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Do You Know What Really Happened?

Civil War Lesson

Do You Know What Really Happened?

Civil War Lesson

Lynn Fisher

HudsonElementary School

Summer 2005

Gettysburg, Pa. Three Confederate prisoners, 1863.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,

LC-B8171-2288 DLC, (b&w film copy neg.)

The Civil War lends itself to many activities that can utilize the Library of Congress primary source materials due to the fact that it occurred after the invention of the camera. Mathew B. Brady was instrumental in documenting many people and places. Many of his photographs will be used for this lesson. This lesson is an activity to be used after students have been introduced to the Civil War. They need to have general knowledge of this time period – who was fighting, why they were fighting, and where some of these battles were.

In this lesson, students will examine various photos from the Civil War. In groups, they will discuss some possible scenarios of what the pictures are about. They then will choose one picture and write a newspaper article about what they believe is happening. Research will then be done to see what really happened.

Overview/State Standards/Resources/Procedures/Evaluation

Overview Back to Navigation Bar
Objectives / Students will:
  • Interpret what is happening in a photo from the Library of Congress using information they know about the Civil War
  • Type a grammatically correct newspaper article using the inferences they have made about the photo

Recommended time frame / 5-6 days, 45 minute blocks
Grade level / 5th
Curriculum fit / Social Studies and Language Arts
Resources /
  • Image Table
  • DescriptiveWorksheet

IllinoisStateLearning Standards Back to Navigation Bar
Social Science:
GOAL 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.
  • 16.A. Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.
Language Arts:
GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.
Procedures Back to Navigation Bar
Pre-planning:
  • Make fairly large copies of all of the photos and laminate each one.
Day One:
  • Display one of the photos. Ask the class to think about what might be happening in the picture from the image table.Present a possible scenario to the class.
  • Read the actual summary. Display the rest of the photos around the room.
  • Allow time for everyone to view each photo and fill out thedescriptionworksheet. Divide class into groups to discuss what they saw.
Day Two:
  • Read a newspaper article and discuss how to write a newspaper article. Key points-
  • articles are unbiased,
  • articles have eye catching headline
  • articles have some background information
  • Hand out therubric for this activity and explain that they are now to use the picture they have chosen to write a newspaper article about what they think the picture is about. The article needs to be at least 5 paragraphs. Each article is to be hand written first, edited, and then typed on either WORD or PUBLISHER or a similar program.
Day Three - Four:
  • Continue writing and editing the article. Those who have finished can start typing.
Day Five:
  • PRESENTATIONS! Each student will show the picture they chose and read their article to the class.
Day Six:
  • Give a “tour” of the Library of Congress website and show where book marked sites are. Have the students find their photo they wrote about and find out what really happened in the photo.

Evaluation Back to Navigation Bar
  • Civil War NewspaperPhotoRubric

Extensions / Back to Navigation Bar
  • Use the following sheet to document interesting Civil War information obtained from the LOC site that can be shared with the class. Cool ThingsIfound out about the Civil War worksheet.

An Adventure of the American Mind

IllinoisStateUniversity