CAROLYN
BEITZEL
Diary #21
My
Civil War Unit – Part One
This is one of my favorite topics in teaching American history. There are so many stories to tell and so many points of view. In this unit I wanted foremost for the students to become citizens of the Union and the Confederate States of America, to take sides, much as the people did during this time.
From the onset each class was divided into Union and Confederate supporters and they are to refer to their perspective to understand the inner workings of society and the people who lived during the 1860's.
The students have been assigned roles such as soldier, Southern belle, Northern abolitionist, or spies, that they will reflect on throughout the unit. When tasks are assigned each student is to complete the task using the perspective of their person. For example, when writing a journal entry about witnessing the Battle of Bull Run, it should be done "'in character." Prior to studying the Civil War we read about John Brown and his raiders burning barns across the state of Kansas, the Missouri Compromise and how communities along the border states divided their support. We also learned how the Dred Scott decision affirmed the immorality of slavery. We discussed how Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a spark between abolitionists and those who believed in slavery. We analyzed historical political cartoons. We debated whether Harriet Stowe and Harriet Tubman could be considered heroes.Throughout all this learning we created Wanted Posters, book jackets or movie posters and our own political cartoons.
The Introduction I invited a friend of mine, a Civil War enthusiast, to come in and just talk to my students about what he knew. To share his knowledge he used maps of the major Civil War battles, he talked about the defeats of Grant, Lee and Sherman and finally explained that more men died in the Civil War than in all other wars fought by the United States. Students began raising questions about the lives of the generals, the battles, and the medical treatment given to soldiers. As a result of the visit my student's curiosity was piqued and their interest generated an abundance of questions that they hoped to investigate further. Part One What he had done was engage the students in a discussion by asking them to inspect and evaluate what they already knew. He encouraged them to provide the answers to their student generated questions. For the next week or so I plan to incorporate a cooperative learning strategy called the Group Investigation Model (Sharan & Sharan and Slavin). This model is research-based and requires the students to take an active part in collaborating on research procedures, evaluating research questions and aiding each other during the research process. It also requires me to take a back seat and become a facilitator or moderator instead of pontificator. Because each of my classes meet in 44 minutes and rarely can we get into the library, adopting this method means working within a restricted framework. Therefore, minimizing time on research was essential to the success of the process. I provided students with packets of resource materials that eliminated time spent in searching for key resources, obtained books from the school library, catalogued our class library so all sources were readily available and directed students to specific Internet web sites. In addition, I guided students in setting short-term goals in order to complete specific tasks within each class period. Had time and resources allowed, this research portion would have been given over wholly to the students, and they would have been highly skilled in research at the end of the project. They still will obtain skills that they did not have prior to the project, but the lack of time will not allow us to really perfect them this time. Making a smooth transition from a teacher-directed program to a research-based structure in which collaboration was germane to learning required not only the adoption of research skills but also knowledge of rules and procedures used in implementing the group process. Using Slavin's advice on goal setting, we adopted six short-term goals that could be completed within the restricted time frame of this two-week period: active questioning, multiple resources, becoming aware of text organization, applying stages of research, participating in dialogue and presenting their findings. By using this cooperative learning strategy I hope to establish individual accountability within groups, facilitate interdependence among students and introduce peer tutoring and reciprocal teaching. I see this method as a process with many steps in between and various skills to be mastered. I will document our progress for the next several weeks and invite you along for the ride.
