Submitted by: Mara LaFratta Brennan
School: Lakeside Elementary School
Summary
My goal for this lesson is for the students to attack the authentic task of deciphering the reasons behind the outbreak of the Civil War in America. I want the students to build upon the background knowledge they have about the Civil War and what caused the division of the country. I created a webquest to enable the students to explore the history of assigned states in order to better understand the choices the citizens and governments of the states were forced to make at the time of the Civil War.
My intention is for the students to explore other issues that plagued the states as they made the decision to secede from the Union or remain faithful to their state. This SOL is particularly challenging for the students because the issue of slavery is so black and white in regards to what is right and wrong. They know it is wrong to enslave another human being and find it very difficult to understand why anyone would fight on the side of the Confederacy. Sadly, it has become a good vs. evil battle in many of their minds. They can’t see past the struggles that each side had in relation to economical needs and livelihood. My goal is not for them to form an opinion or have anyone decide that the Confederacy was right in all of their beliefs, but I want them to have some grasp on the tough decisions that were made at this time in history. I want to pull together traditional research through books and literature and connect it with technological advances, such as podcasts and blogs.
TIPC Ratings
Entry – The students acquire their research information through provided links in the webquest.
Ideal/Target – The students are expected to select their own groups and decide which role each member will play. While working in groups, the students will attack the authentic task of solving a difficult hurdle for most students to overcome, deciphering the various reasons for the outbreak of the Civil War in America other than the slavery, of which many students have some background knowledge and understanding. By using a weebly.com or our classroom blog sites, the students are able to share their discoveries with the class, school, district, and entire world. In doing so, the students can communicate and reflect on various states’ deciding points and experience the reflections of other groups. The group can decide to share on another source, our class blog, on which we reflect, practice, and experience aspects of our curriculum. By choosing to share on this resource, the students are providing tools for their peers to use while studying the Civil War. Both resources must utilize the Pixie activity, on which they express thoughts and indicate their discoveries through coloring and voice. Due to the nature of today’s educational environment, the students will be lucky to exchange ideas and thoughts with students of diverse cultural backgrounds. This idea will be even truer when expressing ideas with those contributing on the Internet from various locals.
Developing – The students respond to a challenge question on their question and answer sheet, and respond to questions posed on the classroom blog that require higher order thinking skills to illicit a response.
Developing – This strand is evident in the forms of research and presentation. Posting to the classroom blog, the weebly, and completing the Pixie activity to present thoughts and discoveries gathered throughout researching, allows students to express their original work and thoughts in various ways. Collaborating with the school, district, and world through our classroom blog or the weebly internet-based site give the students the opportunity to effectively reach an audience beyond the classroom and to use that information to further collaborate on future endeavors.
Student Artifact
