Lesson Plan: “Elizabeth Fry,” Chapter 5 of Good Friends

This lesson plan, based on the life of Elizabeth Fry, include service learning projects appropriate for middle school students. The story itself focuses on Quaker testimonies, and the value of having mentor. It comes from a chapter of Good Friends, which was written in 2002 by Judith Baresel, illustrated by Ken Hutchinson. For more lessons from books, see Book Reviews and Lesson Plans for Children

Overview

These lesson plans are for ages 10-13. The material in this lesson plan could be used for several lessons. It could also fit into a unit on the peace, equality, simplicity or community testimony, or one on “letting our lives speak.”

Synopsis of Chapter

This story begins with Elizabeth Fry as a teenage member of her wealthy Quaker family. She meets several Quakers who impress her and convince her to be a plain Friend, and to do good works. Later in life, after marrying and raising many children, she pioneers work with women and their children in a deplorable prison system. She sets up a school for the children and the mothers, teaching them life skills.

Opening

Start with introductions, if needed, and a check-in. Choose an appropriate quotation or query about equality from your yearly meeting Faith and Practice. Before reading the story, ask the participants to listen for what in Elizabeth’s story relates to their own experience. The class then reads the story.

Then, read through the fifth chapter of Good Friends

Discussion questions

How is Carrie like you, how is she different?
How is the teen-aged Elizabeth Fry like you, how is she different?
What about this story interests you most?
I wonder why this rich woman would care about poor people whose lives were so different from hers.
Invite responses.
How does the work of Elizabeth Fry reflect our Friends testimonies?
Sometimes people on the margins or who are in great need are invisible to those who live very comfortably. I wonder who the people on the margins are in your communities. I wonder who the people in greatest need are where you live. Invite responses.

Activities

Service Learning

Support a homeless shelter through cooking, knitting/ sewing, or organizing a clothing drive.
Ask a support group for families of inmates to suggest service possibilities.

Community Interviews

Ask Quakers who work in prisons, or who work with unhoused people, to come and share their experiences with the class. (Suggest that they read the Fry story first.)

Apply the Story

Read a summary statement about the equality testimony from your yearly meeting book of faith and practice. Invite children to find connections between it and the story.

Research

Ask children to bring in articles or pictures relating to prisons or homelessness, or perhaps some other social condition the group lifts up.

Closing