5 class periods of 45 minutes each
Small Groups
The purpose of this activity is to provide students with a broad overview of the Civil War through the creation of a newspaper. Students will research and write about specific assigned topics dealing with the Civil War (ie, abolition, battles, key individuals, etc.) and report their findings through articles, political cartoons, biographies, and other stories.
Objectives: By the end of this activity students will be able to:
Enduring Understanding: Students will understand the significance of the Civil War Era to the United States.
Essential Questions:
Textbooks,Libraries,and Internet resources. It would also be helpful to have copies of newspapers to show the students.
Newspapers were one of the major sources of information in the 1860's. They included many of the same components that newspapers do today. Many of these components can be included in this paper; i.e., political cartoons, editorials, biographies, advertisements.
Students need to have an understanding of the events leading up to the Civil War.
Step 1: Divide into small groups or allow for individual work. Each group will be researching and creating an actual newspaper. Although each textbook should have a wealth of information that the student may use, this project can benefit from outside research.
Step 2: Pass out a copy of the Newspaper Project Outline paper (see attachments below). This can be adapted to meet the needs of a variety of students. A sample project outline is included in the attachments.
Step 3: Go over the assignment paper with the students. Answer any questions and give due dates for the assignment. This can be used as a 2-3 week assignment that includes class time, research time and homework, or can be compressed into several class periods.
Step 4: Allow time for research and writing. Use of the library is encouraged. There are many Internet sites that include a wealth of information on these topics.
Gifted students can be given the assignment to complete the newspaper from a regional or ideological perspective.
This project can be done in with the support of the language arts classes or be done as a cooperative project.
Performance will be assessed through the finished Civil War newspaper. The assessment will be mostly content oriented.