Goals:

The students will develop a better understanding of the experiences the people on the Titanic lifeboats had who
were forced to trust total strangers.

The students will utilize their communication and expressive skills in a discussion about what they have learned through their journals and through a brief writing assignment.

Materials:

blindfold for each member of the class

things to make noise with (garbage can lids, wood, etc.)

flashlight

a couple of assistants to insure safety

various obstacles for the students to go through (a branch they have to duck under, steps they have to walk up, narrow passages they have to walk through, etc.)

Time:

This lesson will take 2-3 hours.

Procedure:

1.  Instruct the students to put on their blindfolds and have them sit down in the room quietly.

2.  Read this short introduction to the students (or a variation of it):
 

You are about to embark on a journey, a journey somewhat like the one the people of the Titanic were forced to take that fateful night. Each one of you is now a passenger on that ship, and you are one of the lucky ones - you have made it onto a lifeboat. However, your journey does not end here. You must now trust total strangers to help you get through some very difficult times ahead. There is going to be an obstacle course, and other various experiences that your only hopes of survival is through courage and reliance on your fellow passengers.
 
3.  Next, assign roles to each student. This can be done through simple research in A Night to Remember and the characters discussed in that book. Hopefully, the students will remember these characters from the daily reading and journaling. The following is an example:
 
John - You are now John Maynard, an entree chef from the Titanic. You are thirty-five years old, and have a wife and family that you want to return to.
 
4.  After reading each person's role, have the students stand up, join hands to form a line, and walk into a wide open area. Hopefully, they will begin to get the idea that they need to pass on instructions to the people behind them, like "Step up- there's a bump now." Once in an open area, separate the students and have them standing so that they can not touch one another. Then read to them a passage similar to the following:
 
You are now alone. Many of the passengers on board the boats that night were feeling very alone also. Many had just lost their loved ones, people who were very precious to them. They also felt very alone on the ocean, as they could not see any land around them, and were adrift in a wide, vast ocean. We can only imagine that it felt somewhat like what you feel now- like you are totally alone, and without a person to aid you. You are lucky, though, there are people nearby, you just can't see them. This was the case with the Carpathia, as the nearby ship was steaming toward the lifeboats, but the people were totally unaware that they were there.
 
5.  Join the student's hands again. Lead them around a little to let them get a better feel for trusting one another to give directions. Next, have them stop, allow silence to take over, and then make very loud noises around the students. Following this, read a passage similar to the following:
 
You have just experienced something very real to the passengers aboard that ship that night - fear. Fear was something each person faced that night like they never had before. Think of it, you have just lost some of the people closest to you in your life, you're fighting for your survival, and you have no idea if you will be rescued. You will now be going through an obstacle course. Like the passengers that night, you will be faced with challenges that you did not ever expect to meet. You must rely on the people around you, people you don't even really know, to get you through this. You also must prove to everyone else that you are trustworthy. Look out for the people around you; they will then look out for you, and you will all make it through this challenge safely.
 
6.  Lead the students through an obstacle course. This should include things to step over, things to duck under, and tight passageways. NOTE: This is were it is extremely important that there are assistants on hand to insure the safety of the students.

7.  After completing the obstacle course, read a concluding statement such as:
 

You have made it through some very tough challenges, congratulations. You survived because you worked as a team. Like the passengers on the lifeboats, you experienced frustration, fear, teamwork, and finally relief. That is what the passengers faced that night, although on a much bigger scale. You are lucky though - if you were representative of the actual people on board the Titanic, only a few of you would have survived. Congratulations on your hard work during this activity.
 
8.  Allow the students to take off their blindfolds. Then have an open discussion about what they experienced.
Encourage the students to make a list of the emotions they felt and some of the things they themselves experienced. Have the students write these things in their journals.

9.  Now that the students have a better understanding of the experiences that the passengers went through that night, they will be able to write a journal entry from a survivors point of view. This journal entry should incorporate the emotions that the students felt that were similar to those of the Titanic passengers.

10.  Collect all of the journal entries and combine them to form a book to be put on display in the classroom.

Assessment:

The main form of assessment will be the journal entry that the students create. Criteria for success: The student incorporated the emotions he/she felt into the entry. The following is the grading rubric:
 
4 = emotions fully integrated
3 = emotions integrated a couple of times
2 = emotions integrated once
1 = emotions never integrated

Curricular Strands:

Social Studies - re-enforcing the history of the people aboard the Titanic

Language Arts - written expression of thought

Possible Extensions:

Have the students participate in the "Trust Fall" activity. This is where one student stands behind another student who in turn catches the first student when they fall. Safety is a big issue!

The Titanic - developed by Kelly Coleman, Nikki Cosgrove, Megan Mills, & Dorothy Weber

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