civilwar

The American Civil War

A WebQuest for 6th Grade History

Kristen Aeschliman

&

Jacquie O'Neill

Introduction

Somehow, you and your classmates have been put through a time warp, and have landed smack dab in the middle of the Civil War. It is a time of bloodshed, anger, sadness, slavery, war, and death. You and your classmates are now a team of reporters experiencing the Civil War firsthand! In groups of four, you will put together a newspaper depicting what is going on around you.

The Task

In groups of four, you will be assigned the task of researching, writing, and editing a special edition newspaper different events of the Civil War. Your edition will include:

Four news articles on Civil War battles
A human interest story
Photographs
An editorial
Letters to the editor
A political cartoon
Advertisements

The Process

First you will be assigned to a team of 4 students. Half of the groups will be assigned Union status, the other half will be assigned Confederate status.

Next you will be assigned one of the following roles:

Role	Description
Group Leader	Oversees the division of tasks equally among group members. Makes sure that everything is running smoothly within the group.
Motivator	Must keep everyone on task and motivated.
Editor	Is in charge of putting the newspaper together so that it is appealing to the eye.
Reporter	Will report to the group the progress of each team member, as well as the group findings to the class.

In addition to your assigned role, everyone in your group is responsible to research the information needed for the newspaper.

You will decide as a group, with the help of the teacher if needed, which parts of the newspaper each group member will be responsible for.

Once each team member has decided which parts they are responsible for, research begins.

Once research is completed, each team member must write and submit his/her work to the editor.

After the newspaper is put together, the group must meet to make any additional changes, additions, or deletions.

The group then decides to present the newspaper in paper, video, or multimedia format.

Here is a list of possible resources you can use. You may also use other resources.

General Information

http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/

http://www.americancivilwar.com/

http://cwreenactors.com/

http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/civil.html

http://rs6.loc.gov/cwphome.html

http://www.nps.gov/frsp/vc.htm

http://www.thehistorynet.com/AmericasCivilWar/

Letters

http://people.mw.mediaone.net/jeffclark/edgar/ejmain.htm

Underground Railroad

http://education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstud/railroad/contents.htm

Battles

http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/bentonvi/bentonvi.htm

http://members.aol.com/lmjarl/civwar/frdrksburg.html

http://californiacentralcoast.com/commun/map/civil/statepic/alpha.html

http://www.civilwarhome.com/bullrunbattleorderconfed.htm

Evaluation

Your project will be evaluated on the following criteria:

Are all required parts of the newspaper present?
Are the articles clear, concise, and well written?
Are the articles supported by accurate research?
Is the newspaper informative, persuasive, and appealing?
Were all deadlines met?
Was the group able to accomplish all tasks cooperatively?

Conclusion

After researching and creating your own newspaper, a class discussion will be held, allowing students to express his/her viewpoints on the Civil War. We will then test our Civil War knowledge using this site on the Internet.

http://Civilwarmini.com/menu.htm

Credits & References

Our graphic is from www.arttoday.com .

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page.