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Learning Experience/Unit

Twain's Hannibal


Subject

English Language Arts (2005), Social Studies

Grade Levels

Commencement, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade


Assessment

  • Students demonstrate understanding of primary resources by completing the appropriate analysis worksheet and sharing their conclusions with the class.
  • The Part Two evaluation will consist of observing how easily students navigate and search the American Memory website.
  • Each student will summarize what he or she has learned about what was happening along or near the Mississippi River between 1850 and 1900 in a 500 - 750 word paper.

    • Learning Context/ Introduction

    Writers are influenced by their environment including their family, community, lifestyle, or location. One such writer was Mark Twain. In this project, the learner will become familiar with and analyze life around Hannibal, Missouri, during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Using various online and print resources, students will determine what effects this location had on the writings of Mark Twain. The curriculum context will be within a unit on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Segments of this lesson might also be integrated into a study of Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

    This project consists of three parts. Part One addresses the analysis of primary documents, while the second and third parts challenge the student to locate and analyze other online resources relating to the influences that growing up around Hannibal had on Twain's work. The lessons could be presented with introductory material prior to reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or integrated while reading the novel.

    This series of lessons is an integral part of a larger unit taught in our school system. Additional educational projects relating to the study of Twain and the novel are described in the Extension section. Even though these activities center on Mark Twain and his writings, they could easily be adapted to almost any author and his environment.

    Objectives

    The students will:

  • understand primary resources.
  • critically evaluate information sources for reliability, accuracy, perspective, relevancy, and authoritativeness.
  • understand culture and life around Hannibal, Missouri during Twain's time.
  • use online resources to locate and study documents concerning Mississippi River life during Twain's time.
  • critically evaluate information sources for reliability, accuracy, perspective, relevancy, and authoritativeness.
  • understand culture and life around Hannibal during Twain's time.
  • understand the connection between Mark Twain and the impact his environment had on his writing.

    • Procedure

    This learning experience consists of the following parts:
    Part One: Analysis of Primary Resources
    Primary sources expose students to multiple perspectives on issues of the past and present. By working with primary sources, students will be able to critically evaluate information resources for content, validity, authoritativeness, perspective, relevancy, and accuracy. In this section, students will learn how to analyze primary resources such as those that are found in American Memory.
    Part Two: Searching American Memory
    Students will learn how to use the American Memory collections to locate primary sources (as they pertain to the novel Huckleberry Finn) relating not only to Hannibal and its impact but also to what was happening between 1850 and 1900 along or near the Mississippi River.
    Part Three: Student Presentations
    Following their investigations, students will share their findings and interpretations as they relate to what was happening between 1850 and 1900.

    Part One

    Analysis of Primary Resources (2 - 3 hours)

    1. Identify map to be used as a large group activity. See Bird's Eye View of Guttenberg, Clayton County, Iowa 1869 or any map in the collection.
    2. Explain the differences between primary and secondary sources. These Learning Page resources provide background reading:
    3. Bring examples of primary and secondary documents to class. Examples might include old and current cookbooks, farm sale handbills, birth certificates, driver's licenses, diaries, tickets to events, museum artifacts, old clothes, newspapers, magazines, textbooks. Discuss what makes them primary or secondary resources.
    4. Examine as a class the map of Guttenberg using the "Map Analysis Worksheet."
      • Record observations of what is actually seen in the document.
      • Record observations from using outside knowledge.
      • Record conclusions drawn.
    5. Break class into smaller groups, giving each group a different primary resource to review using the appropriate analysis worksheets. Primary resources such as photographs, sheet music or maps can be found at a local historical society or in books, newspapers or magazines. Or, use the following online American Memory documents:
    6. Have groups share what they have learned about their resources.

  • Map Analysis Worksheet
  • Photograph Analysis Worksheet
  • Sheet Music Analysis Worksheet

    • Part Two

    Searching the American Memory Collection (3 - 4 hours)

    1. Introduce American Memory - what it is, who maintains it, features of the website.
    2. Demonstrate how to navigate American Memory, briefly showing the types of collections on the site.
    3. Demonstrate features and specifics of collection search pages.
    4. Discuss keyword and synonym selection of terms that might yield desirable results when searching for documents relating to the topic. (See the Learning Page's Finding Items in American Memory and Introduction to Searching American Memory workshop for help.)
      • Have students brainstorm as a large group terms that could be used.
      • Record terms on large paper for referring to while searching.
    5. Students break into small groups to search for information relating to Hannibal or what was happening between 1850 and 1900 along or near the Mississippi River. Students will use the analysis worksheets to review information found and compile their observations and conclusions. Sample results:

    Part Three

    Student Presentations (10 - 15 minutes per presentation, plus additional time for class interactions and outside research)

    1. Following their searches in American Memory for sources that directly relate to what was happening along or near the Mississippi River between 1850 and 1900, students will do the following activities:
      • Share the primary source discovered with the class either by printing the source out or viewing it directly online.
      • Share observations of what is actually seen in the source using the analysis worksheets.
      • Share observations from using outside knowledge using the analysis worksheets.
      • Share conclusions drawn using the analysis worksheets.
      • Question the presenters about the observations and conclusions.
      • Ask for additional commentary and analysis from the class.
      • Prove or disprove the observations and conclusions drawn using any primary or secondary source. Findings will be reported orally to the class, citing the evidence they found.
      • Summarize what he or she has learned about what was happening along or near the Mississippi River between 1850 and 1900 in a 500–750 word paper.
    2. After all presentations are completed, the class as a whole will compare the observations and conclusions drawn.
    3. Following individual and group work, the instructor and students will integrate each student-chosen primary source into the reading of the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as correlations to Mark Twain and what was happening along or near the Mississippi River between 1850 and 1900 arise during the reading.

    Resources/Materials

    American Memory, Library of Congress

    Other Online Resources

     

    Print Resources

    • Mark Twain Himself: A Pictorial Biography. Meltzer, Milton. Hannibal: Becky Thatcher Book Shop, 1960.
    • Mark Twain's America. DeVoto, Bernard. Boston: Little, Brown, 1932.
    • Upper Mississippi River History: Fact, Fiction, Legend. Larson, Captain Ron. Winona: Steamboat Press, 1998.
    • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain, Mark. New York: Pocket Books, 1973.

     

    Extension

    Twain's Hannibal is an integral part of a larger unit on The Adventures of the Huckleberry Finn taught in our school system. The educational projects listed below are directed at Mark Twain and his writings, but they could easily be adapted to almost any other author and his/her environment. For example, Michigan had a very heavy influence on Ernest Hemingway's writing just as California influenced John Steinbeck and Chicago, Gwendolyn Brooks.

    Enrichment activities have been incorporated into the unit at one time or another from year to year. For example, students:

    • Role play Twain and his reaction to today's social issues. For example, how would Twain react to or view civil rights, technology or the media?
    • Compose a song about Huck and Jim's travels.
    • Write an editorial from Twain's perspective dealing with a local issue.
    • Compare travel in Twain's time with that of today.
    • Compare sheet music created during Twain's time to that of today.
    • Locate dialects found in the novel and determine how they are used today.
    • Keep a log or diary from Huck or Jim's perspective as they travel down the river.
    • Pose as a news reporter and write accounts of key events that happened in the novel.
    • Investigate and discuss censorship issues relating to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
    • Determine whether the adventures of Huckleberry Finn could happen today. Why or why not? Would the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons be settled in the same way today?
    • Compile a list of questions to ask Mark Twain if he were alive today and predict his responses.
    • Role play scenes from the novel or impersonate a character.
    • Watch a video version of the novel and discuss how Hollywood has interpreted the work.
    • Draw a map tracing Huck and Jim's travel down the Mississippi River.
    • Discuss the law or lack of law in the novel.
    • Interact with an impersonator of Mark Twain.

    Duration

    Eight to ten class periods

    Author

    Jan Wood and Norma Thiese

    Source

    Reproduced from the Library of Congress web site for teachers. Original lesson plan created as part of the Library of Congress American Memory Fellows Program.


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