Restoring the Union

Anticipatory – Show a student sample/exemplar of a completed diary and free verse poem which the students will soon create in class.  You’ll also need to show the students a short PowerPoint to review the treatment of African Americans during the Reconstruction period including Freedmen’s Bureau, withdrawal of federal troops’ protection, political, social, and educational opportunities available to African Americans.  

Direct Instruction: The students will be creating either a set of diaries or free verse poems in the point of view of an African American in SC during the Reconstruction period.  You can decide if you would rather differentiate the lesson by telling the students in your class who have high writing skill levels to create a journal entries while the on-grade-level and below students can be assigned the free verse poem format.  

• (High students) Write a journal entry that includes life as an African American in SC during reconstruction.  Include an entry from right after the war, 6 months into reconstruction, 1 year into reconstruction, and 10 years into reconstruction (the end) while describing the political, educational, social opportunities, discrimination groups (KKK) and the withdrawal of federal protection 
• (On-grade level and below students) Write a poem in free verse format in the point of view of an African American in SC during the Reconstruction Period from each of these time periods: right after the war, 6 months into Reconstruction, 1 year into Reconstruction, and 10 years into Reconstruction (the end) while describing the political, educational, social opportunities, discrimination groups (KKK) and the withdrawal of federal protection
• If you would rather use more of a personalized learning strategy, you can also allow the students to choose the method of writing that they prefer, journal or poem.  Once you review your choice with the students, model for them how to research and write the journal in addition to the poem.  This should take only about 10 minutes.  Research will take place with the use of the SCETV websites provided with this lesson.  There are a variety of primary and secondary sources for the students to choose from while developing their rough drafts.

Technology Recommendations

• If you don’t have iPad/Macbooks for each student, then you’ll need to print off many of the documents for the students which include political cartoons, newspaper articles, and captions summarizing the educational, social, and political opportunities for African Americans.  There are additional videos that can be used to learn about discrimination and the shifts that took place for African Americans in the south.  
• If you do have ipads/Macbooks for every child, create QR codes for each of the links and the students can scan them to get back and forth between the websites.  
  • To challenge the students, you could have them create a reference page documenting the sources that they used.  

Guided practice: Researching - The students can work together to research information about each of the subtopics including life for African Americans right after the Civil War, 6 months after the war during the Reconstruction period, 1 year into reconstruction, and 10 years into reconstruction (the end) which will show the changes that occurred to African Americans.  The students will use multiple primary and secondary resources to compile enough information about the social, educational, and political changes.  Information will be written in the Treatment of African Americans after the Civil War Research Graphic Organizer. Students can use complete sentences or just use bullets to collect information.  

Independent Practice: Writing free verse poems or journals - Students will work independently using their Treatment of African Americans after the Civil War Research Graphic Organizer to write their free verse poems or journals in order to describe life for African Americans in the South after the Civil War through the Reconstruction period.  Students can be give loose-leaf paper for their rough drafts and then after self-editing, students can write their final copy on special old-scroll style paper.  Students get excited writing on different types of paper. That paper can be found at a craft store and each student should receive 4 pieces of the special paper since there will be 4 poems or journals that they will be writing.  

How will students share their work?
The students can show their work in multiple ways.  A teacher can hang journal entries around the classroom or in the hallway after each student presents an excerpt from their favorite journal entry.  Tell the students to choose the section that are proud of due to the use of figurative language or the imagery that can be created for the reader.  

Extensions/Differentiation:
Differentiation is built into the lesson.  You can also add personalized learning by allowing the students to choose if they would rather write the free verse poems or journal entries.  
 

An evaluation is the grading of each poem or journal.  A formal assessment can be a quiz over 8-5.3 since the journals or poems cover all the content for this standard.  

Journal/Poem Rubric:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gfwxuEwXcdd0FAcluOzzVkxQTJdppEQdMVDo...