• Developers:
John Hall and Steve Lipe, ArtSpace Charter School, Swannanoa, NC
• Grade Level: 5th and 8th
• Number of Sessions in the Lesson Unit Plan: 5 class periods (45 – 60 minutes)
  Lesson One: Intro to books (45 minutes)
  Lesson Two: Week 1 to Week 4: Daily reading groups (35 – 45 minutes per day, per group, three to four weeks) (1 class period)
  Lesson Three: Week 5: Intro to object activity (30 minutes)
  Lesson Four: Week 5: Sandburg objects tied to book - interpretive vignette (two 45 minute sessions to tie object to story and develop vignette, and one session to finalize present vignette)
  Lesson Five: Week 6: Develop own autobiography/timeline (three 40 minute sessions and homework)
  Lesson Six- Week 7 and 8: Build museum of timeline, creating 2D and 3D objects to represent events (eight 45 minute sessions)
  Lesson Seven- Week 9: Wrap up - write an “I Remember Poem” (60 minutes in class and homework)
  [Back to top]
  

• Park Name: Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Flat Rock, North Carolina
  
• Description:
  Theme – Young life of Carl Sandburg and how it shaped and influenced his writing. Carl Sandburg’s life is truly fascinating! His life and powerful words exemplify the spirit of America as our country is leaving its teen years and moving to adulthood. This unit focuses on Sandburg’s early life. As he is growing up in the late 1800s, America is as well. The objects from his life during this time are snapshots of this unique time in American history. This unit addresses several National Education Standards in language arts and math and has a strong American history focus that can be aligned with state social science educational objectives. Although it is a nine-week unit, teachers may not be able to devote nine weeks to this project. Teachers may choose to use some lessons and not others. For example, a teacher may decide to include the student timeline but not the student autobiography. He/she may decide to keep the student autobiography and omit the museum project. It is imperative, however, that the objects from Carl Sandburg’s life be used in the unit. Whichever sections one chooses to use, the point is for your students to experience the life of Sandburg through his words and the objects from his life, as well as deepen their awareness of themselves and how objects from their lives reflect these experiences. These are lesson plans and not study guides, therefore synopses and summaries are not included.
• Essential Question:
  • How does our past shape who we are and what we wish to become?
  • How do objects from one’s life aid in “telling our story”?
  • How do objects from Carl Sandburg’s collection illuminate his early life and guide us in our own personal discovery?
  [Back to top]
  

This unit is built around the early years of Carl Sandburg after he had left home and before he got married.  It focuses on his formative years of traveling and “coming of age”, through his experiences on the road, in war, and in college.  Students will read his autobiography and early poetry, as they develop meaning and understanding of different objects from his home in Flat Rock, North Carolina.

“I was born on the prairie and the milk of its wheat, the red of its clover, the eyes of its women gave me a song and a slogan…” (Prairie, 1918)

He was born Carl August Sandburg on January 6, 1878, in a small three-room cottage in Galesburg, Illinois. Located southwest of Chicago, Galesburg was noted for its railroad industry, which attracted a broad immigrant population. He was the oldest son of Swedish immigrants, August and Clara Sandburg. August worked six days a week, ten hours a day at the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy (CB&Q) railroad as a blacksmith’s helper, where his sledge hit anvil year-round with no vacation. Clara, known as “mama”, had an infectious smile shining with affection for her seven children, and she raised them with words of encouragement that urged them to “make something of themselves.” (p35, Park Handbook)

Galesburg had a large impact on the way Carl Sandburg looked at America. Many years later, in his autobiography Sandburg asked the question, “Did I know America, the United States, because of what I knew about Galesburg?” He believed there must be something important about a country to have attracted so many different types of people, but who all called themselves American.

Carl Sandburg’s first words were Swedish.  English came later, as well as a love of words and language, and this child of immigrant parents was determined to be known as an American.  When he was 7 years old, he changed his name from the very Swedish-sounding Carl to the very American-sounding Charles. Sandburg also developed a strong work ethic as a young boy helping his dad with household chores and working odd jobs throughout his childhood. He graduated from the 8th grade and did not attend high school. An economic down-turn in the 1890s caused the CB&Q to cut his dad’s wages.  Charles was needed to supplement the family’s income. He was now, more than ever before, a child laborer working a variety of jobs that ranged from barber shop porter to milk deliverer.

“Throughout his childhood, Charlie slept to the pulsing rhythms of the trains coming and going through the prairie night. He sometimes amused himself at the depot watching trains bound to and from far places. He idled with hoboes and tramps who traveled furtively on the rods or the treacherous tops of freights and passenger cars…To Charlie, the railroad meant adventure, mystery, and possibility.” (p7-8, Niven)

Restless and eager for adventure, he embarked on a hobo journey in June of 1897. He traveled west by rail from Galesburg and worked from June to October in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. He threshed wheat, harvested hay, washed dishes, worked on a railroad gang, and chopped wood. He was a seeker and an observer, stating in his autobiography,  “What had the trip done to me? I couldn’t say. It had changed me… Away deep in my heart now I had hope as never before. Struggles lay ahead, I was sure, but whatever they were I would not be afraid of them.”

The Road and the End
I shall foot it
Down the roadway in the dusk,
Where the shapes of hunger wander
And the fugitives of pain go by…

…Regret shall be the gravel under foot…

The dust of the traveled road
Shall touch my hands and face.

Summoning his new courage, he enlisted on April 26, 1898 in Company C, Sixth Infantry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers to fight for his country in the Spanish-American War. According to Sandburg… “the war in Porto Rico, while not bloody, was a dirty and lousy affair while it lasted.” The biggest challenges were the tropical climate of Puerto Rico, the mosquitoes that carried malaria, and the woolen Civil War era uniforms.

Sandburg returned home in September, 1898 and enrolled in Lombard College of Galesburg. Here he met Professor Phillip Green Wright, one of the three people he would later call one of the greatest influences of his life.  He began to write seriously, and was elected editor-in-chief of the college newspaper.  He also became editor of the Lombard Review, and was one of the editors of the school yearbook, The Cannibal.  After four years of college however, he had dabbled in so many areas of study that he did not have enough credits in any one area to graduate with a degree.  He left college in the spring semester of his senior year (p37-38, Park Handbook). The passions he had nurtured while in college, studying people and events, researching and writing, were then further nurtured by the life experiences ahead of him.
[Back to top]

Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg
“The Shovel Man”
flimsy
dago
Tuscany
“Iron”
jackies – sailors
tousled
lithe
chanties
oblong
sod
“Road and the End”
fugitive
flank
commemorate
processional

Additional vocabulary:
Autobiography
Memoir
Metaphor
symbolism

• Download and laminate color prints of the museum objects used in the unit plan
• Precut the foam board for the museum project to desired size (two sheets of graph paper)
• Give yourself time to pre-read any materials (Sandburg’s autobiography, poems and background information) used in these lessons.
• Don’t be overwhelmed by the scope of this unit!  Don’t feel that everything has to be accomplished at the same time.  Remember – this takes place over a nine-week period. Once again, you may choose to trim activities to fit your time constraints.

Lesson One: Introduction to Carl Sandburg and Always the Young Strangers (Week one)

• Develop definitions of listed words (see below).
• Discover the early life of Carl Sandburg through Penelope Niven’s book Carl Sandburg: Adventures of a Poet which combines biography with poems and prose.
• Analyze and re-imagine “Ever a Seeker” by Carl Sandburg, placing oneself in the poem.
  
  

1. Present the essential question that will guide student interactive learning and research.  Post the question on a large banner at the front of the classroom. (How does our past shape who we are and what we wish to become? How do objects from one’s life aid in “telling our story”?)
2. On a whiteboard, write the following words: Vagabond, Soldier, Journalist, Minstrel, Storyteller, Dreamer, Poet, Historian. As a class, discuss and define each of the words.
3. The book Carl Sandburg:  Adventures of a Poet is designed to give background, biography type information about Carl Sandburg and then pair that information with a poem or prose written by Sandburg.  Each of the pairings has a title.  Using the book Carl Sandburg: Adventures of a Poet, read and summarize the passage in the book that coincides with the above words, i.e. Vagabond… for the students, read them the related poem, and show the related pictures from the book.  One way to show the pictures could be using an ELMO type projector.  (Once you see the book, you will understand!  Further, this is a beautifully illustrated book.) This is the students’ introduction to Carl Sandburg.
4. Finish the presentation and readings with the “Historian” section.  Write the poem “Ever A Seeker” on the board, and read it to them.  Have the students copy the poem, but have him/her substitute his/her name for “America”, each time it comes up.  After copying the poem, with his/her name inserted, read the poem to a partner, and listen to the partner read his/her poem.  Keep the sheet of paper with the poem for future reference.
   
   

• Read aloud either Prairie-Town Boy or Always The Young Strangers (depending on grade level and teacher choice) in groups
• Describe basic story elements (protagonist, antagonist(s), POV, theme, conflict, climax, resolution)
• Identify the characteristics of an autobiography/memoir
• Read related poems from Sandburg’s Chicago Poems and compare/contrast
• Identify the characteristics of a poem
• Develop vocabulary list w/definitions and activities
  
  

• Assessment Rubric (see Charts, figures and other Teacher Materials)
• Rubric record sheet (see Charts, figures and other Teacher Materials)

Materials:
Carl Sandburg Museum object, CARL 111685: “Kid Finish Cambridge Blue” note card style stationary, envelopes, first class stamps
Description:
Carl Sandburg lived 89 years, from 1878 to 1967.  During his lifetime methods of communication changed radically.  When he was a child, people communicated only through letters, (see museum object) telegrams or calling cards.  By the time he died, people were not only using letters and telegrams, but also ham radios and telephones. The object of this activity is to have students explore the way communication has changed and is changing in a single person’s lifetime.  Once students discover how ways of communication changed during Sandburg’s lifetime, have them identify the many new ways we communicate now and have them predict the changes to communication methods in the next sixty years! 

Essential Questions:
How did communication methods change during the lifetime of Carl Sandburg?
How will communication methods change during our lifetimes?

Higher level thinking questions:
What is communication?
What are the difficulties of communication?

• Analyze communication methods during the lifetime of Carl Sandburg (1878-1967).
• Compare/contrast those communication methods with current methods.
• Predict future methods of communication.
• Evaluate the “quality” of communication methods.

1. Show students museum object (note cards).  You may also wish to bring a set of note cards from your personal stash.
2. Have students brainstorm different types of correspondence people send through the mail.
3. Explain how calling cards, telegrams and early telephone systems worked.
4. Have students analyze (through discussion) these methods of communication, determining the different impacts each type made upon sender/receiver.
5. Have students brainstorm current ways we communicate with one another and compare/contrast them with those methods during Sandburg’s time. 
6. Have student groups create predictions of future methods of communication (within next sixty years) and present predictions to class.
7. Have students discuss the qualities of these different types of communication. (personal, impersonal, clear communication vs. easily misinterpreted methods, most efficient, most inefficient, etc.)
8. Culminating activity:  Have students write an actual letter to a friend or family member, address an envelope and put a stamp on it!  Teacher will mail.

Follow up:  Students will discover and share with class how the recipient of the letter reacted upon receiving the letter.

Carl Sandburg’s stereographs

Use these copies of stereographic slides sold by Sandburg as he worked his way through college, have the students study the pictures shown:

CARL 63050AF13, CARL 63050AF51, CARL 63841N45, CARL 63841N73

• Research the locations to discover if there have been any changes since the picture was taken.
• What are the stereotypes presented in the pictures?
• What is the focus in each of the pictures?

Students can then create their own set of “stereographs” on a topic of their choice, and develop a “sales pitch” to interest another class in buying a set of these slides.