5th Grade Social Studies Unit 8

Big Idea:

Explore the Civil War and the impact it had on the United States.

Student Expectations:

Priority TEKS

5.4(E) Identify the causes of the Civil War, including sectionalism, states´ rights, and slavery, and the effects of the Civil War, including Reconstruction and the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US Constitution

5.4(F) [Supporting] explain how industry and the mechanization of agriculture changed the American way of life

5.12(B) [Supporting] evaluate the effects of supply and demand on business, industry, and agriculture, including the plantation system, in the United States.

Ongoing TEKS

5.7(C) [Supporting] Locate on a map important political features such as the ten largest urban areas in the United States, the 50 states and their capitals, and regions such as the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Southwest

5.21(B) [Supporting] Explain how examples of art, music, and literature reflect the times during which they were created.

5.24 Social studies skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of valid sources, including electronic technology. The student is expected to:

5.24(A) [Tools to Know] Differentiate between, locate, and use valid primary and secondary sources such as computer software; interviews; biographies; oral, print, and visual material; documents; and artifacts to acquire information about the United States;

5.24(B) [Ways to Show] Analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions;

5.24(C) [Ways to Show] Organize and interpret information in outlines, reports, databases, and visuals, including graphs, charts, timelines, and maps;

5.24(D) [Ways to Show] Identify different points of view about an issue, topic, or current event; and

5.24(E) [Ways to Show] Identify the historical context of an event.

5.25(A) [Tools to Know] Use social studies terminology correctly;

5.25(B) [Ways to Show] Incorporate main and supporting ideas in verbal and written communication;

5.25(C) [Ways to Show] Express ideas orally based on research and experiences;

5.25(D) [Ways to Show] Create written and visual material such as journal entries, reports, graphic organizers, outlines, and bibliographies; and

Student Learning Targets:

• I will understand the development of industry in the United States in the early 1800s
• I will understand the changes in communication, transportation, and manufacturing
• I will understand how mechanization and industrialization led to differences between North and South including urbanization
• I will write to analyze the causes and effects of slavery in the Southern United States.
• I will write to show comparisons between the Northern economy and the Southern economy in relation to industry and slavery.
• I will using textual evidence, write from the perspective of a Union or a Confederate soldier about what the war was like (i.e. daily life) from the beginning, middle, and the end of the Civil War.
• I will write to make conclusions of life in the North as compared to life in the South during the Civil War by writing letters back and forth between cousins in the two regions.
• I will write to explain the philosophy of Reconstruction as well as explain the actual causes and effects of Reconstruction in relation to the North and South and freedmen.
• I will write a letter to a freedman living in the South in 1865. Explain to him what life in the United States is like and how the country has changed since the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Essential Questions:

• How did the Industrial Revolution lead to changes in manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture in the United States?
• How did the cotton gin impact slavery and the plantation system?
• How might people living in the North and South might have felt they were living in different countries in the 1800s?
• How did compromise lead to more problems?
• How did the election of 1860 affect Southern states?
• What was the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation?
• What was the primary reason the Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the war?
• How did women contribute to the war effort?
• Was Reconstruction a good plan?
• Why were the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution so important?

Extra Information:

Adopted Textbook: American Legacy, Studies Weekly

District Grading Policy

Texas Gateway Online Resource Center