Teacher

Mary Kay Robinson

Title
The Civil War meets the 21st century.

Description of Activity
Students will wrap up the Unit on the Civil War by completing a web quest, creating an
online timeline and an online poster, study battles and dates and/or people and their
importance.

Suggested grade level

Secondary
Grade 8

Pennsylvania Subject Area Standards

PA History Standards:
8.1.9A Analyze chronological thinking

8.1.9C Analyze the fundamentals of historical interpretation

8.1.9D Analyze and interpret historical sources

8.3.9A Identify and analyze the political and cultural contributions of individuals and
groups to United States History from 1787 to 1914

8.3.9C Analyze how continuity and change has influenced United States History from
1787 to 1914.

8.3.9D Identify and analyze conflict and cooperation among social groups and
organizations in United States History from 1787 to 1914

NETS Standards
1.Creativity and Innovation
B. create original works as means of persona; or group expression

2. Communications and Collaboration

 A. interacts, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a
variety of digital environments and media
D. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems

3. Researches and Information Fluency

A. plan strategies to guide inquiries
B. locates, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information
from a variety of sources and media
C. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the
appropriateness to specific tasks

4. Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

B. plan and manage activates to develop a solution or complete a project

5. Digital Citizenship
A. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and
technology
B. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration,
learning, and productivity

Learning objectives
Students will read about and understand the civil war (i.e. Important battles and the
signifgance of them, important people as well as their contributions). This will be done
through three major activities including a web quest, timeline, and poster.

The students will complete a web quest to review information that was presented in class
as well as to learn of websites that could possibly help them with their projects. The web
quests will be printed/emailed to be graded for completeness and correctness.

Using www.xtimeline.com students will create timeline of the significant battles of the
civil war that were discussed in class. The timelines will include pictures, dates,
locations, people, and significance to show their understanding of these events.

Using www.glogster.com students will create a poster of an important figure from the
civil war (as assigned by the teacher), to demonstrate their understanding of important
people and their impact on this time in history. The glogster will include 3 pictures, birth
date, death date, and the persons impact on the war.

Materials required
o Grade 8 History textbook
 o Teacher notes on the important battles of the civil war
http://www.eosc.edu/~cwbutler/histpol/Summary Of Major Civil War battles.doc
o 20 net books/laptops that include internet access as well as Microsoft Word
o Microsoft Word
o Projector/smart board to give notes and show students examples
o Student examples obtained from xtimeline.com
http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/U-S--Civil-War and glogster.com
http://tony.8815.glogster.com/stonewall-jackson/
o Web quest
http://www.hamiltoncityschools.com/schools/garfield/pdf/Webquest.doc
o Flash drive

Materials needed for students who are not granted Internet access or if technology fails:
o Butcher paper
o Markers
o Tape/glue
o Research materials

Approximate number of class periods and length

I will need approximately 7 class periods (43 minute class periods) in order to develop
the ideas, show examples, show all requirement, share rubrics, and quickly review the
standards for internet safety as well as how to work in a small group.

Classroom management strategies:

I would do this activity with students in groups of 2-3. I would bring into my classroom
either a laptop cart (which consists of 20 Mac books) or the mini-dell cart (which consists
of 25 mini-dell computers). I would like to bring the technology into the classroom in
case the technology does not work; the students can work in centers using other materials
I always have in the classroom (markers, paper, books, etc.). Some of the work will be
required to be done outside of school, either at home or during 8th period which is a study
hall where students can access the library or computer lab.

Warm up
These activities being done will be done after the facts of the Civil War have been
presented to the students. We would have already completed readings from the text, class
notes, and map studies prior to this lesson. Also since this topic occurs towards the end
of the school year the students would already be familiar with Internet safety, checking
the validity of websites, technology etiquette, and how to work in a small group.
Activities/ Procedures
Day 1: Introduce the lesson. The students will be told of the activities they will work on,
as well as absent policy (you are responsible to communicate with group members and
work on parts from home), examples will be shown, and students will have a chance to
make sure they have all class notes, and if they want to work on the internet they will be
given a consent form (if one has not been turned in previously). Rubrics for all projects
will be distributed and discussed.

Day 2 and 3: Students will work on a web quest with a partner. The partner they work on
the web quest with will be chosen by the student and does not have to be the same partner
to work on the timeline or poster. Students will work on the web quest to find valuable
sources of online data. The web quest will be turned in and graded for accuracy. Each
student must submit a web quest and each web quest will be graded individually.

Day 4: Rubrics for timeline and glog will be reviewed. Groups of 2-3 students will be
chosen, based on the class dynamic this can either be done by the teacher or by the
students. Students will be given a chance to work on the xtimeline.com as well as given
their topic for the glog, and they should be working on gathering more data today.

Day 5:Students will have a workday and all groups must submit and/or conference with
the teacher to discuss the sources being used to collect data. At this time students will be
given the go ahead to start creating their glogs and timelines or they will have to continue
researching. Copies of the reference will be made so the teacher can cross reference the
list when the project is turned in.

Day 6: Meet with any students who have not been given the go ahead to create the glog
and/or timeline and assist them in finding data. Students will work on their timelines and
glogs.

Day 7: Last work day! Students may submit their work at the end of the period for extra
credit or they can finish working and submit it the next day for full credit. This is a great
day for students to check in with the teacher for last minute questions.

Assessment strategies
How will you assess the students?
You must include a rubric that will assess the results of the technology project.
o Web quest will be developed indivudally based on correctness of answers.
o Glogster rubric
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id1686716&
o Xtimeline rubric
http://rubistar.4teachers.orrg/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id
1331949&
o Working cooperatively on glog and timeline
http:rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id1084805&
Related Web Sites
http://www.ngeorgia.com/history/why.html
http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=31
http://www.civilwarhome.com/statesrights.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Compromise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_1850
http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/kansas.htm
http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/dred.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1550.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html
http://www.civilwarhome.com/csa.htm
http://www.civilwarhome.com/ftsumter.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/3055/netscape/battles/bullrun.html
http://www.nps.gov/archive/anti/battle.htm
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation
http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/battle.htm
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation
_proclamation/images/emancipation_01.jpghttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh
/aia/part4/4h1545.html

Back-up plan: (if the technology fails!)

Students can make an outline of their timeline and glog. If technology continues to be a
problem, then I would set up centers of gathering information (one for information on the
battles, one for the people of the civil war, one for websites of where to find the
information), another center would be for the technology that is working (if any), a center
that gives students the opportunity to create a timeline on butcher paper and a poster on
poster board, and a final center for students to check in with a teacher and/or classmate to
monitor their progress and edit their work.

Branching out
Students who are below grade level can use voicethreads.com and
create a digital timeline where they can record their voice describing
each part of the timeline, instead of writing the information on the
timeline or glogster.com.

Students who are above grade level would also be required to embed
videos on their timelines and glogs.
If students finish early they may create a Civil War review game on
http://www.studystack.com