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THE ALLEN PARKER SLAVE NARRATIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS |
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Introduction to
Site Design by |
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INTRODUCTION TO LEARNING ACTIVITIES 
Dr. Joy Stapleton [left] and Dr. David Cecelski [right] with graduate students My name is Dr. Joy Stapleton and I am a new professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Elementary and Middle Grades Education Program at East Carolina University. My involvement in this website is the result of a chance conversation with Joyce Newman during a Scientific Visualization class we both attended. Joyce told me about the Allen Parker site. She stated that she and her classmates were interested in finding someone to use the information from the Allen Parker site to create learning activities that would make the site a valuable resource for teachers. I was interested immediately because it sounded like a wonderful opportunity and I love designing lesson plans. However, after reading about how the site evolved and the active role the students took in developing it, I realized that it would be more keeping with the tone of the site if my students from the Elementary and Middle Grades Program were the ones to create the activities. Not only would it provide the students with the opportunity to integrate a primary source of information and a different perspective of history into their social studies lessons, it also provided them with the opportunity for transdisciplinary collaboration. The School of Education at East Carolina University believes that partnerships strengthen practice. This was an excellent opportunity for my students to experience a mutually beneficial partnership with individuals from different disciplines. 
Some of the students from Dr. Stapleton's course. While I was excited about the project, I still needed to sell it to my graduate level Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary School class. The class consisted of 11 graduate level students: three of them full time graduate students with no teaching experience, 1 full time graduate student with teaching experience, and seven graduate students who were teaching full time. One of the foci of this class was on moving away from teaching the white ethnocentric view of history and teaching from multiple perspectives, ones that represent all cultures. The different perspective provided by the Allen Parker Slave Narrative along with the close proximity of the geographical location of his home in Edenton, North Carolina made this a good project for my class. Because this opportunity presented itself after the semester began, I integrated use of the site into my Spring 2001 Midterm Exam. At first, the students were hesitant and nervous about the use of a difficult topic like slavery as part of their Midterm Exam. Some questioned their ability to use this site with kindergarteners, first, and second graders. However, after completing the midterm, almost all of the students were excited about their projects and planned on using them in their classes. They even expressed an interest in doing more work on their projects for their final. I was really impressed at their ideas for using the Allen Parker site with their students. 
Students from Dr. Stapleton's course discuss their work with Dr. Cecelski and some of his students.
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After the students completed their projects, my class invited Dr. Cecelski and the members of his History class to an interactive session. Even though the class had met the previous semester, Dr. Cecelski and two of his students, Joyce Newman and Susan Butler, attended. (pictures). Dr. Cecelski, Joyce and Susan spoke about the evolution of the site and how they conducted their research. The Elementary and Middle Grades students asked lots of questions about Allen Parker, the site and about researching information within their own communities. Then, the Elementary and Middle Grade students presented their ideas for using the site to Dr. Cecelski, Joyce, and Susan. As the teachers from the Elementary and Middle Grades Education program saw how excited and complimentary Dr. Cecelski, Joyce, and Susan were at their ideas for using the site, they became increasingly confident about their ideas. The partnership was a positive experience for all involved and was an excellent example of the benefits of collaboration.
When I presented the Midterms to my class, I explained that their projects would be posted on the site and gave them the opportunity to talk to me if they were uncomfortable about it. No one expressed any reservations about my posting their projects on the web, in fact, they sent them to me electronically specifically so I could do so. Therefore, the projects have been posted with student consent. The projects include an overview, standards, materials, childrenšs literature, activities and references. Please feel free to take the information and use it, build on it, and/or tweak it to suit your needs.