The Cotton Boll

It was the day that my intern had to do a social studies lesson. We are currently talking about plantations and the invention of the cotton gin, so this was also the topic of her lesson. My portable mate and I team teach social studies, which meant that our interns taught their lessons to both classes...even a bigger challenge than teaching this type of lesson to just 22 kids...she had 40.

Here's the outline for the lesson:
- The class discussed how much cotton slaves were required to pick/seed every day -- 1 pound. 50 bolls = 1 pound
- The kids got to gin their own boll of cotton. (I had no idea there were so many seeds in one boll.)
- They had to write a journal entry as a slave who had been picking cotton all day.

The kids LOVED this lesson. I will definitely be repeating this lesson next year. The hands-on experience was great...they truly began to understand how hard it was to pick/seed the cotton every day. And while they were seeding the cotton, they were complaining that it was too hard. So, all of the teachers were walking around telling them that they if they didn't pick better and faster, they would be whipped (not literally of course) or they would have to pick even more cotton. They threatened to quit or run away...which meant they were asking for another whipping (not literally of course). The kids had a great time pretending during this lesson and really understood the objective.