SUBJECT: Social Studies

GRADE: Fifth

TECHNOLOGY: Internet

BY: Lisa K. Rainen, Harvey Kelly, Michele Cadenas

 

Target Grade/Subject

The target grade for this lesson plan is a heterogeneously grouped fifth grade classroom. Students in this class are studying the Civil War in social studies and have read historical fiction related to the Civil War. They have reached a point in their Civil War unit where the war has begun and soldiers are living on the battlefront.

During fifth grade, students are still in the concrete operational stage of Piagetâs Theory of Cognitive Development. Students at this stage need descriptive examples of different time periods in order to understand how life is different in these different times. As this is an abstract idea, students need the support of direct comparisons and need an opportunity to engage in thought about these differences. Students who have progressed into abstract thought may grasp these ideas better, but can benefit from further exploration.

Behavioral Objectives

1.      Given the fictional thoughts of a Civil War soldier, each student will write a response in their journals with 100% participation.

2. Given access to specific web sites in the life of a soldier during the Civil War, each student will research questions provided on a worksheet to score at least 15 points on the scoring rubric.

Virginia Standards of Learning

Social Studies

5.7 The student will identify causes, key events, and effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction with emphasis on

• life on the battlefield and on the home front.

Materials

• The Thoughts of a Civil War Soldier-excerpted from Paulsen, G. (1998). Soldierâs Heart. New York: Random House Childrenâs Books.
• Student Response Journals
• Life of a Soldier Research handout
• Your Soldier handout
• Scoring rubric for Life of a Soldier
• Access to a computer lab with computers for each student and the following websites book marked:

  http://members.home.net/jkohl/wsc5.html

  http://bbms.bigbear.k12.ca.us/ford/default.htm

  http://civilwar.bizsuite.com/soldier.html

  http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/cwphome.html

  http://www.nara.gov/education/cc/civilwar.html

Lesson

Introduction

• Read 'The Thoughts of a Civil War Soldier' aloud to students.
• Distribute response journals and tell students to write in their journals on one of the following options:
  • Write an entry back as if you are another soldier reading this piece.
  • Write another account of a Civil War event as if you were this person.
  • Write to this person and tell them what you think or felt about his thoughts.
  • Write about what happens after this piece.
  • Respond to this piece in any other way you would like.
• Indicate to students that this is a fictional piece written as if this person were a soldier in the Civil War.
• Ask students to identify facts about the Civil War embedded in this fiction.
• Tell students that they will be writing a piece of historical fiction about the Civil War. Indicate that they will be creating a character who will write a journal about his experiences.

Content Focus

• Distribute the Your Soldier handout and the Life of a Soldier Research handout.
• Indicate to students that they will need to do research on the life of a soldier during the Civil War in order to make their character seem realistic.
• Have students choose to be either a Union or Confederate soldier before beginning research, as well as make any other decisions about their soldier on the Your Soldier form they feel they are ready to make. Students may change their answers as they research. Students who do not wish to be a soldier may choose another role if they justify their choice to you.
• Review the questions with the students, answering any questions they have about the worksheet before they get started.
• Draw student attention to the final part of the handout where they must create and answer their own question.
• Bring the class to the computer lab and seat each student at a computer with the websites indicated in the 'materials' section of this lesson plan already book marked.
• Tell students to use the websites book marked to research the questions and make decisions about their characters.
• Circulate among students while they work, answering questions as necessary.
• Have students that finish early begin working on their first journal entry on the following topic: You have just decided to join the army. Describe how you feel about the war.

Closure

• Discuss the answers to the questions on the handouts as a group, using the following questions:
  • Describe the uniforms of Northern and Southern soldiers. How were they different?
  • Describe the food eaten by Northern and Southern soldiers. What do you think impacted their food choices?
  • Describe the supplies the North and South had. How were these different? Why do you think they were different?
  • Based on your research, what are the most major differences between the Northern and Southern soldierâs lives in this war?

Evaluation

• Students will be evaluated on their answers to the questions on the handout. Answers will be scored using the rubric included.
• Students will also be evaluated on participation in the journal assignment. Students will get a check for participating and writing on either a provided question or a related topic.
• Evaluation of the 'Your Soldier' handout will be incorporated into the final evaluation of the journals students create, looking for a reflection of their decisions in the characters they create.

Taken from the book:

Paulsen, G. (1998). Soldierâs Heart. New York: Random House Childrenâs Books.

The Battle of Bull Run

'Make it stop now! Charley thought, or thought he was thinking until he realized he was screaming it: Make it all stop now!

Death was everywhere, nowhere. Bullets flew past him with evil little snaps and snickers as they cut the air. Next to him Masseyâs head suddenly left his body and disappeared, taken by cannon round that then went through an officerâs horse, end to end, before plowing into the ground.

This canât be, he thought. I canât be here. This is all a mistake. A terrible mistake. Iâm not supposed to be here.

He had forgotten to fire. The officers had marched them into a field in perfect order and told them where to aim and fire, and he had raised his rifle and then the whole world had come at him. The Rebel soldiers were up a shallow grade a hundred yards away, behind some fallen trees, and they had opened on Charley and the others before anyone could fire.

It was like a blade cutting grain. He heard the bullets hitting the men-little thunkslaps-and saw the men falling. Some of them screamed as they fell. Most were silent. Many were dead before they hit the ground. Many were torn apart, hit ten or twelve or more times before they had time to drop.

The men left standing with Charley fired, then the survivors of that round reloaded and fired again, and Charley aimed in the general direction of the Rebels and pulled his trigger, firing blind.

The black powder smoke clouded from the rifles and the rebel guns on the hill and it was impossible to see or to understand anything.'

Your Soldier

Name

Is your soldier from the Union (North) or the Confederacy (South)?

What state is your soldier from? What city or town in that state?

What is your soldier's race? (Note: most soldiers were white, some were black later in the War).

How old is your soldier?

Tell about your soldier's family.

What does your soldier look like?

What is your soldierâs rank?

What did your soldier do before the war?

What sort of weapon does your soldier have?

What supplies does your soldier carry?

What does your soldier eat?

What does your soldier do to get ready to sleep at night?

What does your soldierâs uniform look like? What is it made of?

How does your soldier get from place to place?

How many others are in your soldier's group?

What is your soldierâs reason for going to war?

Name

Research the following questions using the websites book marked on the Civil War. Focus your research on the side of the battle you have chosen (Union or Confederacy).

What did soldiers generally eat? How did they get or make it?

How did most soldiers and information get from place to place? Discuss at least two types of transportation.

What did the uniforms of most common soldiers look like? How might officersâ uniforms looked different? What were they made of?

What different types of weaponry were used in the Civil War? What was carried by common soldiers? By officers? What was transported another way?

What were the most important supplies carried by soldiers? Which were transported in other ways?

What was the average age of the common soldier? Of an officer?

Write your own question about the life of a Civil War soldier and answer it below.

1. What did soldiers generally eat? How did they get or make it?

3-Response includes detailed descriptions and preparation information.

2-Response includes foods eaten without detailed information.

1-Response includes one food eaten by soldiers.

0-No response or uninformed response (such as 'pizza').

2. How did most soldiers and information get from place to place? Discuss at least two types of transportation.

3-Response includes two types of transportation and descriptive details.

2-Response includes two types of transportation without details OR one type with descriptive details.

1-Response includes one type of transportation without details.

0-No response or uninformed response (such as 'cars').

3. What did the uniforms of most common soldiers look like? How might officersâ uniforms looked different? What were they made of?

3-Response includes detailed descriptions that cover at least three of the

following topics: fabric, color, accessories to uniform, details about

different parts of uniform (such as shoes, belts, etc), or description of functionality of uniform.

2-Response includes two of the above OR lacks details.

1-Response includes one of the above OR two but lacks details.

0-Response includes one of the above with no details OR no response or

uninformed response (such as 'tennis shoes')

4. What different types of weaponry were used in the Civil War? What was carried by common soldiers? By officers? What was transported another way?

3-Response includes detailed descriptions or both common soldier and officer

weapons and includes a mention of cannons.

2-Response includes no mention of cannons OR only soldiers or officers, with

details.

1-Response lacks details.

0-No response or uninformed response (such as 'SCUD missile').

5. What were the most important supplies carried by soldiers? Which were transported in other ways?

3-Response includes details of at least 3 different important supplies carried by

soldiers and mentions at least one supply transported another way.

2-Response includes details of 2 different important supplies carried by soldiers

and mentions at least one supply transported another way.

1-Response includes only 1 supply carried by soldiers OR no mention of

supplies transported another way.

0-No response or uninformed response (such as 'bookbag').

6. Write your own question about the life of a Civil War soldier and answer it below.

3-Wrote and answered a question related to the life of a Civil War soldier.

2-Only wrote a question or an answer related to the life of a Civil War soldier.

1-Only wrote a question or an answer related to the Civil War, but not soldier

life.

0-No response or uninformed response (such as a question not related to Civil

War).

15-18: A

12-14: B

9-11: C

7-8: D

0-6: F