson
paintings by James Ransome

Materials:

A copy of the book, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
Lined paper
Drawing paper
Pencil
Crayons/colored pencils
Printer
Real Audio Player
Before You Read: Complete one of the activities below:

1. Clara sews a quilt that leads her to the Underground Railroad. Print the KWL chart. Complete the chart by listing the things that you know about the Underground Railroad and the things that you would like to learn about the Underground Railroad. Next, go to Underground Railroad and read about the Underground Railroad. Complete the KWL chart by writing the information that you learned.

2. Clara is a slave during the Civil War. Go to life as a slave and learn more about the Civil War and slavery. See if you can find out where slaves lived, what chores they had to do, and how they were treated. You may select any excerpt on the page, but #10-#15 are especially pertinent.

While You Read:
Complete the following activity.

1. As you read, note Clara's personal traits and actions that support those traits. Print the Cluster web and complete it by writing Clara's character traits and providing information that supports the identified traits.

After You Read:
After you read the story, complete one of the following activities:

1. Pretend that you are Clara. Print the letter form and write a letter to Aunt Rachel comparing your life on the plantation to your life as a free person.

You may want to use the thesaurus and/or the dictionary to assist you in your writing.

2. Clara wanted to go to Canada. Write a paragraph that explains why she wanted to go to Canada. Think of your favorite place, a place where you feel "free," and draw a picture of a quilt that leads you from your home to your favorite place.Write another paragraph that describes your favorite place and explain why you go there.

3. What if Clara and Jack had not successfully escaped? Write a story about their lives as slaves on Home Plantation. Use information from the book and information from life in slavery to help you with your story. If you need help with prewriting, writing, revising, editing, and/or publishing go to the writing process.

You may want to use the thesaurus and/or the dictionary to assist you in your writing.

4. Go to Concentration and check your understanding of the book. You may refer back to the book if necessary.

Beyond What You Read:

Complete one of the following activities:

1. Using the information you have learned about the Underground Railroad, write your own poem about the railroad. If you would like to read a poem about the Underground Railroad and listen to the musical version, go to poem.If you would like to listen to only the musical version of the poem, go to musicalpoem.

2. Visit the biographies site and read about other people like Clara and Harriet Tubman who wanted freedom for all people.

3. Even though Clara did not live with her family, family was very important to her so she kept track of her family members. Print the family tree and create your own.

4. Check your knowledge of basic Civil War facts by playing at least one of the games below. Click and play!

matching

concentration

word search

About What You Read:

Use the following rubric to monitor your progress.

1 point

2 points

3 points

Understanding

Few activities show understanding of the story content, plot, and major themes.

Most activities show understanding of the story content, plot, and major themes.

All activities show understanding of the story content, plot, and major themes.

Completeness

Few directions are followed. A before reading activity is not completed. The during reading activity is not completed. An after reading activity is not completed.

Most directions are followed. At least one before reading activity is completed. The during reading activity is completed. At least one after reading activity is completed.

All directions are followed. At least one before reading activity is completed. The during reading activity is completed. At least one after reading activity is completed.

Format

There are many spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors. The work is not neat.

Most spelling, punctuation, and capitalization is accurate. Most work is neat.

All spelling, punctuation, and capitalization is accurate. All work is neat.

This CyberLesson was created by Kathryn Edmunds.

	1 point	2 points	3 points
Understanding	Few activities show understanding of the story content, plot, and major themes.	Most activities show understanding of the story content, plot, and major themes.	All activities show understanding of the story content, plot, and major themes.
Completeness	Few directions are followed. A before reading activity is not completed. The during reading activity is not completed. An after reading activity is not completed.	Most directions are followed. At least one before reading activity is completed. The during reading activity is completed. At least one after reading activity is completed.	All directions are followed. At least one before reading activity is completed. The during reading activity is completed. At least one after reading activity is completed.
Format	There are many spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors. The work is not neat.	Most spelling, punctuation, and capitalization is accurate. Most work is neat.	All spelling, punctuation, and capitalization is accurate. All work is neat.