Learning Grit from a Nonfiction Text
Grade
Grade 5
UNIT
2
•
Grit
Unit 2, Lesson 2, “Learning Grit from a Nonfiction Text,” reinforces the vocabulary word grit. Students will learn an example of grit from the life of a real person. Students will practice their reading comprehension skills by listening to a read aloud and following along with a nonfiction text. Finally, students will create their own sentences that demonstrate their reading comprehension and share their sentences with a partner.
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SUGGESTED TIME:
20 minutes
RELATED SUBJECT:
English Language Arts
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Listen to a read aloud of a nonfiction text, and follow along with the text, to support reading comprehension
- Demonstrate understanding of the main ideas of a nonfiction text
- Describe the relationship between a series of events or ideas in a nonfiction text
- Compose sentences that demonstrate understanding of slavery, the Middle Passage, and abolitionism
- Demonstrate understanding of the character strength of grit
- Demonstrate understanding of standard English sentence structure and grammar
- Practice reading and conversation skills by sharing sentences with classmates
REQUIRED MATERIALS:
- Video: Olaudah Equiano Biography by The Daily Bellringer (~5 min)
- Video: Olaudah Equiano by Jyuddah Jaymes / Extracts from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by The Fitzwilliam Museum (~8 min)
- Prohuman Grade 5 Unit 2 Worksheet 2: Learning Grit from a Nonfiction Text
VOCABULARY:.
ELA COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET
CHARACTER AND SOCIAL EMOTIONAL (CSED) NATIONAL STANDARDS MET
LESSON PROCEDURE
- Today, we will learn about a man named Olaudah Equiano who was enslaved, escaped, and later became a famous writer who published a book about his experiences. He fought for freedom for all enslaved people.
- Play the video: Olaudah Equiano Biography by The Daily Bellringer (~5 min)
- Explain that the next video is excerpted from Olaudah Equiano’s book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789). These excerpts describe the Middle Passage, the forced journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas as part of the slave trade.
- Play the video linked below. Have students follow along with the text printed on their worksheets. Video: Olaudah Equiano by Jyuddah Jaymes / Extracts from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by The Fitzwilliam Museum (~8 min).
- Have students write the answers to the worksheet questions.
- Have students share their answers with a partner.
GRADE 5 UNIT 1 WORKSHEET 2: LEARNING GRIT FROM A NONFICTION TEXT
NONFICTION TEXT: EXCERPTS FROM OLAUDAH EQUIANO’S THE
INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO (1789)
The complete text of the book is available here.
The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I were sound by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions too differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, (which was very different from any I had ever heard) united to confirm me in this belief…
When I looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted…
I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life…
The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. Happily perhaps for myself I was soon reduced so low here that it was thought necessary to keep me almost always on deck; and from my extreme youth I was not put in fetters. In this situation I expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost daily brought upon deck at the point of death, which I began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries.
Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the deep much more happy than myself. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for theirs…
One day, when we had a smooth sea, and a moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen, who were chained together (I was near them at the time), preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings, and jumped into the sea: immediately another quite dejected fellow, who, on account of his illness, was suffered to be out of irons, also followed their example…
Two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other, and afterwards flogged him unmercifully, for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery. In this manner we continued to undergo more hardships than I can now relate; hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade.
At last we came in sight of the island of Barbados, at which the whites on board gave a great shout and made many signs of joy to us. We did not know what to think of this; but as the vessel drew nearer, we plainly saw the harbor and other ships of different kinds and sizes, and we soon anchored among them off Bridgetown..
Many merchants and planters now came on board, though it was in the evening. They put us in separate parcels and examined us attentively…
Soon after, we were conducted immediately to the merchant’s yard, where we were all pent up together like so many sheep in a fold, without regard to sex or age…
Before we were sold after their usual manner, which is this: On a signal given (as the beat of a drum), the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined and make choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamor with which this is attended, and the eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers, serve not a little to increase the apprehensions of the terrified Africans, who may well be supposed to consider them the ministers of that destruction to which they think themselves devoted. In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see each other again. I remember in the vessel in which I was brought over, in the men’s apartment, there were several brothers who, in the sale, were sold in different lots; and it was very moving on this occasion to see and hear their cries at parting. O ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain? Must every tender feeling be likewise sacrificed to your avarice?
- What are the abuses that Olaudah Equiano describes that he and other enslaved people endured during the Middle Passage?
- Based on what you learned about Equiano’s life, how did he show grit?
- How did Equiano contribute to humanity?
Prohuman K-12 Curriculum © 2025 by Prohuman Foundation is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
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