Education Technology


CWF: The Slave Trade

Activity Overview

Students use the NoteFolio(tm) Application to analyze a series of primary source documents about the nature and experience of the Middle Passage of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Before the Activity

See the attached Lesson PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity.

Print the appropriate pages from the Lesson for your class.

Install the NoteFolio(tm) App on the students' graphing calculators following the attached instructions

During the Activity

  • Distribute the appropriate pages from the Lesson to your class
  • Distribute the NoteFolio(tm) file(s) to your class using TI Connect(tm) and the appropriate TI Connectivity cable
  • Follow the activity procedures outlined in the Activity


  • Students will:
  • Make and list five inferences about the physical and emotional impact of being enslaved
  • Describe the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the impact it had upon the people who were a part of it
  • Validate of disprove their inferences by gathering evidence from primary sources
  • Identify bias and point-of-view in primary source materials
  • Describe the experience of the Middle Passage as a part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the impact it had upon the people who were part of it
  • Write an editorial, from the perspective of an imbedded reporter, on the nature of the experience of the Middle Passage for all who were involved
  • After the Activity

    EVALUATION: Explain to students that they will assume the role of an embedded reporter. The reporter has been traveling with either the slaves who were brought to North America on a slave ship or the Europeans who are involved in the slave trade. Their task is to write an editorial about the Middle Passage experience using the information that was collected and recorded in their three NoteFolio files. The editorial piece should cover the 5Ws (who, what, when, where, and why), and must develop a thesis statement.