Lesson Plans

All of these lesson plan come from my unit on the American Civil War.

 Lesson plan #1 focuses on slavery and the rising tensions that led to the outbreak of the war. This lesson is the only one of the three that covers multiple days. The focus of the first day is slavery, and the students are tasked with reading first hand accounts of slavery in the United States. In small groups the students examine the documents before sharing what they found in their document with the class. The second day focuses on John Brown. In this lesson the students compare different artistic portrayals of this controversial figure. 

Lesson plan #2 covers the Shelton Laurel Massacre. This lesson starts with the students analyzing at a poem from a local author concerning the event. The lesson then shifts its focus from poetry to newspaper accounts of the incident. By having students look at these primary sources instead of lecturing, they get a first hand look at how the massacre was percieved by the public. This lesson is the "Appalachian connection" for the unit. 

Lesson plan #3 covers reconstruction. This lesson plan focuses on the three different plans for reconstruction and what was finally implemented. The essential question for this lesson is "How can interpretation of the success of reconstruction change based on who you ask?". This question does a good job of encapsulating what the learning goal is for this lesson. The goal is to have students see events through multiple points of view and analyze how multiple groups  might interpret events differently.