Entry Points to the Gettysburg Address an Investigation Model Activity

Understanding Goal: History is the stories that are remembered.

Investigative Question:

Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Participant performance tasks in model activity:

  • Self-assess interest in terms of entry points.
  • Interpret a primary source using an analysis tool.
  • Make connections to previous knowledge and revise thinking with regard to the Gettysburg Address.

Facilitator will:

  • Place Library of Congress Primary Sources and investigation analysis tools in a different colored folder for each entry point. Number the folders in sets of the same color so that there is the same number of each color.
  • Print a copy of the K-W-L chart, Gettysburg address, Entry Point description, and Designing Investigations for each participant.

Participants will:

  1. Close eyes and think of a story that you remember well. Brainstorm as facilitator writes on a large chart: “Why do you remember the story?”
  2. Know today’s purpose: To explore the big idea that “History is the stories that are remembered.” by answering the question, “Why we remember the Gettysburg Address?”
  3. Read Gettysburg Address aloud.
  4. Underline a sentence that connects with personal experiences or resonates with them.
  5. Share the sentence and the connection with a partner.
  6. List a few things that they think they know about the Gettysburg Address on the K part of the K-W-L chart with a partner.
  7. Choose one question from the Want to Learn list to explore and take the colored folder for that question.
  8. Gather in groups by color to complete the investigation in the folder.
  9. Regroup by numbers on the folders. Share primary sources, analysis activity, and a reason from the investigation that we remember the Gettysburg Address.
  10. Reread the Gettysburg Address silently as individuals. Underline the phrase that is the most central to the main idea and memorable.
  11. Reread the Gettysburg Address silently. Circle one word that is the most important.
  12. Stand in a circle and share the word one at a time.
  13. Review list of reasons why personal stories are remembered. Check reasons that are also true for the Gettysburg Address.
  14. Consider the question: “If history is the stories that are remembered then what might that tell us about the study of history?

Facilitator willdiscuss with participants:

  • Best Instructional Practices: Differentiated Instruction and Teaching for Understanding“How do entry points and primary sources add value to the learning experience?”
  • Primary Source Learning Design: “Investigations have what characteristics?”
  • Library of Congress: “What does this tell us about the Library’s exhibitions?”

Think You KnowWant to Learn New Insights

and Questions

Choose the question that interests you.

Poet who was President (red folder)

How is the Gettysburg Address like

the poetry that Lincoln wrote?

Just like being there (blue folder)

How does it feel to say and hear the

Gettysburg Address?

It adds up (yellow folder)

How can numbers help us understand the

significance of the Gettysburg battle?

What’s the story? (green folder)

How do personal reactions to the

Gettysburg Address complete the story

of the event?

Connections over time (purple folder)

What common themes unite

great documents?

Throughline: History is the stories that are remembered.

Understanding: Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Aesthetic Window

How is the Gettysburg address like the poetry

that Lincoln wrote?

Tasks

  1. Read the first 10 verses of “My Child-hood Home I See Again”
  1. What poetic devices do you see in both the poem and the Gettysburg address? Use the table below for notes.
  1. What new ideas or questions do you have about the Gettysburg address after examining Lincoln’s poetry?
  1. Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Examine for Poetic Devices: / My Childhood Home
I See Again / Gettysburg
Rhythm (e.g. syllable that is stressed)
Sounds (e.g. rhyming, alliteration)
Imagery (e.g. metaphors)
Repetition

Teacher’s note:

Aesthetic is the entry point through where learners respond to formal and sensory qualities of a subject. For example: the color, line, expression, and composition of a painting; the intricate patterns on the surface of a beehive; or the alliteration and meter of a poem.

This activity was adapted from Project MUSE (Museums Uniting with Schools in Education). Project MUSE explored learning in art museums by providing participants with different entry points to consider a work of art.

Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence ReframedNew York: Basic Books, p. 188.

Primary source used in this folder The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.
Abraham Lincoln, 1846 (Poem, “My Child-hood Home I See Again")

Throughline: History is the stories that are remembered.

Understanding: Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Experiential Window

How does it feel to say and hear the Gettysburg Address?

Tasks

  1. Each person chooses a role(s), narrator(s), audience(s) or Lincoln(s).
  1. Act out the dedication at Gettysburg by reading out loud the account of the event published in the Chicago Tribune. Start with the Narrator(s) describing the event, then have Lincoln(s) read the speech slowly with pauses and emphasis. The audience should join in by clapping and cheering when indicated.
  1. Complete the chart below.
  1. What new ideas or questions do you have about the Gettysburg address after acting it out?
  1. Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Gettysburg Address
What struck you about the way the speech was read?
Is there a phrase in the speech where changing the emphasis or pausing could change the meaning of the words?
New Ideas and Questions

Teacher’s note:

The Experiential window is the entry point where learners respond by actually doing something with their hands and bodies.This activity was adapted from Project MUSE (Museums Uniting with Schools in Education). Project MUSE explored learning in art museums by providing participants with different entry points to consider a work of art.

Primary sources used in this folder:Prints and Photographs Division, Lincoln's address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, November 19, 1863, Division of Rare and Manuscripts Division, Cornell University, The Gettysburg Address from Library of Congress Primary Documents in American History Bibliography, American Memory, An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera The Gettysburg address. [Chicago, The Lakeside press 1950]

Throughline: History is the stories that are remembered.

Understanding: Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Logical/Quantitative Window:

How can numbers help us understand the

significance of the GettysburgBattle?

Tasks

  1. Examine the data.
  1. What strikes you about this information? Complete the chart below.
  1. Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

War Statistics
Note what strikes you about this information.
What does this data tell us about the Gettysburg address?
Create a mathematical equation or illustration to convey the magnitude of the event.

Teacher’s note: Understanding this task the Logical/Quantitative window.

The Logical/Quantitative window is the entry point where learners respond to aspects of a subject through deductive reasoning or numerical consideration.

This activity was adapted from Project MUSE (Museums Uniting with Schools in Education). Project MUSE explored learning in art museums by providing participants with different entry points to consider a work of art.

Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence ReframedNew York: Basic Books, p. 188.

Primary sources used in this folder: Prints and Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Unfinished Confederate graves near the center of the battlefield

Data for this activity was taken from America’s Wars , June, 2005

Throughline: History is the stories that are remembered.

Understanding: Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Narrative Window:

How do personal reactions to the Gettysburg Address complete the story of the event?

Tasks

  1. Read the letter from Edward Everett to Abraham Lincoln.
  1. Complete the chart below.
  1. How do these reactions add to the story you know about the Gettysburg Address?
  1. Why do we remember the Gettysburg Address?

Letter from Edward Everett to Abraham Lincoln
What does this letter tell us about the Gettysburg Address? Use information that is written in the letter.
What can be inferred from the information written in this letter?
What does the source not tell us?
New ideas and questions:

Teacher’s note:

The Narrative window is the entry point where learners respond to the story of the event or subject. This activity was adapted from Project MUSE (Museums Uniting with Schools in Education). Project MUSE explored learning in art museums by providing participants with different entry points to consider a work of art. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence ReframedNew York: Basic Books, p. 188.

Primary Sources used in this folder: American Memory, Abraham Lincoln’s Papers, Edward Everett to Abraham Lincoln, Friday, November 20, 1863 (Lincoln's remarks at Gettysburg Additional information from June 2005

Throughline: History is the stories that are remembered.

Understanding: Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Foundational Window:

What common themes unite great documents?

Task

  1. Think of three words that symbolize the big ideas in the Gettysburg address. Write them in the chart below.
  1. Choose either the Declaration of Independence or Martin LutherKing’s “I have a dream”. As you skim the document, underline words that symbolize the big ideas being presented and record the three words that are most central to the message.
  1. What common themes emerge?
  1. Why do we remember the Gettysburg address?

Word #1 / Word #2 / Word #3
Gettysburg
Other document
What common themes emerge?
New ideas and questions:

Teacher’s note:

The Foundational window is the entry point where learners respond to the broader concepts or philosophical issues raised by a subject.This activity was adapted from Project MUSE (Museums Uniting with Schools in Education). Project MUSE explored learning in art museums by providing participants with different entry points to consider a work of art.

Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence ReframedNew York: Basic Books, p. 188.

Primary Sources used in this folder:Library of Congress, American Memory, Selected Civil War Photographs, [Gettysburg, Pa. Crowds at the dedication of the battlefield cemetery]. Library of Congress, An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, [The Gettysburg address; reproduction of Lincoln's first draft of the Gettysburg address; and a lithograph of a portrait of Lincoln by Robert Fawcett .... ] New York, Amalgamated Lithographers of America, 1961. Library of Congress, Exhibitions, Declaring Independence, Primary sources related to the Declaration of Independence June 2005, Declaration of Independence, taken June 2005, U.S. News and World Report Photograph Collection. Reproduction No.: LC-U9-10360-23 (9-13), Official Program for March on WashingtonD.C. taken June, 2005.