Civil War Unit Outline

II. Instructional Strategies A. The students will be researching death tolls and different economic backgrounds of people involved in the war. Students will take on the role of different groups represented. For example, some students will research soldiers more closely, while others will take on the roles of civilians, etc. Since they will be looking at how each of these groups of people are involved in the war, we thought it would be a good idea for them to take a field trip to a cemetery. Each student will try to find different graves of the people involved in the role they took on. During their field trip they will look at the different gravestones and what is written on them. They will have prompt sheets with them to write down information they found in the cemetery and to really get them thinking about how their group is represented. They might want to think about the differences in gravestones and the number of gravestones found. B. Taking a field trip to the cemetery was chosen to get them to really start thinking about the people involved in the war on a more personal level. We want them to relate, in some way, to the people they are researching. Taking a trip to the cemetery allows them to see, in part, who they are researching. It allows them to look at these people up close, and see the things their family might have said about them. Going to a cemetery will allow them to really see a direct outcome of the Civil War. Overall, the point of this field trip is to really get them engaged in learning about the Civil War. C. Through our own personal experiences field trips are a very effective way of connecting content knowledge to the students. It gives them an outlet to see what they are learning up close. This semester my class has taken two fieldtrips; both times the students have taken a lot from it. They got a chance to experience what they are learning, which allows them to relate to it better. When students can relate to something they take more out of it. My cooperating teacher loves taking field trips. She agrees that it is very beneficial to the students. In addition to seeing field trips in our placements, we also had a chance to take a trip to a cemetery in this class. We had a chance to see the benefits of doing a field trip like this up close. The field trip we took in this class launched our idea of taking our students to a cemetery to relate to the victims of the Civil War. We have heard nothing but good things about taking students on field trips, and we feel that this is an instructional strategy that will really benefit them in this unit. D. Through various academic readings we found a great deal of support for the use of field trips as an instructional strategy. The article stated that there are many different benefits to using field trips with students, but that it is critical for the teacher to effectively plan ahead what the students will be doing on the field trip. Debra Viadero stated that when students are placed in a new environment their interest is peaked and they can learn more. Also, field trips are a great time for learning because the students are completely submersed in the topic they are learning about. As important as the field trip itself, a broad base of background knowledge is key to a successful field trip. If the students do not have background knowledge or expectations for the field trip they will not understand what they are supposed to be learning through the field trip. Overall, a field trip can be a valuable experience as long as the teacher has planned ahead and given the students a good base of knowledge.

III. Literacy Link A. In our lesson we used several different literacy links. More specifically for this lesson we chose to integrate writing and use poetry. The students are to write about their experience visiting the cemetery. They are to get their emotions out about what they felt, and saw, while they were there. After doing some free writing about their experiences, and answering some prompts given to them, they will write a poem about their experience. They may choose from several different genres of structures poetry, or write a free-verse poem. In addition to writing a poem, they will write their own epitaph. They will write their epitaph from the perspective of someone who has lots a loved one from the war. B. We chose integrated writing and poetry because it helps the students reflect on what they’ve seen, and learned, on a more personal level. It gives them a chance to communicate their emotions through a couple different outlets. In addition, it gives them a purpose for their writing and allows them to see practical examples through their trip to the cemetery. Poetry can be a great way to express many different thoughts at one time, and we feel this is something they will experience when learning about the effects of war. This activity fits into the unit because it is related to a previous activity where they researched different perspectives of people during the Civil War. They will write their epitaph for the civil war perspective they previously researched. Also, it allows them to reflect on their field trip to the cemetery. C. Through discussions with several current teachers we were able to discover why poetry can be an appropriate literacy link in the classroom. Teachers say that students are able to express their thoughts without the typical constraints of sentences and grammar. This is a great way to get students who do not like to write very much involved because poetry is not about the length, but about the ideas that are expressed in the poems. The students will be encouraged to write poems in many different forms and as a result they will be able to find a style that they are comfortable with. We also discussed with our cooperating teachers that students may be more likely to express their thoughts and feelings about a certain event through the poetry and also that students will able to become more comfortable sharing their writing with other students in the class.

IV. Unit Sketch A. Essential Questions 1. How has the Civil War shaped the way the United States is today? 2. Why do you think it is important to treat all people fairly and make sure all people have equal rights?

B. Enduring Understandings 1. Students will discover the many different perspectives of people affected by and involved in the Civil War. 2. The students will compare the Civil War to other ways that the United States has been involved in. 3. Students will brainstorm and formulate research questions. 4. Students will apply their researching skills to learn about many different aspects of the Civil War. 5. Students will be familiar with and exhibit proper etiquette in a cemetery. 6. Students will consider primary sources to see the various effects the war had on many aspects of everyday life. 7. Students will consider the role slavery played in the Civil War and how the attitude towards African-Americans has changed since then. 8. Students will be able to understand the fundamentals of a debate and apply them. Students will apply research from one perspective in the form of a debate.

C. Unit Standards Illinois State Learning Goals 14.F.2 Identify consistencies and inconsistencies between expressed United States political traditions and ideas and actual practices (e.g., freedom of speech, right to bear arms, slavery, voting rights). 16.A.2a Read historical stories and determine events, which influenced their writing. 16.A.1b Ask historical questions and seek out answers from historical sources (e.g., myths, biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork, other visual or electronic sources). 16.A.2b Compare different stories about a historical figure or event and analyze differences in the portrayals and perspectives they present. 16.A.1c Describe how people in different times and places viewed the world in different ways. 16.A.2c Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic documents, images and other literary and non-literary sources. 16.B.2d (US) Identify major political events and leaders within the United States historical eras since the adoption of the Constitution, including the westward expansion, Louisiana Purchase, Civil War, and 20th century wars as well as the roles of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. 16.C.2a (US) Describe how slavery and indentured servitude influenced the early economy of the United States.

17.D.2a Describe how physical characteristics of places influence people’s perceptions and their roles in the world over time. 18.C.2 Describe how changes in production (e.g., hunting and gathering, agricultural, industrial) and population caused changes in social systems.

National Standards 1. Time, Continuity, and Change- Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ways human beings view themselves in and over time. 2. People, Places, and Environments- Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments. 3. Power, Authority, and Governance- Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance. 4. Civic Ideas and Practices- Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic.

D. Outline of Lessons 1. Tuning In- This lesson will serve as the introduction to the entire unit, which will be focusing on the Civil War. This lesson will begin with reading the students a non- fiction book called The Boy’s War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War by Jim Murphy. The teacher will read several accounts that were written by very young boys who were fighting in the Civil War. These accounts will mention the things these boys were seeing and doing everyday as a part of their fighting. After reading the excerpts the teacher will discuss with the students how they would feel if they had to leave their families and do what the young boys in the book had to do. They would talk about different emotions the students would feel and how they would react to going to war. After the class discussion, the students will individually write about a time they were scared, a time they had to make a difficult decision, or a time they were brave. We would talk about what they wrote and compare their experiences to the experiences of the young soldiers.

2. Preparing to Find Out- In this activity the students will be working in pairs and they will be creating a form of a K-W-L chart. The students will discuss what they know or what they think they know about the Civil War and they will have to make a poster that contains both pictures and words demonstrating the different things they know about the Civil War. The students will write down all of the different things they know about the people, places, and causes of the Civil War. They will also want to include the other things that were happening during that time period and what happened as a result of the war. After the students create their posters they will share them with the class. After all of the students share their posters the students will work with their partners again to discuss what they would like to learn more about during the unit. The students will write their questions and ideas on a piece of paper.

3. Finding Out- This activity will be a group project and through this lesson the students will be able to learn more about different areas that they are interested in. Before the students actually begin the finding out lesson, the teacher will use one class period to introduce to the students the idea of research and through this lesson the teacher will present the different types of materials that can be used when researching as well as how to take down this information and compile it in an understandable manner. After the students are a little more familiar with what it means to research the teacher will ask them to share questions they have about the Civil War. The class will have a short discussion about these various questions and then the students will be grouped according to their interests. Each group will form a more precise question and then they will research using the different materials that were mentioned in the introductory lesson. The product of each group’s research will be a short lesson to the class on their question and what they learned. The presentation will include some sort of visual aid to help the class understand the idea being presented. The students should research both the Northern point of view and the Southern point of view when looking at their question.

4. Sorting Out- This activity will be the actual debate the students prepared for in the previous activity. The class will be divided in half and one half will represent the North, while the other half represents the South. Each student will have a different perspective because they will be different types of people who were involved in the Civil War. There will be everyday people, soldiers, important figures, children, and women involved in the debate so there will be information from many different sources. The entire class will participate in the debate and all of the students will have a chance to express their unique viewpoint. (Before the students have the Civil War debate, they will have one or two lessons on the debate format and they will also practice debates using other topics. When the time comes for the Civil War debate the students will know the way a debate is run.)

5. Going Further- The students will be broken up into groups of three or four and each group will be given a photograph from the Civil War and also a primary source from that time. They will be asked to look at the two papers and talk about how each of them presents an important aspect of the Civil War. The photographs will all be different and each one will focus on one aspect of the Civil War that was so important and that set this war apart from the other wars in our country's past. Some examples of photographs that would work are cemeteries, to show the high death toll and that many men were never found again; a ruined city, to help students see the destruction that the war had on all aspects of life; a plantation or slaves, to help students see the root of the problem; and other important ideas. The sources that will be used would be reward posters for runaway slaves, war propaganda, postings for abolitionist meetings, as well as other important documents. The students will also consider what made these important and what they meant to the people of the time. The students will be able to look through non-fiction books if they need some help finding ideas on why their photographs and sources are significant. After each group has discussed their works the class will get together and share all of the photographs and sources.

6. Making Connections- In this activity the students will act out one of the important battles of the Civil War. The students and the teacher will work together to pick out a battle that they believe was very important and that had a great deal of historical significance. Before they act out the battle the students will research what happened at the battle, where the battle took place, and who was an important part of the battle. Then the class will come together to talk about how they will act out the battle and to decide which person each student will be portraying. The students will need to have military leaders, soldiers, and common people for both the Union and the Confederate side. The students will also work on getting costumes and props together in the days before they will be acting out the battle. The main characters in the battle will need to work on a realistic script that could have been possible at that battle. On the day of the battle the students will wear their costumes, carry their props, and they will also listen to speeches of people who were actually at the battle.

7. Taking Action- There will be two activities for Taking Action, the first will be a field trip to a cemetery and the second will be an activity that connects the Civil War to the present-day war with Iraq. The field trip to the cemetery will be an activity that will help highlight the high death toll of the war and the idea that people from the same town or even the same family were fighting against each other in a war. Before going on the field trip the teacher or the students should look up the number of casualties of the Civil War. The casualties should be looked at in several different ways. The students should consider the total number of deaths, the number of Northerners and Southerners that died and also the numbers of different ethnic groups and minorities that died. The students will be comparing and contrasting these numbers before they go on the field trip. Before the students go on the field trip the teacher should try to find a local cemetery that has graves of soldiers who fought in the Civil War, and if that is not possible at least soldiers from some war the United States was involved in. Through this field trip the students will be comparing the graves of the past to the graves of today and how different or similar they are. The students will also be looking to see if there is a difference between the graves of people who were in a war versus people who were not in a war. During the field trip we will be looking at the many different types of epitaphs are on tombstones and the students will be writing an epitaph. After the field trip the students would be writing an epitaph for one of the civil war battles that we have learned about. The students will use the same forms of epitaphs that they have seen on gravestones to write a summary of a Civil War battle. The second part of this lesson will be comparing the Civil War to today’s war in Iraq. The students will be comparing newspapers from today to newspapers from the Civil War era to compare how people viewed the war, how it affected the country, and what different issues were important in each of the wars. E. Instructional Strategies a. Tuning In- This lesson uses primary source materials that are integrated into the book, The Boy’s War. This lesson will also be integrating student writing and having the students remember times in their lives when they felt like the young soldiers did in the Civil War. b. Preparing to Find Out- This lesson will have the students working in partner groups and collectively writing down what they know and what they want to learn in the unit. The lesson will also have them presenting information in front of the entire class. c. Finding Out- This lesson will focus on having the students research a topic they are interested in. The students will use group work to answer a research question, then the students will be teaching the class what they learned.s d. Sorting Out- This lesson will allow the students to use the research they gathered in a debate format. e. Going Further- In this lesson the students will be using documents and primary source materials to try and see what life was really like during the Civil War. The students will be using documents, posters, advertisements, and photographs to try and get a more full picture of life at this time. f. Making Connections- This lesson will be a simulation of an important battle of the Civil War. The students will also be different characters that were at the battle or historically based characters the students create. g. Taking Action- This lesson is two parts and in each of the parts a different type of instructional strategy is being used. In the first part the students will be taking a field trip to a cemetery to learn about the death toll of the Civil War and how those people were remembered. The second part of this stage will incorporate current events where the students will compare and contrast the Civil War with the war in Iraq. F. Unit Bibliography 1. Teacher materials Takaki, Ronald. (1993). A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: sLittle, Brown and Company. Barton, Keith C. and Levstik, Linda S. (2001). Doing History: Investigating With Children in Elementary and Middle Schools, 2nd ed. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Hood, Wendy J. and Steffey, Stephanie. (1994). If This Is Social Studies, Why Isn’t it Boring? Maine: Stenhouse Publishers. Murphy, Jim. The Boy’s War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War. New York: Clarion Books, 1990. The American Civil War Homepage. Home page. 7 December 2004. http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/cwarhp.html

2. Student Materials Wisler, G. Clifton. When Johnny Went Marching: Young Americans Fight The Civil War. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2001. Chang, Ina. A Separate Battle: Women and the Civil War. New York: Puffin Books, 1991. Caravantes, Peggy. Petticoat Spies: Six Women Spies of the Civil War. Greensboro, North Carolina: Morgan Reynolds Publishers, Inc., 2002. Cosner, Shaaron. The Underground Railroad. New York: Franklin Watts, 1991. Sawyer, Ken Knaap. The Underground Railroad in American History. Berkley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 1997. McMullan, Kate. The Story of Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 1997. Blue, Rose and Corinne J. Naden. Harriet Tubman: Riding the Freedom Train. Brookfield, CT: The Millbrook Press, 2003. Arnold, James R. and Roberta Wiener. Life Goes On: The Civil War at Home. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 2002. Tracey, Patrick Austin. Military Leaders of the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1993. Kavanagh, Jack and Eugene C. Murdoch. Robert E. Lee: Civil War Hero. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1995. O’Brien, Steven. Ulysses S. Grant. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991. Marquette, Scott. The Civil War. Vero Beach, FL: Rourke Publishing LLC, 2003. Kops, Deborah. Abraham Lincoln. Woodbridge, CT: Blackbirch Press, Inc., 2001. Bracken, Thomas. Abraham Lincoln. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1998. Colver, Anne. Abraham Lincoln: For the People. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1992. Young, Robert. The Emancipation Proclamation: Why Lincoln Really Freed the Slaves. New York: Dillon Press, 1994.

G. Unit Assessment Plan There will be formative assessment through every lesson the students participate in and there will also be a summative assessment at the end of the unit that will allow students to take all of the knowledge they have gathered and reflect upon the unit. a. Tuning In- The students will be comparing feelings and experiences with young soldiers from the Civil War and they will be graded on these reflections. b. Preparing to Find Out- The students are working in pairs to create a form of a K-W-L chart as a poster. The students will be graded on their chart and their informal presentation to the class. c. Finding Out- The research lesson is a group project so the way the student works in a group is very important. The students will be filling out a self- evaluation that allows them to assess their contribution to the group and their willingness to work as part of the group. Also the groups will be graded on the notecards, or other system, they create to record the information they are learning through their research. d. Sorting Out- In the Civil War debate each student will be expected to participate and the teacher will grade their participation and attention to the debate. e. Going Further- This lesson a small group discussion and the students will be evaluating themselves and their participation in the discussion. f. Making Connections- The students will all be taking a very active role in the Civil War battle and a reflection paper is very important for them to think about all of the different things they were doing and experiencing. The students will be given several questions to think about and these questions will ask about how the students felt, what they thought about the actions of others, what they learned, and how this event fit into the Civil War as a whole. g. Taking action- In the first lesson the students will be graded on writing the epitaphs. The students will use the field trip as time to learn more about epitaphs and then they will write one for one battle of the Civil War. In the second lesson the students will create a Venn diagram comparing the newspapers from the different time periods and they will be graded on these diagrams. All of these assignments will be collected and made into a portfolio for the students to grade with the teachers. In addition to the assignments from each lesson, the students will also write a final reflection paper where they list several of the important concepts that they have learned and also write about their contribution and attentiveness throughout the unit. Once the portfolios are completed each student will have a conference with the teacher where they discuss the different types of work and the quality of the work. They will also talk about the involvement and participation of the student. Together the teacher and student will come up with a grade for the unit.

V. Lesson Going on a Field Trip to a Cemetery

Purpose:  To use the cemetery as a resource to learn about and compare the differences in death tolls between the North and South, Caucasian and African American, etc. Students will compare different gravesites of different types of people. They will observe the different epitaphs so they can write one for the person they researched in a previous lesson.

Essential Questions: 1. How has the civil war shaped the way the U.S. is today? 2. Why do you think it is important to treat all people fairly and make sure all people get equal rights?

Enduring Understandings: 1. The students will become familiar with and use proper etiquette at a cemetery 2. Students will consider the role slavery played in the civil war and how the attitudes towards African Americans have changed since then.

Key Concepts:

 Historical records  Social History  Social Stratification  Social Change  Social Interaction

Standards:

16.A.1c Describe how people in different times and places viewed the world in different ways.

16.A.2c Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic documents, images and other literary and non-literary sources.

16.B.2d (US) Identify major political events and leaders within the United States historical eras since the adoption of the Constitution, including the westward expansion, Louisiana Purchase, Civil War, and 20th century wars as well as the roles of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Adaptations for individual or group differences:  Group students with peers they will work well with.  Group students with special needs in your group so you can provide additional assistance.  Provide a more detailed field trip guide for those who need one.  Provide a more specific format for the epitaph.  If needed, allow a student to dictate their epitaph and have an aide write it down.

Materials:  Field trip permission slips  At least one chaperone per group of students  Cemetery to visit  Field trip guide  Pencils  Paper  Sample epitaphs  Death tolls from the civil war

Teacher Literature:

Takaki, Ronald. (1993). A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Barton, Keith C. and Levstik, Linda S. (2001). Doing History: Investigating With Children in Elementary and Middle Schools, 2nd ed. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Hood, Wendy J. and Steffey, Stephanie. (1994). If This Is Social Studies, Why Isn’t it Boring? Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

Procedure/Description of instructional strategies in action:

1. Give students the death tolls for the civil war, separated by North and South, Caucasian and African American 2. Compare the death tolls and discuss why they might be different. Would they be different today? Why? How? 3. Talk about what an epitaph is. Provide an example of one from the civil war time period. 4. Talk about going on a field trip to the cemetery. Discuss field trip etiquette. 5. Provide a field trip guide for the students, so they know what to look for while at the cemetery. 6. Things to include on the field trip guide: find an epitaph, what does it say, what is the oldest gravestone you can find? What is the date? Can you find a grave from the civil war? Find a grave for a soldier, a general, and any other war figure. Observe a grave stone and write down all of your observations. 7. Divide the class into groups that they are to stay with throughout the field trip. (Each group should have a chaperone) 8. Go on the field trip. 9. After students return, review forms of poetry and have them write a poem that shares their thoughts and feelings they had while on the field trip. 10. Once you have come back from the field trip, discuss what everybody noticed/saw/observed. Discuss death tolls again. 11. Talk about epitaphs again. 12. Tell student that they are to make an appropriate epitaph for the civil war figure they researched for their debate. 13. Share epitaphs with the class and hang them around the room.

Assessment:  Students will be assessed on discussion participation, behavior, and written epitaph.

Formative:  Informally assessing their behavior during the field trip and discussion on death tolls and slavery.

Summative:  Written epitaph for the civil war figure they researched

VI. Reflection A. When we first started to look over this assignment we were very overwhelmed because we were not sure where to begin and we thought the amount of work was going to be a great deal of work. Once we started to work on the project, however, we realized that we had learned many different instructional strategies that would be very beneficial and the example unit that was handed out was a good resource to structure our unit on. We had already decided on a topic and then we realized that we had information from a project completed in a different class so we were able to take several resources from that project and use them again in this unit. The resources that we had were many different fiction and non-fiction books that were used in a literature unit and so we were able to take these books and create activities around them. It was easier to unit when working in a group because we could take the ideas that other people had and then continually build off of them to create a stronger lesson or idea. It was also easier because each person has background information areas and that allowed them to have different perspectives and create different lesson ideas. Our cooperating teachers were able to give us a more realistic perspective on a unit because they know much better than we do what will actually work in a real classroom. Also, through our placements we were each able to experience a field trip and through these field trips we were able to see how students respond and what a valuable learning experience it can be. We considered the “big picture” first and we decided what key perspectives and enduring understandings we decided to include and then we went through the different stages of learning through inquiry and chose an instructional strategy. B. Through planning this unit we learned several important ideas that are not commonly studied in history, whether in elementary school or even college. While reading Takaki, in order to gain background information, we were shocked to learn that although the Civil War is always talked about as a war that only affected Americans, there were a great number of immigrants who were forced to participate in the war. The more wealthy citizens of the United States did not want to fight in the war and as a result they forced many immigrants, especially the Irish, enlist as soon as they arrived in the United States. Through gathering books for students to use we also found a great deal of information on unconventional war heroes. We learned a great deal about how many people were involved in the war that were not given credit and it was surprising to discover that boys, as young as the students in our class, were a part of the war. C. Through planning this unit we discovered that students can really learn history through many different types of activities and that learning can take place in more than just a classroom. The students are capable of learning through many different sources, teaching styles, and they are even able to construct a great deal of knowledge with minimal guidance from the teacher. We learned about many aspects of the Civil War that are not discussed in most history lessons and we think these should be central elements to any Civil War unit. In the future we plan on pulling as many different resources as possible in order to ensure that the students are exposed to as many different perspectives as possible. Although we feel it is important not to completely undermine what the students have learned in the past, it is important to let the students know there may be more to history than they have initially learned.