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Across Five Aprils—Civil War Virtual Field Trips
Subject Area:
American History, Language Arts
Grade Level(s):
8
Duration of Activity:
Ten to fifteen, 50-minute class periods
Description of Activity:
Students will explore the Civil War by reading Irene Hunt’s novel, Across Five Aprils. Students will improve their reading skills by reading the novel silently in class while listening to audiotapes of the book. After reading about some of the battles that are discussed in the book, students will take virtual field trips to these battle sites and answer questions that will guide them in their study of the Civil War. This lesson will take two weeks to read the novel and two more days to complete the virtual field trips to three Civil War battlefields. Students will visit Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, and Shiloh battlefields and answer questions related to each of these tours.
This lesson can be used in conjunction with the following C·R·E·A·T·E for Mississippi lessons in a cross-curricular unit:
Across Five Aprils: A Novel Study (Language Arts)
Math Quilts—Stories to Tell (Math)
Across Five Aprils: Civil War Battlefield Landforms (Science)
Objectives:
- Improve reading skills
- Develop a better understanding of the Civil War
- Improve Web navigation skills to research topics
- Learn file management techniques, including renaming files and saving to a floppy diskette
- Practice using multiple windows on the computer
Materials/Equipment:
- Classroom set of the novel Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
- Audiocassette of Across Five Aprils
- Cassette player
- Computers with Internet access (at least one for every 4 or 5 students)
- Diskettes (one for each student)
- Handout 1: Forts Donelson and Henry Virtual Field Trip
- Handout 2: Forts Donelson and Henry Virtual Field Trip—Answer Key
- Handout 3: Shiloh Virtual Field Trip
- Handout 4: Shiloh Virtual Field Trip—Answer Key
Prerequisites (skills or background needed):
- The teacher should provide an overview of the Civil War
- The students will need World Wide Web navigation skills
Procedure
Teacher Component:
The teacher will
- save Handout 1: Forts Donelson and Henry Virtual Field Trip and Handout 3: Shiloh Virtual Field Trip to the hard drives of all student computers or to the school network where students will be able to access the files.
- introduce this unit with a brief overview of the significance, sequence of events, and outcome of the Civil War.
- hand out and collect copies of Irene Hunt’s Across Five Aprils on each reading day.
- rewind the cassette recording of Across Five Aprils to the proper place for each class for each day’s reading.
- monitor students to ensure that they are reading along in the novel with the audiocassette each day.
- assign students to groups of 3 to 5 for the virtual field trips.
- guide the students in locating the following handouts and saving them to their personal diskettes:
Handout 1: Forts Donelson and Henry Virtual Field Trip
Handout 3: Shiloh Virtual Field Trip
The students should rename the files by appending their first initial and last name to the end of
each file name for easy identification by the teacher.
- assist each group in navigating through the Web sites if assistance is needed. Instruct them to use the Alt + Tab shortcut to toggle between windows.
- collect diskettes containing field trip guide as groups finish their tours.
- assist student groups who finish early in exploring the Web site CivilWarAlbum.com /
http://civilwaralbum.com site further.
- evaluate student work using the following answer keys:
Handout 2: Forts Donelson and Henry Virtual Field Trip—Answer Key
Handout 4: Shiloh Virtual Field Trip—Answer Key
It should be noted that Handouts 1 and 2 are identical Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The only difference is that in the handout given to the students (Handout 1: Forts Donelson and Henry Virtual Field Trip), the answers have been hidden by using the HIDE option and hiding Column B in the spreadsheet. To reveal the answers, highlight Columns A and C, right-click and select UNHIDE. To hide the answers again, select Column B, right-click and select HIDE. Handouts 3 and 4 are identical to one another as well.
For added security, the teacher may choose to use a password to lock the spreadsheet with the hidden answers. To do so, select TOOLS on the menu bar > PROTECTION > PROTECT SHEET. Be sure that the box next to "Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells" is checked. Key in a password. Be sure to remember the password because without it, the spreadsheet becomes unusable. To unlock the spreadsheet, select TOOLS > PROTECTION > UNPROTECT SHEET. Enter the password for the spreadsheet.
Student Activities:
The student will
- read along with the audiocassette of Across Five Aprils.
- answer any teacher-made questions from the readings.
- save Handout 1: Forts Donelson and Henry Virtual Field Trip and Handout 3: Shiloh Virtual Field Trip to a floppy diskette. Open the file for the selected Civil War battlefield on the computer.
- work in groups to navigate through the selected Civil War battlefield tours located at CivilWarAlbum.com / http://civilwaralbum.com. Use the Alt-Tab shortcut to maneuver back and forth between two open windows.
- use the Web site to answer the questions on the virtual field trip spreadsheet for that day.
- discuss the answers for their virtual field trip sheet with the other students in their groups to determine if they agree their answers are correct.
- turn in his/her virtual field trip diskette to the teacher for a grade.
Accommodations:
- Working in groups allows most problems to be overcome as students within the group who have better technology skills can assist students with fewer technology skills.
- Teachers with limited computer access may print and photocopy the handouts for student use.
Extension Activities:
- Students could take virtual field trips to other battlefields from this same Web site using teacher-made field trip guides such as the two given in this lesson plan.
- Students could take virtual field trips to other battlefields from this same Web site and create their own field trip guides and questions using the two guides in the lesson plan as models.
- Students could complete several online practice quizzes on the Civil War using the Web site found at CWM Index of Chapters / http://civilwarmini.com/list.htm. Students may be allowed to work in small teams and compete against other teams in the classroom. These quizzes are self grading and only require that the teacher monitor and record the final grade from each quiz for each group on the board. Students should be able to complete at least two and sometimes three or more quizzes in a 50-minute class period. The teacher should select five quizzes from the menu given on the Web site and write them on the board in a particular order to ensure the students work on the same quizzes for the competition purposes.
Integration:
- Language Arts
- Social Studies
Assessments:
- Teacher observation—Did students follow along with the audiocassette and read the book? Daily grades could be given for participation.
- Handout 2: Forts Donelson and Henry Virtual Field Trip—Answer Key
- Handout 4: Shiloh Virtual Field Trip—Answer Key
URLs:
Curriculum Frameworks
Mississippi:
Eighth Grade
- Evaluate the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the United States. (C, H, G, E)
- Describe the sequence of events that led to the Union victory.
National Educational Technology Standards (NETS):
- Use content-specific tools, software, and simulations (e.g., environmental probes, graphing calculators, exploratory environments, Web tools) to support learning and research. (3,5)
- Select and use appropriate tools and technology resources to accomplish a variety of tasks and solve problems. (5,6)
- Research and evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness, and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems. (2,5,6)
TerraNova:
27 Historical and Cultural Perspectives 11-21/22
Demonstrate an understanding of concepts and process skills related to the study of the contributions, influences, and interactions of various cultures.
28 Civics and Government Perspectives 11-21/22
Demonstrate an understanding of concepts and process skills related to the study of civic responsibilities and the structures and functions of government.
Link and Feedback to Author(s):
Tim West, Tupelo Middle School, Tupelo, MS
wwtimbo@hotmail.com
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