Lesson video

And this unit's on biography writing.

This lesson is all about researching and finding out information on the inspirational figure that we're going to use.

And we are going to research and find out about Harriet Tubman.

She was a very inspirational person, and I'm very excited to share this information with you today.

Let's get learning.

Ready? Let's go.

Our learning objective for today is to gather information on an inspirational figure.

And we're going to gather information on Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman, and she, you will find out, was very inspirational.

Our agenda for today is that we're going to do a writing warmup.

We're going to to look at some key vocabulary.

You're going to understand how we gather information, and then you're going to generate some information on Harriet Tubman.

In this lesson you will need exercise book or paper, a pencil, and of course your brain.

If you don't have those with you already, can you just go and get those items. Pause the video and do that now.

Remember, it's also good to be in a calm, quiet space that you can really listen and concentrate.

Let's do a writing warmup.

Which of these sentences is written in third person? Remember, third person is a feature of a biography.

We don't write about ourselves.

We write about someone else.

So which of these sentences is in third person? Is it: yesterday, I walked a long way to get away from my master.

Or is it: she ran away from her master and vowed to come back to help others.

Have a think.

Which one's in third person? Point out on your screen, in three, two, one.

Well done.

Of course, it's 'she ran away from her master and vowed to come back to help others.

' We are writing about someone else.

Write your own sentence now in third person.

It can be any sentence that you'd like, just make sure you put it in third person.

Pause the video and do that.

Let's move on.

Let's look at some key vocabulary that we need.

Civil War.

And we're talking about the American Civil War here and it was between 1861 and 1865.

And this was fought between the Southern States and the Northern States of America.

They wanted to pull apart and become there it while the Southern States wanted to pull apart and wanted to become their own independent country.

The Northern States didn't want that.

And so they fought each other.

Part of the reason they were fighting was that the Southern States wanted to keep slavery and they did not to abolish it, whereas the Northern States had already abolished slavery and wanted to make sure that the Southern States also abolished it.

They were arguing about this and there was some fighting.

Slavery.

Now slavery is forced and unpaid labour.

And I think you probably heard about slavery before.

Underground Railroad.

Now the Underground Railroad was a system of safe houses that led from the Southern States to Northern States.

And it was used by slaves to escape.

I'll teach you a little bit more about this, but what you have to remember is that it was not a real railroad.

Where do we find information? We can look in an articles.

We can look at documentaries.

We can look at books, films, and websites.

There are lots of places where we can get and find information.

We will be using a book which I'll show you later.

And then when we have all of these different mediums where we find information, we need to find a way of collecting that information.

We need to make sure that we take notes of key facts.

We summarise ideas, we group information into categories and we work through each category at a time.

So we have to be systematic about it.

Otherwise it'd be too overwhelming and we'd have lots of information coming from everywhere.

We can collate information in different ways.

Collate means to collect and combine.

We could collect in and combine into a mind map.

Or we could put up, draw some lines on a piece of paper and we can put it into notes.

What I did was I went through some of our lesson learning that we're going to be looking at in this unit.

And I have decided on three subheadings.

We're going to write about early life, leading others to freedom and the civil war.

What I'd like you to do now is to get your paper ready into those three subheadings.

You can choose whether you want to do a mind map today to collect and collate information, or whether you want to divide your page into sections; and with those three subheadings.

Either way, it's up to you, you choose.

It's your planning document; your research document.

But just make sure you split it up in those three subheadings.

I'd like you to do that now and get that ready so that you're ready to take notes for the next part of the lesson.

Pause the video, and make sure you've done that.

Like I said earlier in this video, we are going to be using a book.

And I've got the book right here and it's really a great book.

And it's called '100 women who made history.

' And in this book, there's a two page spread on Harriet Tubman, which we're going to read together.

And you're going to use this book to take notes on her.

This is the first paragraph.

I'm going to read it to you first.

Born a slave.

Tubman was born a slave on a farm in Maryland, USA, around 1820.

Determined to escape, she finally fled to Philadelphia, USA, a free state in which slavery was outlawed in 1849.

She travelled via a network of secret routes and safe houses used by antislavery activists known as the Underground Railroad.

Outlawed, you might have heard, outlawed means to be banned or made illegal.

Outlawed? It was banned or made illegal.

Slavery was outlawed in Philadelphia in 1849.

It was banned in Philadelphia.

And anti-slavery? Anti-slavery means against slavery.

Anti means to be against or opposed to.

So if you're anti something you're against it.

So anti-slavery.

Some more facts for you is she lived in a one room cabin with 11 siblings.

She was loaned out to a family at the age of six to look after a baby.

She worked on a cotton plantation from the age of 13.

And at 13 had a head injury, which caused her a lifetime of headaches and dizziness.

There's quite a lot of information on this page.

What I'd like you to do now is to pause the video and to jot down any notes into the correct subheading.

Choose where you're going to put it and just write down some facts on Harriet in your subheadings.

Pause the video and keep this screen open so you have the information.

Do that now.

Well done if you've done that.

Let's move on to the next paragraph.

Before that we must check if you know these words.

Outlawed? Outlawed.

Anti-slavery.

What does outlawed mean? Can you point to the definition on your screen? Can you do that? In three, two, one.

Outlawed means? Yes, of course, it means banned or made illegal.

And antislavery means? Against slavery.

Well done.

Railroad to freedom.

Once Tubman was free, she didn't forget the people she had left behind.

She risked her life many times to guide hundreds of slaves, including her own parents, from the Southern slave states to the Northern free states, and even to Canada.

Do you see that map there? You've got the red part of the map and that's the slave states.

You've got the green part, which is the free states.

And then you see all those arrows, that was the underground railroad routes.

Remember it wasn't a real road railroad.

It was safe houses that were dotted along so people could stay in, and then they would travel during the night.

The Underground Railroad, not a real road; but safe homes called stations that hid slaves as they travelled North.

Slaves moved from station to station at night, hiding in the woods until they reached the safety in the North.

Lots of information here.

All I'd like you to do now is to pause the video and to take some notes.

And remember to put them in the correct subheading on your plan.

Do that now.

Civil War hero.

In 1861, Civil War broke out over slavery in the USA.

Tubman served as a nurse and a spy for the Union.

The Union was the Northern States who wanted to abolish slavery.

She even led a successful military raid guiding 300 troops up the Combahee River in South Carolina to rescue up to 800 slaves.

Remember, the American Civil War was from between 1861 and 1865.

And it was the Northern States, which was referred to as the Union, fighting the Southern States.

The Southern States were known as the Confederates.

Abolish means to formally put an end to something.

Abolish.

Raid.

And a raid is a surprise attack.

Again, pause the video now and take some notes.

Remember, again, put them in the right subheading.

Carry on campaigning.

Slavery was finally abolished in the USA in 1865.

Tubman opened a home for the elderly and became a passionate campaigner for equal rights for African-Americans and votes for women.

She died in the home she founded, at the age of 93.

Campaigning? Campaigning means working in an organised way to a goal.

Can you think of any campaigners that you know today? I've heard of, and I wonder if you have, of Greta Thunberg.

She is a quite famous campaigner at the moment and she campaigns for the environment.

Harriet Tubman, she campaigned for what? Tell me.

She was campaigning for the equal rights for African-Americans and for women.

Again, pause the video and take some notes and add those to your research plan.

Quite a lot of words have come up on today's lesson.

Let's just check we know the meaning of all of them.

Abolish, campaigning, raid, outlawed.

Can you point to the right definitions on your screen? What does abolish mean? Point to it.

In three, two, one.

Campaigning means what? Point to it.

In three, two, one.

And a raid is a what? In three, two, one.

And outlawed means what? In three, two, one.

Let's check if you've got those right.

Abolish means to formally put an end to something.

Campaigning is working in an organised way to a goal.

A raid is this a surprise attack.

And outlawed means when something is banned or made illegal.

How she changed the world.

Although she was born into poverty and slavery, Tubman overcame all the odds to become one of the most important and effective campaigners against injustice in the history of the USA.

Remember, injustice.

It means lack of fairness or justice.

Again, pause the video and jot down any notes from that piece of information from that paragraph.

Let's just check.

Injustice means? Lack of fairness or fair play? Point to the right one on the screen.

Do that in three, two, one.

Yes.

It means a lack of fairness.

Well done if you got that.

And here's an example in a sentence.

The injustice of slavery infuriated Harriet Tubman.

Who really was Harriet Tubman? Let's just review some of the things that you've learned so far.

In 1821, she was born in Maryland, the USA as Araminta Ross; so that was her maiden name.

In 1849, she runs away to freedom.

Then in 1851, she begins working for Underground Railroad, helping slaves to escape.

In 1857, she helps her family escape.

She comes back and helps her family to escape.

In 1861, she helps the Northern troops in a Civil War.

Remember it was the Southern part and the Northern troops called the Union.

The Southern part was called the Confederate.

And they were fighting each other.

And the Southern part wanted to come away from the Northern States, and the Northern States didn't want the Southern States to go separately.

And so they had a war, and it was about slavery.

And then in 1865, slavery is abolished, and the Civil War ends.

And in 1913, she dies at the age of 92.

And sometimes we might see that she died at 92 and sometimes it says she dies at 93.

And that is because we're not quite sure whether she was born in 1821 or in 1820.

She was born as a slave and so there are no official records.

They didn't keep records like we would today.

Today someone's born, you go and tell the authority about that.

Now at that time, that wasn't the case.

And so there's a bit of doubt whether she was born in 1820 or in 1821.

Which is why sometimes it says that she died at 92 and sometimes it says she died at 93.

Make sure here you pause the video again and write some of these facts down.

Remember, one of the features of a biography is that you have lots of facts and dates.

Add these, but remember to put them in the right subheading on your plan; or add them into your mind map.

Pause the video and do that now.

Then finally what I'd like you to do is just to make sure you've got all the information that you need on Harriet Tubman to be able to write a biography.

Pause the video, and if you need to, you can scroll back and pause the video on the pages with the information and just recap.

You might want to re watch it, this whole video, 'cause there's quite a lot of information to take in.

But remember, the more information you have, the easier it will be to write your biography later.

Remember those key three subheadings that we have: early life, leading others to freedom, and the Civil War.

Once you've done that, you can resume the video.

Okay.

Wow.

You have done quite a lot today.

You've done your writing warmup.

We've looked at key vocabulary.

You've understood how we gathered information and we've generated information and gathered information on Harriet Tubman.

Quite a lot to have gotten through.

Congratulations.

You have now finished today's lesson.

Well done.

And the next lesson we will plan for our biography.

Congratulations and well done.