Free Lesson Plan, American Civil War for Teachers - Real Eye Witness Accounts

Mrs. Donn's Free Lesson Plan

Time Frame: 1 day, 55 minute period

Grade Level: Written for Grades 5-12, can easily be adapted for any grade

Positioning: This lesson can be taught at any time during your study of the Civil War, but works extremely well as a transitional lesson, positioned between events leading up to the war, and your opening lesson on the war.

Background: Students have already studied events leading up to the Civil War.

Preparation: Copies of letters for classroom distribution and for use with the overhead.

Lesson:

Part One: Class Activity

• Put the first letter (June 1862) on the overhead.

• Ask your students: What can you learn about geography, daily life, and historical events from this letter?

• Read letter aloud.

• Have students tell you what they find.

Part Two: Group Activity

• Break your students into groups of 3 students per group

• Put the second letter (September 1862) on the overhead.

• Additionally, hand each group a copy of the second letter

• Have them get out a piece of paper and create three columns. Columns are headed Geography, Daily Life, and Historical Events

• Have each group find pertinent information and write it down (under appropriate category)

• Give them some time.

• Have each group share what they found with the class.

Part Three - Individual Activity

• Hand each student a copy of letter three (Dec 1864) with the notes included.

• On the back of their handout, have each student create three columns headed Geography, Daily Life, and Historical Events respectively.

• Direct your students to find and write down as many references as they can in letter three (Dec 1864), each in its appropriate column.

• Give them some time.

• Ask for volunteers to share with the class the information they found.