American History, and the People and places in the North and South

Page 1American History, and the People and Places in the North and the SouthEssentail Question: How did the Civil War affect the United States of America? Grade Level: Fifth GradeStrand: American HistoryStandards from the Arizona Department of Education (Arizona Department of Education, 2015): Strand 1: American History

A study of American History is integral for students to analyze our national experience through time, to recognize the relationships of events and people, and to interpret significant patterns, themes, ideas, beliefs, and turning points in Arizona and American history.  Students will be able to apply the lessons of American History to their lives as citizens of the United States.

Concept 1:  Research Skills for History

Historical research is a process in which students examine topics or questions related to historical studies and/or current issues. By using primary and secondary sources effectively students obtain accurate and relevant information. An understanding of chronological order is applied to the analysis of the interrelatedness of events. These performance objectives also appear in Strand 2: World History. They are intended to be taught in conjunction with appropriate American or World History content, when applicable.

Concept 2:  Early Civilizations    Pre 1500

The geographic, political, economic and cultural characteristics of early civilizations made significant contributions to the later development of the United States.

Concept 3:  Exploration and Colonization    1500s – 1700s

The varied causes and effects of exploration, settlement, and colonization shaped regional and national development of the U.S.

Concept 4:  Revolution and New Nation    1700s – 1820

The development of American constitutional democracy grew from political, cultural, and economic issues, ideas, and events.

Concept 5:  Westward Expansion   1800 – 1860     

Westward expansion, influenced by political, cultural, and economic factors, led to the growth and development of the U.S.

Concept 6:  Civil War and Reconstruction    1850 – 1877

Regional conflicts led to the Civil War and resulted in significant changes to American social, economic, and political structures.

Concept 7:  Emergence of the Modern United States    1875 – 1929

Economic, social, and cultural changes transformed the U.S. into a world power.

Concept 8:  Great Depression and World War II    1929 – 1945

Domestic and world events, economic issues, and political conflicts redefined the role of government in the lives of U.S. citizens.

Concept 9:  Postwar United States    1945 – 1970s

Postwar tensions led to social change in the U.S. and to a heightened focus on foreign policy.

Concept 10:  Contemporary United States    1970s – Present

Current events and issues continue to shape our nation and our involvement in the global community

(Arizona Department of Education, 2015).

Page 2Reading from the The Civil War Home Page...             The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places, from Valverde, New Mexico, and Tullahoma, Tennessee, to St. Albans, Vermont, and Fernandina on the Florida coast. More than 3 million Americans fought in it, and over 600,000 men, 2 percent of the population, died in it.
The homes of Americans became headquarters, American churches and schoolhouses sheltered the dying, and huge foraging armies swept across American farms and burned American towns. Americans slaughtered one another wholesale, right here in America in their own cornfields and peach orchards, along familiar roads and by waters with old American names.
In two days at Shiloh, on the banks of the Tennessee River, more American men fell than in all the previous American wars combined. At Cold Harbor, some 7,000 Americans fell in twenty minutes. Men who had never strayed twenty miles from their own front doors now found themselves soldiers in great armies, fighting epic battles hundreds of miles from home. They knew they were making history, and it was the greatest adventure of their lives.

The Civil War has been given many names: the War Between the States, the War Against Northern Aggression, the Second American Revolution, the Lost Cause, the War of the Rebellion, the Brothers’ War, the Late Unpleasantness. Walt Whitman called it the War of Attempted Secession. Confederate General Joseph Johnston called it the War Against the States. By whatever name, it was unquestionably the most important event in the life of the nation. It saw the end of slavery and the downfall of a southern planter aristocracy. It was the watershed of a new political and economic order, and the beginning of big industry, big business, big government. It was the first modern war and, for Americans, the costliest, yielding the most American fatalities and the greatest domestic suffering, spiritually and physically. It was the most horrible, necessary, intimate, acrimonious, mean-spirited, and heroic conflict the nation has ever known.

Inevitably, we grasp the war through such hyperbole. In so doing, we tend to blur the fact that real people lived through it and were changed by the event. One hundred eighty-five thousand black Americans fought to free their people. Fishermen and storekeepers from Deer Isle, Maine, served bravely and died miserably in strange places like Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Fredericksburg, Virginia. There was scarcely a family in the South that did not lose a son or brother or father.

As with any civil strife, the war was marked by excruciating ironies. Robert E. Lee became a legend in the Confederate army only after turning down an offer to command the entire Union force. Four of Lincoln’s own brothers-in-law fought on the Confederate side, and one was killed. The little town of Winchester, Virginia, changed hands seventy-two times during the war, and the state of Missouri sent thirty-nine regiments to fight in the siege of Vicksburg: seventeen to the Confederacy and twenty-two to the Union.

Between 1861 and 1865, Americans made war on each other and killed each other in great numbers — if only to become the kind of country that could no longer conceive of how that was possible. What began as a bitter dispute over Union and States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America. At Gettysburg in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said perhaps more than he knew. The war was about a "new birth of freedom."ReferencesArizona Department of Education. (2015). K-12 Academic Standards. Retrieved 03 25, 2015, from Arizona Department of Education: www.azed.gov/standards-practices/socilal-studies-standard/The Civil War Home Page. (1997-2012). Dedicated to the participants, both North and South, in the Great American Civil War. Retrieved 03 25, 2015, from The Civil War Homepage: www.civil-war.net/

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This five day lesson is designed to guide students in developing a foundation and an understanding of the components that contributed to the Civil War. Through careful planning and investigation of archival documents, census inofrmation, primary sources, and photographs: students will appreciate the everyday life in the North and South, and how it contributed to all aspects of American History, World History, Civics/Government, Geography, and Economics. Ultimately, students will address in an analytical essay how the Civil War affected the United States.

Day 1: Lesson is presented. Guidelines will be established for student, and they will understand what is expected of them and how they will go about completing this assignment of the Civil War. They will begin researching and planning the investigation of census information, promary sources, scholary sources, and locating pictures to get an overall idea of the intensity of the Civil War. Lastly, they will define key vocabulary words with a partner, to build upon meaning and underdstanding.

Activity one is completed.

Day 2: This is an important day for research and the combination of ideas. Students will join a peer and they will begin a discussion in the differences that existed between ordinary Americans living in the North and those living in the South in the years before the Civil War, the important issues that reflected the differences between life in the North and the South, and the various changes that took place in the United States at the time of the Civil War. After brainstorming with a peer, students will return to their work areas and solely compose a graphic organizer comparing life pre-Civil War and post-Civil War. 

Activity two is completed.

Day 3: Day three is research day. Students will work independently at their desks, at computers, and have access to books at the school library. They will build upon thier ideas, gather their ideas, and come up with thoughts to compose their essay.

Day 4: This day is the prewriting stage of the analytical essay. Planning and Structure play a vital role as students decide which ideas they will use, decide how to order those ideas, and sit down with their plan and start their rough draft. 

Day 5: This is the final day of writing their analytical essay. Students will revise, add, rearrange, remove, replace, and edit details to provide stronger examples and quotations to support their results. They will ensure thoughts are clear, sentences are strong and supportive, and grammatically correct.  In addition they will check for punctuation, spelling, and provide all academic sources to support their information. Lastly, they will turn in their graphic organizers and essays for publishing. 

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Objective:

The objective of this assignment is to guide students in learning of the importance of the Civil War and how it contributed to the making of the United States of America. They will be able to identify three differences and three similarities between life in the North, and the South in the years before and after the Civil War. They will also be able to openly discuss how these differences contributed to serious disagreements between the North and South, how they contributed to World History, Civics/Government, Geography, and Economics. Finally, by combining a graphic organizer, participating in two group activities, and composing an analytical essay: students will have gained a tremendous amount of information to successfully understand the Civil War and how it contributed to our country.

Preparation:

The Civil War erupted after a long history of compromises and sectional debates over representation, federalism, tariffs and territories (The Civil War Homepage, 1997-2012). In preparing this lesson, students will have an overall understanding of the obvious disagreements and dismiliarities amongst the North and the South. Therefore, students will incorporate their graphic organizers and group activities to acknowledge, to compare, and to develop respect in the differences between the North and South. Finally, in doing so they will become aware of the changes that contributed to the conflicts and resoltuions leading to the formation of the United States of America.

Purpose:

The purpose of this lesson is to prepare students with background information for understanding the causes of the Civil War. Sometimes people treat each other unfailry. During the Civil War, the people, the places, and the events surrounding it encountered many conflicts and differences. This lesson will allow students to better understand and focus on the differences of people living amongst the Civil War and analyze the economy, the lifestyles, and how jobs affected the attitudes and perceotions of people in the North and South.

Required Resources: 

Microsoft Word Program, Microsoft Excel Program, Social Studies Textbook, and Internet.

Required Materials:

Colored Pencils, Markers, Paper, Pencil 

Strategies:  Defining key vocabulary in Day 1: promoting building upon social studies vocabulary. Integrating and promoting language arts by allowing students to have positive experiences with writing, reading, speaking, listening, and thinking that are supported through learning literacy. Hands-on experience in role-playing and participating in Activity 1 and 2, making graphic organizers,and making Venn Diagram. Lastly, students will be grouped according to abilities and strengths, and learning goals and objectives: Within-Class Grouping, and Between-Class Grouping.

Vocabulary: 

Abraham Lincoln, American Civil War, Appomattox Courthouse, Battle of Gettysburg, Border states, casualities, Confederate, conflicts, disagreements, Emancipation Proclamation, intervene, Missouri Compromise, secession, Sherman's March, slavery, Ulysses S. Grant, and union.

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Lesson Activities:

Activity 1: Conflicts and differences of the North and the South

Students will brainstorm an idea that would cause a conflict or disagreement amongst friends or relatives that would cause a seperation. They will then begin a conversation between each other, and encourage ideas that would create conflict and also ways that would enhance resolutions. Finally, they will construct questions like...

Has anyone ever been in a situaition where they have witnessed or heard a conflict or serious disagrement? What was happening that caused this conflict or disagreement? Was one person attempting to resolve the situation, while the other was person was intensifying the situation?  Was the situation caused by a misunderstanding or a lack of communication?

Students will then be partnered in groups of five and write down personal examples addressed above. They will then discuss how these personal examples affected their lives, and what they learned to better understnad one another and effectively communicate between each other. Finally, they will be called upon to role-play a sitauation and explain how to resolve it.

Activity 2. Different Needs

Have students compare the following views of Richmond and New York City, two important urban areas. Richmond was the third largest city in the South, and it became the capital of the Confederacy. New York was the largest city in the North (The Civil War Homepage, 1997-2012). How did this conflict affect American History, World History, Civics/Governemnt, Geography, and Economics? (Examples: world debates and issues, goverment rulings/decisions, occupied land, and jobs).

What differences between New York City and Richmond contiruted to conflict?  Which city would be more effective in contributing to a war effort? Was one urban city more responsible for the issues that promoted the Civil War?

This activity will be completed in the same groups of the previous five. They will use the Internet to conduct research, and have access to social studies books in the classroom. They will also address the questions mentioned above by implementing a Venn diagram. The Venn Diagram will point out the differences amongst the two urban areas. Lastly, groups of five will be brought to the front of the class to share peer/share their results: promoting the ability to write, read, speak, listen, and think. 

Internet Resources: Extending The Lesson

American Memory- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html/

Library of Congress- http://www.loc.gov/

Causes of the Civil War- http://www.historynet.com/causes-of-the-civil-war/

The Civil War Home Page- http://www.civil-war.net/

U.S. History- http://www.ushistory.org/

Page 6This lesson will clearly demonstrate student knowledge of the daily life before the Civil War, and place strong emphasis and support on the differences between the North and South. Students with have sufficient access to technology, and sociual studies learning materials, and be bale to search for additional documents in previously approved resources listed. Finally, students will be assessed through...
Formative Assessments: Observation, Questioning, Discussions, Graphic Organizers, Peer/Self Assessments, Practice Presentations,Visual Representations, and Rough Drafts.
Authentic Assessments: Analytical Essay
Summative Assessment: Activity 1, Activity 2, Grading RubricFormative, Authentic, and Summative Assessments will determine the students overall participation and success throughout this assignment. Through assessment, educator will be able to improve learning, focus on how well students are learning, and what is intend for them to learn. By establishing learning objectives, assessment methods measure selected learning outcomes to determine if the goals and objectives have been met for sociual studies instruction. Most vitally, the educator provides learning opportunities, assesses learning, and use the results to improve and understand effective student learning and outcomes.Page 7

American Civil War Grading Rubric