Pursuing Justice

Pursuing Justice – Summer 2008 Curriculum Project Draft- Edward Davey

• This curriculum project is an investigation of the Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions published by this convention.  These took place in 1848.  This project will be taught during a unit on the reform movements of the early/mid 1800s.  This project comes directly from the Pursuing Justice seminar focused on The First Wave of Women’s Rights Activism, given by Professor Andrea Walsh.

• Essential Questions/ Skills Focus
• How did the Seneca Falls Convention contribute to the emergence of the Women’s movement?
• What was the substance, tone and impact of the published Declaration of Sentiments?
• Middle School Social Studies skill work will focus on reading secondary and primary sources, understanding an event and responses to the event.
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• Scale of Project – This project will be a 2 day lesson within the context of teaching about reform movements of the time period.  It will be taught after a review of the Abolition movement.  The central activity of the lesson will be a series of documents for students to read, respond to and discuss.  The readings are sequenced from pre-convention background to media responses to the convention.
  
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• Assessments:  This lesson will be assessed in part of a test on the Reform Movements of the era.  Like the central activity, the assessment will be a reading or two that assesses reading and understanding skills within the context of the content taught.
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•  Resources used – resources for readings, further research, visual aids, etc. are given on the lesson documents.  In addition, a video clip is planned from the documentary One Woman One Vote.
  
• Some sources to be used include:
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• http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbnawsa&fileName=n5852/rbnawsan5852.db&recNum=0&itemLink=r?ammem/naw:@field(DOCID+@lit(rbnawsan5852div0))%23n5852001&linkText=1 - This document is titled The Legal Status of Women, published in 1897.  It was written as an history of events until that time.  There are two visual tables that show when certain rights were gained for women in each state. These tables are posted on the powerpoint slides that serve as a resource for this lesson.

• http://www.lclark.edu/~ria/senecafalls.rights.html  the text of the Declaration of  Sentiments

• http://www.historynet.com/seneca-falls-convention-first-womens-rights-convention.htm/3 - some explanation of the media coverage of the Seneca Falls Convention

• http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/2decs.html  this site shows the Declaration of Independence and Declaration of Sentiments "side by side". Very helpful for a comparison discussion
  

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Edward Davey
U.S History Teacher
Jonas Clarke Middle School
Lexington Public Schools