The social studies content of my nine-week timeline of the unit will be divided as follows:
- Weeks 1 and 2: The Road to War - 1850 - 1861
-
1. Sectional Conflicts
-
2. Agriculture vs. Industry
-
3. Mapping the Slave and Free States
-
4. The Dred Scott Decision
-
5. John Brown and Harper’s Ferry
-
6. The Missouri Compromise
-
7. Kansas - Nebraska Act, 1854
-
8. The Secession of South Carolina
- Weeks 3, 4, and 5: Fighting the War - 1861 - 1865
-
1. Time Line of the War
-
2. Civil War Battles
-
3. Mapping the War
-
4. Strengths and Weaknesses of the North
-
5. Strengths and Weaknesses of the South
-
6. The Call for Volunteers
-
7. The Technology of War
-
8. Reporting the War
-
9. Abraham Lincoln
-
10. The Emancipation Proclamation
-
11. The Gettysburg Address
-
12. Fighting at Sea
-
13. Grant and Lee
-
14. Appomattox, April 9, 1865
- Weeks 6 and 7: The Personal Face of War
-
1. The Life of a Union Soldier
-
2. The Life of a Confederate Soldier
-
3. African American Soldiers
-
4. Wartime Medical Care
-
5. Women in Wartime
-
6. The Life of a Slave
-
7. Children in Wartime
-
8. Abolitionists
-
9. The Conductors of the Underground Railroad
- Week 8: Reconstruction - 1865 - 1870
-
1. Plan for Reconstruction
-
2. The Reconstruction Time Line
-
3. The South, Before and After
-
4. White Southerners and Reconstruction
- Week 9: Project Summary
-
This content will be delivered during the daily forty-five minute social studies class. I will use a variety of instructional techniques, including “hands-on” activities, role-playing, reading from our “America Will Be” social studies text, discussion, and viewing appropriate movies. Whenever appropriate, I will connect the content of the social studies to the students’ literature project, particularly during weeks seven and eight.
The literature timeline will be as follows:
- Weeks 1 and 2: Whole Class Work
-
During these weeks, the project will be presented to the class; with this will be a working timeline and working “character sheets” to guide my students as they read. I will model how to develop the scrapbook pages about the characters by reading Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. This picture book tells the touching, true story of two young men, Pinkus Aylee and Sheldon Russell Curtis, who meet in a field in Georgia during the war. As a class, we will develop pages for Pink, Say, and Moe Moe Bay, Pink’s mother. Finally, I will give short “book talks” on many of the Civil War books I will have in class for my students’ use. Two periods will be devoted to students’ selection of their first reading, developing their initial scrapbook pages, and my reviewing their work for clarification and support. They are responsible for meeting one character independently during these weeks.
- Weeks 3, 4, and 5: Small Group Work
-
I have multiple copies of Paul Fleischman’s book Bull Run, which is about the first major battle of the war. This book is unique because it tells of the battle from sixteen different characters’ points of view. Students will read the book in small groups of no more than four students. I will teach two major during-reading strategies to promote comprehension, “The ABC’s of Comparing and Contrasting” and “Say Something.” As students read, they will have a discussion guide to organize and convey their thoughts. From the book, students will select at least two characters to include in their scrapbook. They are also responsible for “meeting one other character” independently during these three weeks.
- Weeks 6, 7, and 8: Individual Work
-
These weeks will be devoted to students meeting three characters as they work
-
independently. Each literature period dedicated to the project will have a quiet
-
reading time and a “scrapbook” work time. I will review strategies for
-
summarizing text with the whole class. In addition, my role will be to guide and
-
encourage all students and to be a resource for those needing assistance. Students
-
will be responsible for “meeting three characters” during these three weeks.
- Week 9: Project Share
-
All of the literature periods this final week will be devoted to each student sharing his or her Scrapbook Project orally with the class. As they share, they can introduce us to one or two of the characters they met while reading and summarize their favorite text. Approximately five students will share each day; students can decide when they will share by signing up for a particular day. On the last day, I will have a Civil War Tea, with juice, cookies, and fruit.