General Information

This toolkit is about the Reconstruction period after the U.S. Civil War. 

Standards Tapestry

The designated standards below are Indiana U.S. History Standards:

Assessment Rationale

As students learn, retain, and can demonstrate information in a variety of ways, a variety of activities will be used during this unit to address students’ multiple intelligences and guide them to a higher understanding of the information to be covered:

Activities	USH Standards 9.1	9.2	1.3	1.5	1.6
Uncle Tom’s Cabin	X	X	X		X
Lincoln’s Inaugural Address	X	X	X		X
PBS Video Reconstruction	X		X	X	X
Black Codes Activity	X	X	X		X
Johnson v. Lincoln T-Chart			X		X
Timeline research	X	X	X	X	X
Freedman’s bureau brochure	X	X	X		X

Instructional Plan

Instructional Day Description Day 1 Read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Chapter 5 aloud to students as they complete the analysis form. The purpose of using this piece of literature on the first day of the Reconstruction unit is to show a heartbreaking crisis in “day in the life” of slavery, which attempts to show the humanity of the slave owners and the slaves, and the difficult decisions they had to make.  A discussion will follow to segue into how life in the south would look after slavery ended. ------------------------------- Next, students will hear a dramatic reading of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address that will lead into tomorrow’s topic, the reconstruction plans of Lincoln and Johnson.  A student will be given the chance to earn extra credit for practicing and reciting the speech to the class.  Afterward, students will receive a copy of the address and a worksheet that invites them to: (1) list the problems the union will face after the war, and (2) create their own plan for reconstruction, addressing the issues of what needs to be done and how should it be accomplished. ------------------------------- Finally, students will begin the first few minutes of the PBS special Reconstruction.  This is a lengthy, but excellent, documentary on the reconstruction.  Each day during the unit, students will view a small segment of the film.  During the watching of the documentary, students will be asked to keep notes over the video.  Their "quiz" over the video will be to write 10 important facts on Reconstruction they learned from the video.  They will be allowed to use their notes. Day 2 Black Codes Activity - Students in pairs will read a section of either the Mississippi or Louisiana Black Codes.  Students will report back to the class about the laws freedmen would have to follow in those states. -------------------------------- Students will create a T-chart and take notes as the teacher reports the differences between Lincoln’s and Johnson’s Reconstruction Plans using information from the text as well as using the site: http://afroamhistory.about.com/cs/reconstruction/a/reconstruction.htm Day 3 Students will go to the computer lab where they will be provided the link: http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/recon/chron.html.  This site contains a timeline of reconstruction events. Students will be assigned a particular year and/or set of years and research the events further.  Students will then share their findings the following day with the class. Day 4 Students will share their findings from yesterday’s timeline activity and put notes from the presentations in their notebooks.  ---------------------------- Students will then read the three documents that follow on the 40 acres and a mule: “Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction (Washington, 1866)”, “The Christian Recorder, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (October 21, 1865)”, and “The Freedman’s Bureau,” WEB Du Bois and from the information they gain, they will create an informational brochure advertising the Freedmen’s Bureau to recently freed slaves. Day 5 Jigsaw Freedmen Documents, as described in the Freedmen Activity. Day 6 Jeopardy: Game Creation.  The day before the test, students will play a Jeopardy-style review game.  Today, students will have the opportunity to create their own game board with the help of a partner.  See Reconstruction Jeopardy Game Worksheet. Students will use their text as a resource and create questions and answers, which will be used in the game before the test.  T/F and M/C questions are not allowed. Day 7 Students will receive a Political Cartoon connected to this website: http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/ seminar_docs/recon_doc1.html. Students will hear the Background Information Provided.  Students will attempt to answer the questions provided, which follow the background information.  Then students will read the explanation that is contained with the political cartoon.  Students will continue with their Jeopardy Game questions from yesterday and/or continue with the Reconstruction PBS documentary. Day 8 Two students will be chosen to read the document text contained in the attached: http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/ seminar_docs/recon_doc2.html. Then students will answer the questions that follow.  The teacher will present the statistical information contained in the following, and students will take notes: http://www.gilderlehrman.org/ teachers/seminar_docs/immigration_doc2.html.  Students will then answer the questions that follow.  The students will then work on their study guides they were given on Day 1. Day 9 Students will play Jeopardy.  Each student represents him/herself, and track his/her own score.  The top 5 students will receive extra credit points on their tests. Day 10 Students will take the test on Reconstruction. Humanities-rich Resources Type (book, link, etc.) Name URL (if any) Annotation (can include description and notes on how to use) Link Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Chapter 5 http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/uncletom/section5.html   Video PBS documentary, Reconstruction Check with your school or public library. Ordering information can be found at: http://www.shoppbs.org/sm-pbs-american-experience-reconstruction-the-second-civil-war--pi-1451595.html Students will watch a short clip of the documentary each day during the unit. Link Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=38     Link Black Codes Background Info http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/blackcodes/a/blackcodes1865.htm   Link Black Codes of Louisiana http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/bllouisiana_blackcodes.htm   Link Black Codes of Mississippi http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blmississippi_blackcodes.htm   Link Reconstruction Plans http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/reconstruction/   Link Timeline http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/recon/chron.html   Link Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/seminar_docs/recon_doc4.html   Link The Christian Recorder http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/seminar_docs/recon_doc3.html     Link Freedman’s Bureau, WEB Du Bois http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/bldubois_freedmens_bureau1.htm (Start selection for students about mid-way down with “No sooner had Northern armies…” through the end of the selection)   Link XV Amendment http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=44   Classroom Implementation Notes When designing this unit, I created a variety of activities shown here. However, when instructing my students, I found it took longer for each activity than I originally anticipated. Therefore, I had to select a sampling of my original ideas for actual instruction. The students read the selection from Uncle Tom's Cabin and completed the activity for that lesson. However, we did not have time for the original Black Codes lesson. Instead, I gave a mini-lecture and notes on the information. Additionally, I summarized the events which would be on a time line as opposed to having the students create their own. The students read parts of the Lincoln Douglass Debates as originally planned. They also analyzed the political cartoons and were able to play a Jeopardy review game before taking their test over the material. Overall, the unit went smoothly without complication other than having to scale back from my original lesson design. Teacher Inquiry Kiosk Civil War Bibliography