This is a nine-week literature unit designed to complement a sixth grade study of the Civil War. The goal of this unit is two-fold: first, students will know the timeline of the war, mastering the objectives described by The National Standards for United States History. This timeline is the backbone of the study as it provides each student with an overview of the war and is a framework for personal and content connections. Second, students will select and read quality works of literature set during the Civil War, the "his stories and her stories." The culminating project of the unit will be "The Scrapbook Project" in which students collect, process, and display information on ten self-selected characters they have met in the literature. This scrapbook will contain four pages on each of the ten characters. These pages will display information about who each character was, where and how he/she lived, and his/her role in the war. The goal of the project is to give students a format to connect the characters' stories with their own and with the events of the Civil War, thereby strengthening their understanding of these dark years in our nation's history.
(Developed for Literature, grade 6; recommended for Literature, grade 6)
