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Underground Railroad Role Play
Students experience what the Underground Railroad was really like by role-playing as escaping slaves. They must travel to the North Star until they cross an imaginary line into Canada.
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History Biographies
Students explore the life and the contributions of five people from U.S. history in the five lessons of this unit. james Madison, Dolly Madison, Sequoyah, Harriet Tubman, and Clara Barton are presented to students for exploration and...
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Need for Reconstruction: Devasation and Liberation in the South
Eighth graders examine the amount of destruction in the South following the Civil War. They explore the reasons why Reconstruction was needed.
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The Literature of Upheaval
In groups, 8th graders read different documents and answer questions on the Civil War period. Students read documents by Thoreau, Stowe and Frederick Douglas.
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Westward Expansion Unit
Eighth graders investigate the importance of Westward Expansion in the history of the United States in this unit of lessons.
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Using Art to Study the Past: Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation - 1863
Fifth graders analyze artwork as historical artifact and recognize that the Emancipation Proclamation was a major turning point in the Civil War.
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The Civil War through a Child's Eye
Pupils read Paul Fleischman's Bull Run in Readers Theater format. Next, students examine and interpret primary source images of Civil War era pupils and reveal their understanding of a child's perspective in a literary portrait.
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FOCUSING ON CIVIL WAR HISTORY & INFORMATION SEEKING
Students use a Web resource to obtain information on a specific subject; study the nature of naval warfare and commerce raiding during the Civil War; and assume the identity of a participant and viewing the events of the era from that...
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What Happened to Slaves When their Owners Died?
Learners analyze last and testaments of former slaveowners to identify and explain economic, social and cultural differences between the North and the South leading up to the Civil War.
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Unionism versus Secessionism in Virginia
Eleventh graders, in groups, analyze newspaper articles and then debate and discuss if Virginia should succeed from the Union or not.
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Letters, Telegrams, and Photographs Illustrating
Students research the factors that are important in winning a battle in the Civil War. In a second activity they are assigned the role of a specific type of person during the Civil War and asked to describe what it's like being that person.
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Early America
Fifth graders, in groups, study the differences between the 13 Original Colonies, then explore the relationship between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
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Southern Support During the Civil War
Students investigate primary documents to help them answer the question of whether of southern soldiers and citizens abandoned the Confederate cause as the war progressed.
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Substitution in the Civil War
Students investigate primary sources to determine why soldiers might have wanted substitutes, and what the role of the substitute was.
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Using Maps to Uncover a Soldier's Life
Students investigate maps to examine the life of a Confederate soldier based on troop movements as well as letters and diaries.
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Mine eyes have seen...Union soldiers in the South
Learners examine letters written by Union soldiers fighting in the South during the Civil War, and write descriptions of the South using information found in the letters.
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Using Maps to Uncover a Soldier's Life
Learners follow path of the Virginia 5th Infantry as it fought its battles, using a rich, interactive map.
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What was life like for the Civil War Soldier?
Students view various primary sources and complete a worksheet about the sources. They choose at least three sources: a print, a letter and a newspaper article and record relevant information. They write a journal response about life as...
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What Would Pink Say
Students create Venn diagrams of similarities and differences between two main characters in Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco.
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Looking Back at Pre-Civil War Slavery
Eighth graders explain the nature of slavery, the impact of slavery on African-Americans, and how slavery intensified the conflict between the North and South that eventually led to a major cause of the Civil War.
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The South Wins Gettysburg!
Young scholars explore American Civil War, hypothesize that the Union Army was defeated at Gettysburg by Lee's army, and write an essay describing how different North America would be today if the South had won the Civil War.
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The Forgotten Soldiers: Their Glory Remembered
Students watch a video and then role-play what it would have been like to be a member of the 54th Massachusetts regiment during the Civil War.
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Echoes of Blue and Grey: Weekend Warriors
Students view a video about the Civil War and then describe famous battles from the perspective of either the Union or the Confederate side.