War and Civil Liberties

Lesson Plans

I plan to instruct my students using various types of graphic organizers and engaging hands-on activities to develop reading comprehension skills. This technique helps the student to pay attention to important parts, to organize information into coherent structure, to see the relationships of concepts and elements and to capitalize on visual learning and activate the right brain.8 The students can engage in therapeutic learning. Engaging, hands-on activities involve creative ways in which to teach a lesson to students. They allow the student to become immersed in the lesson because the teacher has introduced and taught the lesson in such a way that the student is actually enjoying the learning process. This method makes the student's learning experience something that is fun. Studies have found that when students are more actively engaged in the lesson rather than sitting passively receiving a lecture, they tend to absorb the material better. Emphasis in teaching is moving away from a model of expert delivery of knowledge from the teacher to the student to a model of facilitated, engaged learning environments, where the students are actively engaged in discovery and authentic tasks and the teacher is more of a coach, giving more individual attention to students as they go about their activities and delivering information as useful to the activities at hand. Consequently, to have the student actively engaged in the learning process is much more beneficial.9 Basically, students learn by engaging in what they are learning.

Lesson I

The objective is to teach the students the African-American soldier's contribution to the Civil War through knowledge of the purpose for fighting in the war and to have a personal connection to the soldier fighting the war, their struggles during the war and the effect they had on the Civil War as a whole.

The strategy used will be to first familiarize the students with the Civil War, including the causes and effects of the war, and the African-American soldier in the Civil War. I will use the K-W-L graphic organizer to build on the students' background knowledge of the Civil War. By implementing the K-W-L graphic organizer, students will activate prior knowledge, brainstorm ideas, outline information, dialogue and draw on the writing process in learning about the Civil War.

The materials needed are K-W-L graphic organizer charts and colored pencils or

markers.

(table 05.03.09.01 available in print form)

How well students understand a text often depends on their background knowledge.

The procedure to build on such knowledge will be to have the students brainstorm and

develop this background knowledge by having them complete the first two blocks of the

K-W-L chart (K-W) prior to a lesson. This will help determine what level of knowledge

the student has, introduce the topic and give the student some basis for what they will

learn. The third block is to be completed after a lesson has been implemented.

The procedure to implement this lesson is as follows:

• The teacher will ask the students what they already know about the Civil War and have them briefly write about it.
• The teacher will also ask the students what they would like to learn about the Civil War.
• The teacher will have the students jot their ideas down in the second block of the chart.
• Once the students have written their thoughts and ideas, segue into dialogue and discussion of what they have written about.

This will take the class directly into Lesson II.

Lesson II

The lesson objective is to have the students become familiar with the achievements and contributions of the African-American soldier during the Civil War through visual images. "Reading is most often associated with printed text; however, text can also include visual or audio, representation, video, film, event or performance and can be read as well"10

The strategy is to give the students the opportunity to see what the African-American soldier, lieutenant, clergyman, musician, spy and nurse for the Union Army looked like. The visual images will serve the purpose of not only allowing the students to a make a personal connection to what it is they see, but also to open an avenue for dialogue and discussion. The students can also compare and contrast today's African-American soldier to the Civil War African-American soldier.

The necessary materials needed include writing paper, pencils and laminated black and white photographs, and a K-W-L graphic organizer of the teacher's choice or the following:

• Sergeant Major Lewis H. Douglas
• An African-American sailor aboard a USS New Hampshire
• Drummer Boy Jackson
• Sojourner Truth - serving as a Northern nurse and spy for the Union Army
• Harriet Tubman - serving as a Southern nurse and spy for the Union Army as well as the Conductor of the Underground Railroad
• Lieutenant Colonel Alexander T. Augusta - a medical doctor and the highest ranking African-American soldier in the Civil War
• The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry aka the 54th Regiment
• President Abraham Lincoln
• Frederick Douglass
• General War Order No. 143

Implementing this lesson involves:

• The teacher distributing the photographs around the classrooms for the students to view, examine and analyze. Each student must view each photograph.
• Have the students write down a few things about a photograph of their choice (if more than one student chooses the same photo, place them into groups).
• Continue to build on the student's background knowledge through open discussion. Begin to ask the students explicit and detailed questions such as:

This lesson will lead directly into Lesson III.

Lesson III

The objective of this lesson is to have the students read and learn about the life of an African-American soldier during the Civil War to develop reading comprehension skills while simultaneously building a connection to history. Students will read Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment by Clinton Cox. This story details life as an African-American soldier in the 54th Regiment. It details the soldier's fight for equal pay, rations and clothing. This literature can be used as an approach to introducing students to the struggles, accomplishments and contributions of the African-American soldier during the Civil War. Students will learn what it was like to be an African-American soldier in the United States Army during the Civil War.

The strategy used in implementing this lesson will be to apply reading comprehension strategies such as guided reading, questioning, making inferences and drawing conclusions to ensure that the students understand what they have read. Guide the students to:

The materials needed include the literature, Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment by Clinton Cox, chapter questionnaires, a K-W-L graphic organizer, writing paper and colored pencils and markers.

The students will read under the teacher's direction and guided reading. Use any of the above-mentioned strategies or your own questioning technique to assess the student's knowledge of the text. The teacher will have the students engage in the writing process by completing chapter questionnaires (teacher made assessments). Have the chapter questionnaires available during the reading sessions so that assessments can be made between sentences, paragraphs or chapters to ask detailed questions for text comprehension. Students should be able to identify the main characters, the story setting, the time frame, major events, make an inference about an occurrence, draw a conclusion about an event, a problem in the story, how the problem was resolved. The teacher will have the students complete the last block of the K-W-L graphic organizer to determine what the students have learned about the African-Americans in the Civil War.

(table 05.03.09.02 available in print form)

Lesson IV

The objective is to determine if the students have become proficient in their knowledge of the Civil War, its causes and effects, the African-American soldier, their roles in the Civil War, their struggles and contributions to the Civil War cause. Once the student's have achieved solid background knowledge, have read Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, and have become familiar with the African-American soldier, the class will view the movie "Glory". The movie, "Glory" features actors Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick who tell the story of the 54th Regiment.

The strategy is to use the movie as a video presentation to further develop the students understanding of text. The literature and the movie are similar so the same questions can be asked. The chapter questionnaires from Lesson III can be re-organized and re-used to assess comprehension. The teacher will also have students compare and contrast the two texts utilizing a Venn diagram graphic organizer to assess the understanding of the text.

The necessary materials include the movie glory in DVD or VHS form, a lesson questionnaire, a Venn diagram, colored pencils or markers.

The procedure involves having the students view the movie. After watching the video, dialogue and discuss the movie, guide the students along by asking detailed questions, and allow time for the students to ask questions. Finally, have the students complete a Venn diagram to contrast and compare the book and the movie about the 54th Regiment. Have the students answer these same questions posed to them at the start of the unit: "Why were the African-American soldiers denied basic civil liberties during the Civil War?" "Are civil rights and civil liberties denied during times war strictly to protect the war effort?" "What are some other reasons an individual's civil liberties may be denied during war?"

African-American Soldiers in the Civil War

(chart 05.03.09.01 available in print form)

Civil War Museum Project

The culminating exercise will entail the creation of a classroom museum. The purpose is to have the students display their research, produce and display their work regarding the African-American soldier during the Civil War.

The strategy is to assess their understanding of the Civil War and connection to the African-American soldier through their final product.

The materials include:

• a computer and access to the internet
• construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• tape
• permanent markers, colored pencils, highlighters and crayons
• writing and copy paper
• poster boards, card board and tri-fold displays

Students will be responsible for duplicating replicas of artifacts and establishing displays to be viewed by other students in the school. There should be no more than 8 to 10 items to be prepared for display since the students will need ample time to complete quality work.

The teacher will have:

• the students perform internet research for Civil War photographs, documents, and artifacts involving the African-American soldier.
• he students brainstorm ideas together to come to a consensus on what they would like to learn about, research and reproduce.
• The create an outline and research folders to organize their work