History Detectives 5th Grade Standard IV Object. 2

Summary

Students will use primary source materials to investigate the economy, physical geography, and cultural aspects of the Northern States and the Southern States prior to the Civil War.

Materials

1. 6 folders labeled with the 6 general topics of this lesson (See attachments for file folder labels.)
2. Each folder will contain copies of primary source materials for its specific topic. (See attachments. Some sample resources are provided or the teacher may wish to use their own primary sources.)

North

1. Economy
2. Geography
   
3. Culture

South

1. Economy
2. Geography
3. Culture
   

3. Historian's Investigative Sheet
4. Template for Ryming Couplet Poetry or comparison activity, such as a Two Voice Poem or a Compare/Contrast Chart
   

Background for Teachers

The teacher needs general knowledge of the economy, physical geography, and cultural aspects of the Northern States and the Southern States prior to the Civil War.

Student Prior Knowledge

1. Definitions of economy, geography, and culture.
2. Need to understand how to create poetry using rhyming couplets or 2 Voice Poetry.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of geographic, economic, and cultural traits of the Northern and Southern States prior to the Civil War.

Instructional Procedures

Teachers will prepare 6 investigative folders. Inside the folders there will be primary source materials about the following topics:

North

1. Economy
2. Geography
3. Culture

South

1. Economy
2. Geography
3. Culture

Teacher divides the class into 6 groups. (Groups smaller than 4 students are not suggested.) Then the teacher assigns 1 folder to each group. The students will look through their assigned folder and discuss what they know about each primary source document or artifact. Next, as a group, they will write a sentence or statement about each item. The groups will then share their information with the whole class.

Students will complete the Historian's Investigative Sheet and then present their findings to the class.

Students will research the topic in their folder. They will use the researched information to fill in their Historian's Investigative Sheet. Then the teacher will pair up students by assigning 1 student from the north and 1 student from the south by topic. (Such as, the economy from both groups will meet together.) (See Materials' attachments Compare/contrast charts.)

This could mean you have 3 different groups (Ex - 1 for economy,etc.) or pairs of students could be assigned do discuss all three topics for either the north or the south. The 2nd student in the pair will represent the opposite side. (See Materials' attachments Compare/contrast charts.)

Students will use a Venn Diagram. If the students need more guidance then the teacher can use the following prompts.

What was the weather like? Where were the physical features of the area? What were people like? How did people make money? Where? What? How? Using the information written above, write 1 paragraph to present the topic to the class.

The students could also make a list of facts that were different about the north vs. the south and determine their importance. (Did they impact what happened?) A few ideas are given below.

Fact Bank

• North -- factories, ships, deep harbors, railroads
• South -- plantations, cash crops, rich soil, growing season, shallow harbors
  

Strategies for Diverse Learners

Differentiation -- ELL write 1 sentence Regular -- write a paragraph.

Extensions

Extension -- Students could research for specific info.

They could also write a 3-paragraph paper that compares the northern states to the southern states. Each paragraph will be about one of the 3 different topics. (If this approach was not used for the assessment.) (See Materials' attachments for 3-Paragraph templates.)

Assessment Plan

Each student will complete the Primary Source Summary. (Found at the bottom of the Historical Investigative Sheet in the Materials' attachments section.)

They could also be asked the following questions to include in their summary.

• What was the motivation?
• What was the result or outcome?
  

The following could also be used for assessment.

• Rhyming Couplets
• Two-Voice Poem
• Compare/Contrast Chart (See Materials' attachments Object. 2 handouts.)

Write a 3-paragraph paper that compares the northern states to the southern states. Each paragraph will be about one of the 3 different topics. (See Materials' attachments Object. 2 handouts.)