{"id":461493,"date":"2010-03-22T15:51:30","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T19:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/2504"},"modified":"2010-03-22T15:51:30","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T19:51:30","slug":"teaching-geography-with-children%e2%80%99s-literature-the-patchwork-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/461493","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Geography with Children\u2019s Literature: The Patchwork Path"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"patchwork-path-a-quilt-map-to-freedom.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t <\/p>\n

The Patchwork Path<\/a> is written by Bettye Stround and illustrated by Erin Susanna Bennett.\u00a0 The story is told by Hannah, a ten year old girl, who is a slave on a Georgia plantation.\u00a0 When the story begins, Hannah’s sister has been sold to another plantation and soon after that, her mother passes away.\u00a0 Before her mother died she taught Hannah how to make a special quilt.\u00a0 Each section of the quilt has a special meaning and gives directions to run to freedom.\u00a0 There is a code that goes along with the quilt to remember what each section means.<\/p>\n

The monkey wrench<\/em>
\nturns the wagon wheel<\/em>
\ntoward Canada on the bear’s paw<\/em> trail to the crossroads.
\nOnce they got to the crossroads<\/em>,
\nthey dug a log cabin<\/em> on the ground.
\nShoofly<\/em> told them to dress up in cotton
\nand satin bow ties<\/em> and go to the cathedral church, get married, and exchange double rings.
\nFlying geese<\/em> stay on
\nthe drunkard’s path<\/em> and
\nfollow the stars.<\/em><\/p>\n

The monkey wrench is the quilt itself.\u00a0 One day in spring Hannah’s papa has her air out the quilt and that signals to the other slaves that they will be escaping tonight. The wagon wheel is Hannah’s papa because he is the wagon driver for the plantation so he knows all the roads, streams, and woods and knows where to hide while they are escaping.\u00a0 Hannah and her papa escape that night and run through the woods until they get to a church where they hide under the floor boards until it is safe for them to come out again.\u00a0 The next day they see a flock of geese flying North and they know they must follow the geese to get to freedom.\u00a0 On their journey they find bear paw marks and that leads them to a safe cave to sleep in for the night.\u00a0 They always walked in a zigzag pattern like a drunkard’s path because it would be harder for the Master’s dogs to catch their scent.\u00a0 The Shoofly pattern on the quilt reminded them that if anyone ever came after them they should scatter like flies and then meet up at the spot that they were separated.\u00a0 After a long journey Hannah and her papa finally make it to Lake Erie where they drew a log cabin in the sand to signal that they needed help to cross the lake into Canada.\u00a0 That night a free black man found their sign and brought them new clothes.\u00a0 The new clothes made Hannah and her papa look like they were already free and headed to church.\u00a0 That night they board a boat for Canada and sail into freedom.\u00a0 During their first winter of freedom Hannah makes a new quilt with scraps of their old slave clothing, sections of their other quilt, and new fabric too.\u00a0 Hannah leaves one section blank so that when her sister Mary is reunited with them, they can finish the quilt together.<\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Curriculum Connections
\n<\/strong>The Patchwork Path <\/em>would be a great book to read after student’s have had some experience with maps and directions.\u00a0 It was recommended for grades K – 3, but I think that Kindergarten would be a little too young to use this book to illustrate using maps.\u00a0 It would be better to show how student’s could make a simple map of a familiar area, like their neighborhood or home town and for older students, including a title, legend and compass rose with their map (VA SOL 1.5, 2.6).<\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n