CEP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: Caroline Talbot

Content Area: Social Studies
Title: Cooperative Learning on Multiple Perspectives before and during the Civil War
Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:
8th Grade History Standard 1: Formulate appropriate hypotheses about United States
history based on a variety of historical sources and perspectives.
Use and interpret documents and other relevant primary and secondary sources pertaining
to United States history from multiple perspectives.
Analyze evidence from multiple sources including those with conflicting accounts about
specific events in United States history.

8th Grade History Standard 2: The historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas and
themes from the origins of the American Revolution through Reconstruction and
their relationships with one another

Determine and explain the historical context of key people and events from the origins of
the American Revolution through Reconstruction including the examination of different
perspectives

Understandings:
Students will learn about the multiple perspectives Americans had about the
controversial issues before and during the Civil War.
Inquiry Questions:
Which primary documents have had the greatest impact on the people of the United States?

How have the basic values and principles of American democracy changed over
time and in what ways have they been preserved?
To what extent was the Civil War an extension of the American Revolution?
Evidence Outcomes:
Every student will be able to:
I can: I analyze secondary and primary sources relating to multiple perspectives
during the Civil War Era
This means: We can gather together five readings about this time period and
complete our understanding through a KWL chart.
List of Assessments:
In groups, students will be assigned five readings about perspectives during this
time period (1a).
Complete their section of reading in the KWL chart (1b).
Share their findings with the rest of the class to complete the remaining parts to the
KWL chart (2b).
List of Significant Vocabulary:
"Peculiar Institution": Another term for slavery in the South.
Whig Party: A political party generally against slavery and its expansion into the
territories. The Whig party had basically been swallowed up by the Democrat and
Republican parties by the time of the Civil War.
Secession: Withdrawal from the Federal government of the United States. Southern
states, feeling persecuted by the North, seceded by voting to separate from the
Union. Southerners felt this was perfectly legal but Unionists saw it as rebellion
Abolitionist: Someone who wishes to abolish or get rid of slavery.

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CEP Lesson Plan Form

Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson
Approx. Time and Materials/Procedures

Pre-Assessment

Procedures/Instructional Input/Learning
Chunks/Scaffolding for Learning (this is the
largest part of your lesson plan)

Perspectives During the Civil War Era

55 minutes
Five readings (4 copies for each group)
20 KWL charts (1 for each student)
Smartboard
Warm-up question:
Why is having many perspectives to an event helpful to
understand what happened? Think of a situation in your life
when your point of view was very different from someone elses.
Warm-up and sharing students responses: 5 minutes
Pass out KWL chart. Mention each reading and a student to fill
out the K of what they already know on that perspective (For
example: What you already know about the conditions of a
slave during this time?): 10 minutes
Then students will complete the W section or their chart: 5
minutes
Give directions- Students are to work with their table groups
and will be assigned one of the five readings. Once students
have collaborated on the readings they will complete the L
section of their charts on their assigned reading.* They only
need to write one thing they have learned: 15 minutes
A student from each group will write put what they wrote in
their L section on the smartboard for the rest of the class to
write on their charts. Then they will share a summary of their
reading to the rest of the class: 15 minutes

Closure/Conclusion/Summary/Adjustments/

Wrap-up and turn in KWL charts: 5 minutes

*Underline sections are using to cooperative learning method
Connecting back to the warm-up question, ask students: Why

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Wrap-up/Clean-up
Differentiation/Modifications/Adaptations/Ac
commodations

do you think these different points of view led to a conflict?

To modify: Assign seating and groups to meet with students
reading level.
Lower reading levels can be assigned reading two, reading three
or reading four.
To extend: Assign seating and groups to meet with students
reading level
Higher reading levels can be assigned reading one or reading
five.

Assessment/Pre-Post/On-going
This lesson will be near the beginning of the unit. I want
students to understand the contrasting viewpoints, not only
with the South and the North, but within the Southern and
Northern societies. By understanding these different
perspectives they can learn why these differing viewpoints led
to the Civil War.

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CEP Lesson Plan Form

Reading One:
NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE. WRITTEN BY
HIMSELF.
1849
Courtesy of Library of Congress, General Collections Division
return to main documents page
Document Description
As the weather grew cold on the plantations slaves were often not sufficiently protected. In Frederick
Douglas' account of his life as a slave, he describes the experience of trying to survive harsh winters
without a bed to sleep in or proper food to eat.
Transcript
As to my own treatment while I lived on Colonel Lloyd's plantation, it was very similar to that of the
other slave children. I was not old enough to work in the field, and there being little else than field work
to do, I had a great deal of leisure time. The most I had to do was to drive up the cows at evening, keep
the fowls out of the garden, keep the front yard clean, and run of errands for my old master's daughter,
Mrs. Lucretia Auld. The most of my leisure time I spent in helping Master Daniel Lloyd in finding his
birds, after he had shot them. My connection with Master Daniel was of some advantage to me. He beame
quite attached to me, and was a sort of protector of me. He would not allow the older boys to impose upon
me, and would divide his cakes with me.
I was seldom whipped by my old master, and suffered little from any thing else than hunger and cold. I
suffered much from hunger, but much more from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, I was kept
almost naked--no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trousers, nothing on but a coarse tow linen shirt,
reaching
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I had no bed. I must have perished with cold, but that, the coldest nights, I used to steal a bag which was
used for carrying corn to the mill. I would crawl into this bag, and there sleep on the cold, damp, clay
floor, with my head in and feet out. My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I
am writing might be laid in the gashes. We were not regularly allowanced. Our food was coarse corn meal
boiled. This was called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the
ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and
devour the mush; some with oystershells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none
with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the
trough satisfied.
I was probably between seven and eight years old when I left Colonel Lloyd's plantation. I left it with joy.
I shall never forget the ecstasy with which I received the intelligence that my old master (Anthony) had
determined to let me go to Baltimore, to live with Mr. Hugh Auld, brother to my old master's son-in-law,
Captain Thomas Auld. I received this information about three days before my departure. They were three
of the happiest days I ever enjoyed. I spent the most part of all these three days in the creek, washing off
the plantation scurf, and preparing myself for my departure. The pride of appearance which this would
indicate was not my own.

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Reading Two:
The Gettysburg Address
NOVEMBER 19, 1863
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Following the Battle of Gettysburg Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address during the dedication
of the cemetery for Union soldiers who fought and died in the battle. In the address Lincoln expressed the
great need for Americans to remember the sacrifice made by these soldiers.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived,
and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we
may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicatewe can not consecratewe can not
hallow, this groundThe brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our
poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can
never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us that, from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of
devotionthat we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a
new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
Reading Three:
From civilwar.org
SOUTH
The fertile soil and warm climate of the South made it ideal for large-scale farms and crops like tobacco
and cotton. Because agriculture was so profitable few Southerners saw a need for industrial development.
Eighty percent of the labor force worked on the farm. Although two-thirds of Southerners owned no
slaves at all, by 1860 the South's "peculiar institution" was inextricably tied to the region's economy and
culture. In fact, there were almost as many blacks - but slaves and free - in the South as there were whites
(4 million blacks and 5.5 million whites). There were no large cities aside from New Orleans, and most of
the ones that did exist were located on rivers and coasts as shipping ports to send agricultural produce to
European or Northern destinations.
Only one-tenth of Southerners lived in urban areas and transportation between cities was difficult, except
by water. Only 35% of the nation's train tracks were located in the South. Also, in 1860, the South's
agricultural economy was beginning to stall while the Northern manufacturers were experiencing a boom.
A slightly smaller percentage of white Southerners were literate than their Northern counterparts, and
Southern children tended to spend less time in school. As adults, Southern men tended to belong to the
Democratic political party and gravitated toward military careers as well as agriculture.
Reading Four:
From civilwar.org
NORTH
The northern soil and climate favored smaller farmsteads rather than large plantations. Industry
flourished, fueled by more abundant natural resources than in the South, and many large cities were
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established (New York was the largest city with more than 800,000 inhabitants). By 1860, one quarter of
all Northerners lived in urban areas. Between 1800 and 1860, the percentage of laborers working in
agricultural pursuits dropped drastically from 70% to only 40%. Slavery had died out, replaced in the
cities and factories by immigrant labor from Europe. In fact an overwhelming majority of immigrants,
seven out of every eight, settled in the North rather than the South. Transportation was easier in the North,
which boasted more than two-thirds of the railroad tracks in the country and the economy was on an
upswing.
Far more Northerners than Southerners belonged to the Whig/Republican political party and they
were far more likely to have careers in business, medicine, or education. In fact, an engineer was six
times as likely to be from the North as from the South. Northern children were slightly more prone to
attend school than Southern children.

Reading Five:
Excerpts from John Calhoun's "Slavery a Positive Good," (6 February 1837)
Web Version:
http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/abolition/CalhounPositiveGood.html

However sound the great body of the non-slaveholding States are at present, in the course
of a few years they will be succeeded by those who will have been taught to hate the people and
institutions of nearly one-half of this Union, with a hatred more deadly than one hostile nation
ever entertained towards another. It is easy to see the end. By the necessary course of events, if
left to themselves, we must become, finally, two people. It is impossible under the deadly hatred
which must spring up between the two great nations, if the present causes are permitted to
operate unchecked, that we should continue under the same political system. The conflicting
elements would burst the Union asunder, powerful as are the links which hold it together.
Abolition and the Union cannot coexist. As the friend of the Union I openly proclaim it, - and the
sooner it is known the better.
The former may now be controlled, but in a short time it will be beyond the power of
man to arrest the course of events. We of the South will not, cannot, surrender our institutions. To
maintain the existing relations between the two races, inhabiting that section of the Union, is
indispensable to the peace and happiness of both. . . . But let me not be understood as admitting,
even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races in the slaveholding States
is an evil: - far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be to both, and
will continue to prove so if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition. I appeal to facts. Never
before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained
a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.
In the meantime, the white or European race, has not degenerated. It has kept pace with
its brethren in other sections of the Union where slavery does not exist. It is odious to make
comparison; but I appeal to all sides whether the South is not equal in virtue, intelligence,
patriotism, courage, disinterestedness, and all the high qualities which adorn our nature.
But I take higher ground. I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of
different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual,
are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is,
instead of an evil, a good - a positive good. I feel myself called upon to speak freely upon the
subject where the honor and interests of those I represent are involved. I hold then, that there
never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did
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not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other. Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully
borne out by history.
This is not the proper occasion, but, if it were, it would not be difficult to trace the
various devices by which the wealth of all civilized communities has been so unequally divided,
and to show by what means so small a share has been allotted to those by whose labor it was
produced, and so large a share given to the non-producing classes. The devices are almost
innumerable, from the brute force and gross superstition of ancient times, to the subtle and artful
fiscal contrivances of modern. I might well challenge a comparison between them and the more
direct, simple, and patriarchal mode by which the labor of the African race is, among us,
commanded by the European. I may say with truth, that in few countries so much is left to the
share of the laborer, and so little exacted from him, or where there is more kind attention paid to
him in sickness or infirmities of age. Compare his condition with the tenants of the poor houses
in the more civilized portions of Europe - look at the sick, and the old and infirm slave, on one
hand, in the midst of his family and friends, under the kind superintending care of his master and
mistress, and compare it with the forlorn and wretched condition of the pauper in the poorhouse.
But I will not dwell on this aspect of the question; I turn to the political; and here I fearlessly
assert that the existing relation between the two races in the South, against which these blind
fanatics are waging war, forms the most solid and durable foundation on which to rear free and
stable political institutions. It is useless to disguise the fact. There is and always has been in an
advanced stage of wealth and civilization, a conflict between labor and capital. The condition of
society in the South exempts us from the disorders and dangers resulting from this conflict; and
which explains why it is that the political condition of the slaveholding States has been so much
more stable and quiet than that of the North. . . .

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