We’ve had a crazy winter here in Minnesota, and have so far
missed five days due to cold, not snow.
It’s made getting back in the rhythm of school a bit challenging since
our winter break, and I’ve found that I’m feeling like I’m constantly behind
compared to where I was in my curriculum last year. I’m also disappointed that I haven’t been as
inspired to blog, since I don’t feel like I’ve tried anything worth blogging
about. But this week I did do an activity I discovered last year, and maybe
some of you will think it’s worth doing.
As a northerner, I haven’t seen a
field of cotton, let alone worked with it in any form other than cotton balls
from Target, so I was pretty interested. It comes with tons of seeds in it, and
also bits of leaves and stems. I had the students create a t-chart labeled “I
notice/I wonder”, gave them each a pile of cotton, and they got to work. I
loved hearing their conversations as they worked to get the seeds out, and I
had to remind them to put those good ideas down in writing so they wouldn’t
forget them! It’s one of the best activities I do in terms of engaging the
students, because everyone is busy trying to get those seeds out. After a while, someone usually says,
“Did the slaves have to clean the cotton like this?” It leads to some
realizations about the difficulty of the work slaves did, and is a great segue
into discussion of the cotton gin and how technology changed cotton farming.
Cotton Classroom also includes
Solomon Northup’s primary document about slaves picking cotton, and it’s a
great resource to help students realize how difficult and often violent the
life of a slave was. Once the students have spent some time trying to clean
that cotton, they are even more receptive to Northup’s descriptions of the work
expectations masters had of slaves. There is no good way to recreate the slave
experience, and I’m not sure I’d even want to try, but this small activity has
been a great way for students to begin thinking about slavery and technology. I
highly recommend it!