Lesson Plans |Philosophy of Educ

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Civil War Webquest

Introduction

Imagine you are living in America, minding a peaceful lifestyle, at the outbreak of the Civil War. Although you are not interested in fighting, you are pulled into service. Whether you are taken for the north or south is up to you. You must decide:

-“What should I do?”

-“What has happened to my family?”

-“Should I join the war effort at all?”

-“What is going to happen in my life from this

point out?”

-“What happens if I end up on the wrong side at the end?”

The Task

You are to write a journal commencing in 1860 so that it also records how your life was before the war, the war years of 1861-1865 and continues for one year after the war.

Your journal is a historical record to let your children and children's children know what you were experiencing before, during and after the war. Your descendants should understand the enormous hardships that you experienced in the war years - whether you were in the army or stayed at home.

Your journal should contain a minimum of 10 entries, being 2 for the year 1860, 6 during the war years and 2 for the year after the war.

Your journal should be organized and presented chronologically as a PowerPoint.

Resources

You may use a variety of resources in order to find the necessary information. However, because this is a project using the web, there needs to be a least five websites. This link to Civil War websites will help get you started.

http://www.clovisusd.k12.ca.us/clark/LMC/civil_war_websites.htm

The Process

Your teacher will assign you one of the following roles.

Union Soldier

-18 years old

-You have enlisted with your older brother and left your widowed mother and two sisters at home

-You were hoping to go to College next year

Confederate Soldier

· -Approximately eighteen years of age.

· You have enlisted with your father and left behind a mother & two younger brothers aged seventeen & sixteen who both wanted to enlist, but your mother needs them at home to help run the farm.

· You are engaged to your childhood sweetheart and were hoping to get married within the year.

Southern Belle

· Approximately sixteen years of age.

· Your fiancé, father and older brother have enlisted in the Confederate Army.

· You are left at home with your mother and the slaves to run the plantation.

Northern Woman

· Approximately 20 years of age.

· Married to a man from the south whose immediate family still lives there.

· You live in Baltimore, Maryland

Female Abolitionist

· Approximately thirty years of age and your husband has recently died from a farm related accident.

· You live on a one hundred acre farm in Pennsylvania with a couple of farmhands and your two children, a boy aged seven and a girl aged five.

· You are currently helping nine slaves, two adult males, three adult women and four children under the age of ten escape to the north.

You will be working in groups, sharing information, but each student will submit their own final journal

Conclusion

You should now realize that the Civil War was fought as a means of trying to create an equal country.

What should we do to ensure everyone is equal?

Is Civil War the only solution?

Created By: Mike Anderson
mdanderson_5483@yahoo.com
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Last Updated 9/5/06