Monday: Existing Knowledge of the Civil War

1. Brainstorm in small groups:

a) What do you know about the Civil War?

b) Why did it start?

2. Share ideas with the class and make a poster with all of the ideas.

Tuesday: Why did the north and south go to war in 1861?

1. Watch and discuss: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/debunking-the-myth-of-the-lost-cause-a-lie-embedded-in-american-history-karen-l-cox

Wednesday: Secession of 5 Southern States

1. Read the The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states

2. Make a list of the reasons given in the declaration in groups of 2-3.

Thursday: Individual State Reasons for War

1. Choose Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina or Virginia and read their statement of succession.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states

2. Discuss in state groups: What was the motivation for war? What did the north and south disagree on and do any of these disagreements continue today?

Friday: Class Reflection

1. Discuss: What did you learn that connected with what you knew on Monday? What ideas were new? What ideas did you have that were proved wrong in the primary documents?

2. Make corrections and changes to the class poster.

Monday: What were women doing during the Civil War?

1. Watch: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/videos/women-civil-war

2. Choose a woman to research who lived through and contributed to the Civil War

a) Susie Baker King Taylor

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/susie-taylor

b) Sara Emma Edmonds

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/sarah-emma-edmonds

c) Lovina McCarthy Streight

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/challenging-norm-indianas-lovina-mccarthy-streight

d) Maria Ruíz de Burton

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/maria-ruiz-de-burton

e) Loreta Janeta Velazquez

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/loreta-janeta-velazquez

f) Lola Sánchez

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/lola-sanchez

Tuesday: Researching women on the battlefield

1. Read together as a class the letter from Clara Burton to her family. What were the risks of her choice to go to the battlefield?

https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss11973.007_0162_0210/?sp=13&r=-1.15,-0.145,3.3,1.639,0

2. Conduct research

Wednesday: Researching women in the battlefield cont.

1. Continue research

Thursday: Harriet Tubman was an important spy

1. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq7I_Qdnre

2. Watch: https://america101.com/the-spy-career-of-harriet-tubman-you-might-not-know-about/

3. Make and post a video in your groups from Monday and Tuesday about Harriett Tubman and the woman you chose. What words would you use to describe them?

Friday: Film Festival

1. Finish and share films about women in the Civil War including Harriet Tubman and the woman you selected to research.

2. Post to padlet and share with younger grade class.

Monday: Children in the Civil War

1. Read https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-kids/

2. Make a graphic novel about Johnny Clem, or a child you imagine in the civil war.

Tuesday: Children in the Civil War

1. Watch and Listen: Pink and Say by Patricia Polaco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLf5YJloTGY

Wednesday: Black men were recruited to fight, make sacrifices

1. Look at this document: https://www.archives.gov/files/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/images/recruitment-broadside.gif

2. Discuss: What were Black men promised for fighting? Were those promises kept?

Thursday: Why did the civil war end? What was it like for formerly enslaved people?

1. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7w_vVT8hYQ

2. Discuss: Why didn't Grant take prisoners? What was the hope when the war ended?

3. Port Royal Experiment

4. Read: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/port-royal-experiment-1862-1865/

Friday: Juneteenth

1. Look at General Order #3 (the Junteenth order)

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/182778372

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/general-order-no-3

2. Read: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/06/19/juneteenth-emancipation-slave-stories/

3. Write and post to Padlet: Why was the order necessary?