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This study unit uses the format of the TV show "The Apprentice" to help students research and prioritise the methods used by the 19th Century Abolition Movement to outlaw the slave trade. Students are organised into teams, each one of which needs to produce a 'joined-up' campaign to abolish the slave trade. This includes choosing a target audience, a celebrity sponsor, merchandise and a publicity stunt. During the feedback phase their methods will be compared and contrasted with the actual techniques used at the time. The most impressive contributors go through to a grand final where they work with the other students to demonstrate their skills of research and presentation. After an overall winner is declared, all students are required to produce an individual project reflecting on why the slave trade was actually abolished.
The study unit is a real highlight of the Year 9 History course and is easily adaptable for other topics and curriculum areas. I provide the following outline so you can try it out for yourself. The timings are flexible: I spend considerable time on the topic but it can easily be compressed to take place over just a few hours in total.
Russel Tarr (@russeltarr / @activehistory).
Time
Lesson overview
1hr
Introduction to the task
2hrs
Research and Preparation Lesson time is now set aside for teams to get to work on their campaign. All teams should start by deciding upon a target market for their campaign and be prepared to explain why they think this group will be able to help abolish the slave trade. The teacher should ensure as far as possible that each team has a different target market.
Once each team has identified its target market, they will need to decide how to organise the team to decide upon the remaining aspects of the presentation:
At the end of this two-hour preparation period, each team should have arranged their ideas and images onto a large piece of coloured card ready for the boardroom meeting with “Lord Sugartrader”:
Taking it further: The teacher could show the teams the series of images relating to life on the plantations (complete with captions). Each team should be allowed to nominate three of these images which they want to add into their campaign. The teacher should then print these off and give them to each team to develop their presentations further (they will be required to justify their choices during the boardroom meeting).
The teacher could also show each team different arguments provided by pro-slavery campaigners in favour of the slave trade. For each one, the team should be challenged to reflect on how they would respond to these arguments.
The Boardroom Meeting The teacher, in role as ‘Lord Sugartrader’ now proceeds to interview each team about their campaign. He starts by asking each team in turn about their pressure group name / logo / slogan and why they think it is effective. Other teams might be encouraged or instructed to make constructive criticisms about the work of other teams (to keep this positive, the question might be phrased as ‘What do you think is the most effective aspect of the logo/slogan designed by Team X?”). At the end of this first round of questioning, the class should be shown some actual Abolitionist methods from the period and be invited to comment upon them in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.
This format is then repeated for the remaining aspects of the campaign (location, celebrity sponsor, merchandise, publicity stunt - using the appropriate parts from the presentation).
Taking it further
Deciding upon the finalists
The Final
Part 1: Researching how the slave trade was actually abolished
Part 2: Writing an anti-slavery poem
These are then read out to the class, and compared to the real poem.
In both stages of the feedback process in this session, it is the teacher’s role to ensure that the ‘assistants’ are encourged to provide feedback about the quality of teamwork that took place.
It is at the end of this process that Lord Sugartrader announces which student has been “hired” as the successful “Apprentice”.
Individual Outcomes It is important at the end of this process that all students produce an individual outcome to consolidate their knowledge. They can do this in one of two ways: Option 1: Produce a Diamond9 diagram outlining the most important methods by which the slave trade was abolished. Option 2: Students convert a timeline outlining the process by which the slave trade was abolished into an infographic focusing on one theme, event or individual described within it. A great example of a web project produced by one of my students during these lessons can be found here. Ambitious students might wish to produce a resource covering the entire period:
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Events (550 years ago today): 1471 – In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.[3]
Births (100 years ago today): 1921 – Thomas Schelling, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2016)
Births (50 years ago today): 1971 – Miguel Calero, Colombian footballer and manager (d. 2012)
Deaths (550 years ago today): 1471 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, English commander and politician (b. 1428)
Deaths (300 years ago today): 1721 – Michel Chamillart, French politician, Controller-General of Finances (b. 1652)
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