Nightjohn and Sarny by Gary Paulsen: The History of Slavery Unit Plan
By Rick Vanderwall

Unit Overview

Based on the reading of Gary Paulsen’s novels, Nightjohn and Sarny, this unit is intended for middle school level students. Although the books are written at a fifth/sixth-grade level, the content contains extreme violence; therefore you should exercise caution and careful preparation, especially with younger readers. The unit starts with pre-reading lessons covering the timeline of slavery, the language of slaves, and an introduction to the Library of Congress collection of ex-slave narratives. The lesson plans also provide vocabulary lists and response activities that you can use with students as they read the novels. The culmination of the unit provides students a variety of creative activities through which they can tell the story of the slavery era.

Curriculum Standards

For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.

Unit Menu

1. Pre-reading Activities
1. Creating the Timeline of Slavery: Students discover the key events in the history of slavery and place them on a timeline.



2. Documenting the Lives of Slaves: Students explore the lives and culture of slaves in America by interacting with this web site’s slave narratives and the Library of Congress’ collection of slave narratives.



3. The Language of Slaves: Students begin learning about the grammar and derivation of slave language, as well as the resulting issues that are still a part of American culture.


2. Reading Activities

   Students read and respond to the novels through a series of activities, outlined below, that connect the story to the history of slavery to their lives today.

   
   
   1. Nightjohn: This lesson offers students several points in which to check for understanding, and bridging the ideas in the story to history and their own lives.
   
   
   1. Students compare and contrast the character Sarny with an actual ex-slave, Mr. John W. Fields.
   
   
   
   2. The second response activity focuses on the ways owners exerted their power to maintain the system of slavery. Students will then discuss slave resistance despite the threat of extreme punishment.
   
   
   
   3. The Culminating Response gives students a chance to reflect on why teaching his fellow slaves to read and write was so important to Nightjohn.
   
   
   2. Sarny: Along with a vocabulary list to aid in decoding the text, this lesson also addresses topics within the reading, such as families being sold off to different owners, the moment of freedom, and life after slavery. Finally, students will write a comparison essay between Sarny’s story and a real ex-slave’s story from the Library of Congress Collection. Audio selections on the site are also available.
   
   
3. Post-reading Activities

   Final Project: Students culminate their study of the two novels and the history of slavery by applying what they have learned in a creative demonstration project.

Rick Vanderwall teaches Sixth Grade Language Arts and Social Studies at Price Laboratory School located at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa.