The Lincoln Bicentennial Teacher Network

8th Grade: Lesson 3

Target Unit Essential Question(s): (taken from unit framework)
EU 2 EQ 1: How did the events following the election of 1860 force the newly elected Lincoln to demonstrate his leadership abilities in a time of crisis?

Lesson Essential Question: How did the events following the election of 1860 force the newly elected Lincoln to demonstrate his leadership abilities in a time of crisis?

Estimated duration of lesson: 3 days-60 minute blocks

Academic Expectations:

2.16 Students observe, analyze, and interpret human behaviors, social groupings, and institutions to better understand people and the relationships among individuals and among groups.

2.17 Students interact effectively and work cooperatively with the many diverse ethnic and cultural groups of our nation and world.

2.19 Students recognize and understand the relationship between people and geography and apply their knowledge in real-life situations.

2.20 Students understand, analyze, and interpret historical events, conditions, trends, and issues to develop historical perspective.

Program of Studies: Understandings

Program of Studies: Skills and Concepts

Related Core Content for Assessment

SS-8-CS-U-3

Students will understand that interactions among individuals and groups assume various forms (e.g., compromise, cooperation, conflict, competition) and are influenced by culture.

SS-8-CS-S-3

Students will explain how communications between groups were influenced by cultural differences; explain how interactions influenced conflict and competition (e.g., political, economic, religious, ethnic) among individuals and groups in the United States prior to Reconstruction

SS-8-CS-S-4

Students will describe conflicts between individuals or groups and explain how compromise and cooperation were possible choices to resolve conflict among individuals and groups in the United States prior to Reconstruction

SS-08-2.3.1

Students will explain how conflict and competition (e.g., political, economic, religious, ethnic) occurred among individuals and groups in the United States prior to Reconstruction.

DOK 2

SS-08-2.3.2

Students will explain how compromise and cooperation were possible choices to resolve conflict among individuals and groups in the United States prior to Reconstruction.

DOK 2

SS-8-HP-U-2

Students will understand that U.S. History can be analyzed by examining significant eras (Exploration as it relates to the settlement of America, The Great Convergence, Colonization and Settlement, Revolution and the New Nation, Expansion and Reform, Civil War) to develop chronological understanding and recognize cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causation.

SS-8-HP-S-1

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the interpretative nature of history using a variety of tools and resources (e.g., primary and secondary sources, Internet, timelines, maps):

a investigate, describe and analyze significant historical events and conditions in the U.S prior to Reconstruction, drawing inferences about perspectives of different individuals and groups (e.g., gender, race, region, ethnic group, age, economic status, religion, political group)

b examine multiple cause-effect relationships that have shaped history (e.g., showing how a series of events are connected)

SS-8-HP-S-2

Students will investigate, using primary and secondary sources (e.g., biographies, films, magazines, Internet resources, textbooks, artifacts) to answer questions about, locate examples of, or interpret factual and fictional accounts of major historical events and people:

e compare the political, social, economic and cultural differences (e.g., slavery, tariffs, industrialism vs. agrarianism, federal vs. states' rights) between and among regions of the U.S. and explain how these differences contributed to the American Civil War

SS-08-5.1.1

Students will use a variety of tools (e.g., primary and secondary sources) to describe and explain historical events and conditions and to analyze the perspectives of different individuals and groups (e.g., gender, race, region, ethnic group, age, economic status, religion, political group) in U.S. history prior to Reconstruction.

DOK 3

SS-08-5.1.2

Students will explain how history is a series of connected events shaped by multiple cause-and-effect relationships and give examples of those relationships.

DOK 3

SS-08-5.2.4

Students will describe the political, social, economic and cultural differences (e.g., slavery, tariffs, industrialism vs. agrarianism, federal vs. states' rights) among sections of the U.S. and explain how these differences resulted in the American Civil War.

DOK 3

 

Targeted Lesson Essential Question(s): How did the events following the election of 1860 force the newly elected Lincoln to demonstrate his leadership abilities in time of crisis?

Students Will Know……

Students will be able to…..
  • South Carolina’s (southern states) opinions of state rights.
  • South Carolina’s secession convention
  • States who seceded from the United States
  • States that remained in the union
  • The formation of the Confederate States of America
  • Biography of Jefferson Davis
  • Biography of Abraham Lincoln
  • Lincoln’s personal feelings and opinions on slavery
  • How Lincoln used the strength of the presidency to address southern secession with emphasis on his inaugural speech and the attack on Ft. Sumter.
  • Lincoln’s personality and leadership characteristics
  • Explain the theory of states’ rights
  • Explain the theory of federalism
  • Identify the 7 states of the deep south, the 4 of the upper south, the border states and the states that remained loyal to the United States
  • Compare the structure of the United States to that of the Confederate States of America
  • Using primary sources, describe Lincoln’s feelings/opinions on slavery and secession
  • Analyze Lincoln’s first and second inaugural addresses to determine his approach to maintaining the union
  • Explain how Lincoln used his leadership skills to manage the war, manage the government and reach out to the South.

Lesson Summary

Brief overview of the lesson

When Abraham Lincoln was elected to the presidency in 1860, South Carolina immediately seceded from the Union and over the course of the year pulled with them 10 other Southern States. The election of Lincoln was last of a series of pivotal events that led to the formation of the Confederate States of America. This lesson will explore the events that surrounded the election and how President Abraham Lincoln demonstrated his leadership abilities in presidential office to lead the United States through the Civil War.

Students will briefly review the events leading up to and immediately following the election of Lincoln by completing a matrix, participating in a group edition of a series of newspaper headlines from the point of view of a Northern or Southern newspaper, exploring the connections between Lincoln and Jefferson, and investigating federalism and state’s rights. Using primary sources, they will further investigate the inaugural speeches of Lincoln and Davis as they expressed their viewpoints of union or secession. This will allow students the opportunity to explore examples of how Lincoln used his own personal leadership abilities in managing the path of the war and the Union.

Day 1/3

Previous instruction

Before beginning this series of lesson, students should have a general knowledge of the following events leading up to the election:

Students should have some familiarity with the concepts of states’ rights and federalism.

Students should have an understanding of the slavery throughout American history and should be able to connect the idea of slavery and the attempt throughout American history to resolve the issue.

Instructional Set/ Bell Ringer

Pair students and instruct them to draw a tic tac toe board between them. When all students have drawn their board, have them number it one through nine, left to right, with number 5 as the center square.

Assign students in the pair to be X and O. (e.g., select the person with the longest hair to be X and the other to represent O.)

Display a list of nine statements about either states rights or federalism on the board for all students to see. Refer to the list below.

Begin Play: Students begin play with X going first. (Play is fashioned after Hollywood Squares.) Student 1 picks a number that matches a statement on the list. Student determines if the statements are examples of states’ rights or federalism and then writes that in the square along with their X or O. Play continues until the board is full.

Statements about either States’ Rights or Federalism:

  1. drivers licenses are issued
  2. legal drinking age
  3. marriage laws
  4. number of days in the school year
  5. elections are conducted
  6. providing for the army
  7. coining money
  8. military draft
  9. immigration

Transition

Review States’ Rights and Federalism. Refer to Resource A.1 and A.2.

Guide discussion of the correctness of each statement.

Pose the following question to students:

Engage students in discussion of this question allowing them to draw conclusions based on the perspective of sides of the issue. Discussion should cycle through perspective and into the idea of compromise or conflict.

At the conclusion, check for winners with a tic, tac, toe.

Lesson Assessment

Students will complete a foldable that supports the knowledge that they have gained on states’ rights and federalism.


Learning Experience

Deliver content information about the Southern Secession Convention, intentionally including historical data and information that underlines the perspective of each side.

Teacher Note: The content should be delivered as students are completing their visual. The foldable should support the content being taught.

Provide each student:

Give directions and lead students through the process of creating a foldable. This foldable will be an organizer for collecting information on states’ rights and federalism.

  1. Folding Directions:
    1. Fold a piece of blank paper in half. Begin as if you were going to hamburger fold, but instead of creasing the paper make a pinch to show the midpoint of the paper.
    2. Fold the outer edges of the paper to meet in the pinch, or mid-point forming a shutter fold.
  2. Give students the following directions for completing their foldable:
    1. On the two front folds trace a map of the United States with the general line of north and south on the opening where the two pieces meet.
    2. Color and label the Northern States, the Southern States and differentiate the Border States. Show this with a key.
    3. Open the sections to the inside of the foldable and write the definition of federalism on the Northern section and the definition of states’ rights on the Southern section.
    4. Add a “visual” to this section for each concept.
    5. Decorate the foldable accordingly.

Teacher Note: Both the foldable and definitions are somewhat difficult. Keeping this in mind, the teacher should take care to model the steps while making the foldable. It is also advisable for the teacher to have completed a foldable as an example as students work their way through the assignment.

Lesson Wrap-Up

Engage the students in a discussion that extends their knowledge by leading students to apply the concepts they have just learned to the situation after the election of 1860. Discuss the following points:

SUGGESTIONS for DIFFERENTIATION

Place students in pairs to create the foldable and then have them quiz one another when they have a completed project.

For students who need teacher – directed instruction create a foldable with them in a step by step fashion. This will take considerable more time but will result in success for this type of learner. Consider running off the map on the paper before it is folded so that students may omit the tedious transfer of the map from a pattern to their paper thus reducing the frustration level of this learner.

Gifted learners may well prefer to design their own foldable to illustrate the concepts of federalism and states rights. This is a viable option with students who are motivated and who have a good grasp of the material.

Day 2/3

Instructional Set/ Bell Ringer

Create a human timeline as a review of the events that led to growing tensions between the North and South. Print pictures that represent the events below. Have students come to the front of the class, holding the picture. The whole class is responsible for putting the students/events in order.

Transition

Access United Streaming by KET and play a segment(s) for students that supports the secession of the southern states from the Union. This provides an excellent background for the following lesson and leads to the opportunity for much discussion.

Teacher Note: Access and download United Streaming www.ket.org – requires a log in.

The Civil War: The South Secedes and War Begins

Lesson Assessment

Formative: Check for prior knowledge by having students create a human timeline of events.
Summative: Students will write summaries for events as well as take perspective from a Northern/Southern audience when writing a headline for the event.

Lesson Activity

Teacher Note:

List several events on the board or create a placard containing the title of the event and a photo representing the event to place randomly around the room.

Possible events:

Divide students in random fashion into the “North” and the “South”.

Students should pair up with a Northern or Southern counterpart to become “headline writers” (journalists).

Direct students:

Teacher Note: The teacher should carefully monitor the groups ensuring they are on task and focused on the production of quality headlines for their papers. Consider having examples of good headlines for comparison.
Encourage students to apply the perspective of the North or South to their headline. This should be in an exaggerated format. For example, a paper from Charleston S.C. headline for secession might be “South – Subject to Tyranny No Longer – Confederacy Formed,” while a headline from the Boston Globe might read “South Carolina abandons the United States – President forced into action”.

Lesson Wrap-Up

Have students pair up with their North/South counterpart and then read aloud to the class the headline for each event. As an additional effect, the class in unison could say “Extra, extra, read all about it” before each of the headlines are read aloud.

Point out the “perspective” of the North and South on the issue. For example, the secession headline from a South Carolina paper would have been very different than one from a Northern paper.

Instruct students to put their events in chronological order.

Day 3/3

Instructional Set/ Bell Ringer

Project the biography of Lincoln and Davis on the overhead. Refer to Resource B.1 and B.2. As a class, create a Venn diagram comparing/contrasting the two men from their biographies. Engage the students in classroom discussion focused on the idea that both were born in Kentucky but one moved North (Lincoln) and one South (Davis) and how this move surely influenced their perspective of slavery.

Transition

Continue the discussion about perspective in depth before launching into the lesson. These two men were both leaders during a crisis in our country. Both men had differing perspectives about slavery and secession. Say, “Today we are going to analysis both men’s inaugural speech, which were given only weeks apart.”

Engage students in a discussion around these points:

  1. What is an inaugural speech?
  2. What points would the elected official want to make in his first speech in the new office?

Direct students, “Our focus for this lesson is to find out the answer to the following question: What leadership skills did Lincoln need to manage the war, the government and to reach out to the South?”

Lesson Assessment

Formative Assessment: Students will create a graphic organizer to compare and contrast Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.
Summative Assessment: Students will complete an exit slip that explains his actions as a leader during the crisis and his plans of action to unify the nation.

Learning Experience

Project the first inaugural speech of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. (Refer to Resource C for excerpts of the speeches.)

Provide students with some pertinent details about the speeches (when, where, what, etc.)

As a class, read through the excerpts of the speeches and highlight important sections they feel are pertinent to Lincoln’s message as well as portions that give insight into Lincoln’s character. Do the same with the Davis excerpt.

Discuss specifically statements that reflect their opinions of slavery and the right of the south to secede from the Union.

Guiding questions:

Allow students to work in cooperative groups to analyze Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Students should highlight key parts of the speech to discuss within their group.

Students should discuss the following points:

Lesson Wrap-Up

Exit Slip: Lincoln, as the leader of the Union during this crisis, had actions he had to take. What were the actions that he had taken up to his re-election? Cite evidence to support your answers.

What were Lincoln’s plans and actions he needed to take to move the country forward? Cite evidence from his Second Inaugural Address.

SUGGESTIONS for DIFFERENTIATION

Gifted students and kinesthetic learners may benefit from the dramatic reading of the speeches. You could do this or select students to do this. Be sure to preview the sections for unfamiliar or difficult words and prepare readers ahead of time.

This lesson is easily adapted to a PowerPoint presentation or as a web quest.

Resources