5th Grade: Lesson 1

Lesson Essential Question: How did significant events in Lincoln’s lifetime shape his beliefs, values, and actions as a leader in the United States of America?

Estimated duration of lesson: 3 days-60 minute classes

Academic Expectations:

2.16 S 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-5-HP-U-2

Students will understand that the history of the United States can be analyzed by examining significant eras (Colonization and Settlement, Revolution and a New Nation, Expansion and Conflict, Industrialization and Immigration and the Twentieth Century) to develop a chronological understanding and recognize cause and effect relationships and multiple causation, tying past to present.

SS-5-HP-S-2

Students will use information from print and non-print sources (e.g., documents, informational passages/texts, interviews, digital and environmental):

a) examine factual and fictional accounts of significant historical events and people in United States history

b) explore change over time (e.g., transportation, communication, education, technology, lifestyles and conditions) in the United States

SS-05-5.2.1

Students will identify historical documents, selected readings and speeches (e.g., Mayflower Compact, Emancipation Proclamation, Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech: I Have a Dream) and explain their historical significance.

Targeted Lesson Essential Question(s): How did significant events in Lincoln’s lifetime shape his beliefs, values, and actions as a leader in the United States of America?

Students Will Know……

Students will be able to…..

How the Geography of the area impacted Abraham Lincoln.
How communication, travel, education, and technology was limited in the 1800’s.
National events of the 1800’s that led to the Civil War.
Lincoln’s relationship with various African Americans (Fredrick Douglas, Black Cabinet Members…).
The purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation (free slaves in confederate states).
The strategy behind writing the Emancipation Proclamation (larger army, pleasing his party, etc.).

Analyze significant events in Lincoln’s person life.
Analyze significant events in the nation in the 1800’s.
Analyze jobs that Lincoln had throughout his life and compare to jobs today.
Explain how his personal and political beliefs were sometimes in conflict on the issue of slavery.
Explain the purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation and why it was important.

Day 1/3 and 2/3

Previous instruction

Students should have a basic prior knowledge or understanding of:

Growth of slavery in the United States after the cotton gin,
Differences of regions in the North and South,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Slaves struggle for freedom- abolitionists, Underground Railroad- Harriet Tubman,
Compromises in Congress from 1820-1860, such as Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and Kansas-Nebraska Act,
Fugitive Slave Law and Dred Scott Decision,
Basic knowledge of John Brown the abolitionist; and,
Dred Scott Decision.

Instructional Set/ Bell Ringer

Begin the lesson by asking students if they know where Abraham Lincoln was born and grew up. Display a map routing Lincoln's birthplace in Hodgenville, KY, his boyhood home in Spencer County, IN, and his residency in Springfield, IL. Ask the students to locate these states on a map of the United States.

Give students about five minutes to make a list of all the ways life was different in the 1800’s than it is today then display a map of the United States in 1860, and guide the students through a discussion by asking:

What do you notice about the map?
Where do you think most people lived?
Which states do you think had the densest population?
Why do you think these places had a low/high population?

Show a population density map of the United States in 1860. Ask the students questions about the settlement patterns:

What settlement patterns do you notice?
Why do you think people settled where they did?
What economic activity do you notice in the regions of the north/south? (North: Industries/ South: Agriculture)
Which region had a greater slave population? Why?”

Analyze a map of the slave population. Students need to be able to compare the total population of the United States to the amount of slave labor used in the 1800s.

Websites for maps:

Transition

Begin the lesson by stating, “Today, we are going to focus on significant events that were causing tension in the nation during the 1800’s so that we can determine how they shaped Lincoln’s beliefs, values, and actions as President.” The teacher will use a Visual Discovery activity to review the events and growing tensions in the country. (Refer to Resources A.1-A.7)

The events depicted in the illustrations are as follows:

A slave auction
The creation of the Cotton Gin
The Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman-
a virtual trip on the Underground Railroad
The Missouri Compromise
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Dred Scott Decision

The lesson is designed to have students understand the cause-and-effect relationships that led to the rising tensions of the time. Give students a copy of handouts (Refer to Resources A.1-A.7). The teacher could project these handouts on an internet projector or make a transparency of them to display for the students as the class works through them. It is important to model how to work through this experience as a whole class so that the students will be able to work through a similar process the following day for a small group activity.

Lesson Assessment

Formative: All of the material that students use in these lessons can be collected into a “Life of Lincoln” book they can keep. The students will be assessed on their responses to the series of pictures and questions. They will display their knowledge by analyzing the collection of primary sources, quotes, stories, and pictures that depict the events throughout their Life of Lincoln books. The teacher should monitor throughout the lesson that students are completing all of the tasks in the learning experience.

Learning Experience

Students will engage in a gallery walk activity to learn about the events in Lincoln’s lifetime that may have shaped his views and beliefs. The information collected in the handouts should be added to the previous day’s handouts and compiled into the students Life of Lincoln book.

Students will view several primary sources depicting events in Lincoln’s life. Students will be required to analyze the source as they respond to a series of questions. (Refer to Resource B.1-B.8 for copies of the student handouts and corresponding questions.)

Teacher Note: For the following activity, the teacher will need to enlarge the pictures and questions as they will be displayed around the room for a gallery walk.

Hang the primary sources and questions (Resource B) for the gallery walk around the classroom. These sheets may be posted on flip chart paper in order to give students more room to respond to the questions.
Organize the students into multi-ability, heterogeneous groups. Their roles will be a reader, recorder and reporter. These roles can be rotated at each chart.
Each group will be given one marker that is a different color than the rest of the other groups so that each groups’ responses are written in their own group color.
As the groups rotate from one station to the next they will not be allowed to repeat a response that a previous group has posted. Instruct them to brainstorm for new information to post.
Each group will start at one of the stations around the room and will be given three minutes to read and respond to the questions on the chart.
Every three minutes tell the students to rotate to the next chart. Setting a time limit will keep students on task.

Teacher Note: Pictures Represented in Resource B include: Lincoln as a Young Boy, Lincoln was Self-Taught, Earning his First Dollars, Witnessing a Slave Auction, Marriage to Mary Todd, Lincoln’s Failures, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and Election of 1860.

Lesson Wrap-Up

Once the students have responded to all of the questions the reporters from each group will share their group’s responses to the class. Each group will be given a handout of all of the posters and will record each group’s responses in their Life of Lincoln book.

The National Park Service will provide a traveling trunk to be sent to your classroom that has Abraham Lincoln, primary sources, memorabilia, and artifacts. Contact them at http://www.nps.gov/learn/trunks.htm

Day 3/3

Instructional Set/ Bell Ringer

Write the following Lincoln quote and questions on the board.

“If ever I get a chance to hit that thing (slavery), I’ll hit it hard.” –Abraham Lincoln

In what ways did Abraham Lincoln get the chance to act against slavery?
In your opinion do you think Abraham Lincoln did have an impact on slavery? How?

Allow about five minutes for students to respond to the quote independently before sharing out.

Teacher note: Some students may already know that Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. However, students need to further analyze the proclamation to understand that it did not free slaves in Border States and it was not enforced in the Confederate States. In this lesson, students will analyze Lincoln’s decisions relating to the wording of the Proclamation and the timing of the release.

Transition

The teacher will transition the students by stating, “Today, we are going to look at some of the decisions Lincoln made during his presidency. We will analyze why he made these choices when he did.” Show a timeline of events (Resource C) that happened after his election in 1860. Copies of the timeline should be given to the students so that they may add them to their life of Lincoln book. The timeline was taken from parts of the following timeline on the Library of Congress’ website: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1861.html.

The topics covered in the time line are as follows:

January 1861—Southern States Secedes
February 1861—Creation of the Confederate States of America
March 1861—Lincoln’s Inauguration
April 1861— South Carolina, Shots fired at Ft. Sumter
June 1861—Four Slave States Stay in the Union
1862—Emancipation Proclamation discussed with cabinet
January 1863—Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation (changed the purpose of the war)
November 1863—Gettysburg Address
November 1864— Lincoln re-elected
April 1865—Lee surrenders
April 1865— Lincoln assassinated

Allow students time to read the timeline silently. After students have completed the reading, ask questions that will show their comprehension of the material. For students that have difficulty reading they may need the material read to them by a reading partner or teachers may choose to chunk the reading by silently reading each section and discussing the answers aloud.

Lesson Assessment

Formative: The time line activity may be used as a formative assessment. Students will read about the events that took place from 1886-1865 and answer the corresponding questions. There are thirteen total questions throughout the time line that can be checked for accuracy and student understanding (Refer to Resources C.1-C.4).

Students will be assessed on their analysis of the Emancipation Proclamation and the timing of its release. Students will read the excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation and answer the corresponding questions. (The Emancipation Proclamation assessment sheet may be found at resource D.1 & D.2).

Lesson Experience

Explain to the students that President Lincoln was known to have freed the slaves by writing the Emancipation Proclamation. Tell students that they are going to listen to an audio of the Proclamation and listen for the following information as it is read to them. Students may write down their responses to the questions as they listen.

When was the proclamation written?
What states are listed as areas where Lincoln stated, “The slaves shall be free?”
What did Lincoln say he sincerely believed this to be an act of?

The teacher may choose to read the Emancipation Proclamation to the students.

Put the class into groups of three and give students a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation hand out. Explain that they are going to read small excerpts from the primary source document and reflect upon the passages by answering 10 questions as they read small excerpts. Assign roles to the students of: a reader, recorder and reporter. Allow students approximately 30 minutes to complete the questions in the activity. Once the students have finished the questions, allow the reporters from each group to share their responses.

Teacher Note: For further information on why Lincoln made the choices of the Emancipation, read a letter from Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges, editor of the Frankfort, KY, Commonwealth, April 4, 1864, explaining his choices on Emancipation.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/almss/ln001.html

Lesson Wrap-Up

The students should have a copy of all of the handouts in this lesson and compile them into their “Life of Lincoln” book. Tell students to take all of the information that they have gathered about Lincoln through the lessons and design a book cover that portrays the beliefs, values, and actions that Abraham Lincoln had as an American President.

Tell them that their book needs a conclusion so they are to write a final chapter to their book. In their conclusion the students should choose one of the following topics to write about:

Describe three main things that Abraham Lincoln believed in and give examples of things that Lincoln said or did that showed he had this belief.
Describe three main things that Lincoln valued. Explain how you know that Lincoln had those values.
Analyze three actions that Lincoln took as president and discuss what this says about him as a political leader.

SUGGESTIONS for DIFFERENTIATION

Students that have difficulty with the reading may work in a think, pair, share setting or small groups to complete the learning experience. The teacher may project all of the activities through an internet projector to guide the students through the experiences.
Students that prepared for a challenge could be asked to write a paper on, “What if Mr. Lincoln had never written the Emancipation Proclamation?” Gifted students may also be given a copy of the entire Proclamation and discuss information that the handout did not cover and to summarize the proclamation in their own words. They could also write an essay discussing how Lincoln would react to current events today such as the war on terror.