Eighth Grade Unit 4: Causes and Consequences of the Civil War Suggested Length of Time: 8 weeks Overarching Standards: 8.10 Students analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War. 8.11 Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction. Writing Genre: Argument (6-8.WHST.1a-f)(6-8.WHST.4)(6-8.WHST.8)(6-8.WHST.9) Integrated Skills: Reading: 6.8 RH. 8-10 HSS Analysis Skills: C&ST 1-3, RE&PoV 4-5; HI 2, 3, 5, 6 Essential Questions to guide instruction: Was the Civil War inevitable? Was the Emancipation Proclamation issued for humanitarian reasons or as a military necessity? Was Reconstruction more of a success or failure for freedmen? Essential Standards: 8.7.2, 8.9.1, 8.9.5, 8.10.1, 8.10.4, 8.10.6, 8.11.1, 8.11.5 Supporting Standards: 8.7.4, 8.9.2, 8.9.3, 8.9.4, 8.9.6, 8.10.2, 8.10.3, 8.10.5, 8.10.7, 8.11.2, 8.11.3, 8.11.4 Unit Academic Vocabulary: Discover, analyze, assess, create, Unit Domain-Specific Vocabulary: Missouri Compromise, Wilmot Proviso, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Gettysburg Address, Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, Supreme Court s Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896, Thirteenth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment. Holt United States History Independence to 1914 Applicable Chapters: 14, 15, 16 Unit Primary Resource Documents: Missouri Compromise, the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas- Nebraska Act, Supreme Court s Dred Scott v. Sandford, writings and speeches of Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln s House Divided speech, Lincoln s Inaugural Addresses in 1861 and 1865, Gettysburg Address, Emancipation Proclamation, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, Supreme Court s Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 ( separate but equal ), Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution Unit Suggested Close Read Documents: see primary resource documents Unit Suggested Websites: scholastic.com 1
2015 Draft Framework Text: The Causes and Consequences of the Civil War In this unit, students concentrate on the causes and consequences of the Civil War. They should discover how the issue of slavery eventually became too divisive to ignore or tolerate. Ultimately, the nation fractured over the debate about the expansion of slavery into newly annexed western territories and states, especially after the discovery of gold in California. Students review the constitutional compromises that forestalled the separation of the union in the first half of the nineteenth century, including the Missouri Compromise, the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Ostend Manifesto, the Dred Scott case, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Students learn about the fundamental challenge to the Constitution and the Union posed by the secession of the southern states and the doctrine of nullification. In addition to studying the critical battlefield campaigns of the war, students use a variety of primary sources to examine the human meaning of the war in the lives of soldiers, free African Americans, slaves, women, and others. Ultimately, enslaved men and women, by fleeing their plantations and seeking refuge among Union forces, contributed to redefining the war as a struggle over their freedom. Teachers pay special attention to the notable events and transformations in Abraham Lincoln s presidency, including his Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and his inaugural addresses. The Civil War should be treated as a watershed event in American history. It resolved a challenge to the very existence of the nation, demolished the antebellum way of life in the South, and created the prototype of modern warfare. To understand Reconstruction, students consider the economic and social changes that came with the end of slavery and how African Americans attained political freedom and exercised that power within a few years after the war. Students study the postwar struggle for control of the South and of the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. A federal civil rights bill granting full equality to African Americans was followed by adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Between 1865 and 1877, African-American citizens, newly organized as Republicans, influenced the direction of southern politics and elected 22 members of Congress. Republican-dominated legislatures established the first publicly financed education systems in the region, provided debt relief to the poor, and expanded women s rights. Students examine the Reconstruction governments in the South; observe the reaction of Southerners toward Northern carpetbaggers and to the Freedman s Bureau, which sent Northern teachers to educate the ex-slaves; and consider the consequences of the 1872 Amnesty Act and the fateful election of 1876, followed by the prompt withdrawal of federal troops from the South. Students assess what were the successes and failures of Reconstruction. Students analyze how events during and after Reconstruction raised and then dashed hopes that African Americans would achieve full equality. They should understand how the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were undermined by the courts and political interests. They learn how 2
slavery was replaced by black peonage, segregation, Jim Crow laws, and other legal restrictions on the rights of African Americans, capped by the Supreme Court s Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 ( separate but equal ). Racism prevailed, enforced by lynch mobs, the Ku Klux Klan, popular sentiment, and federal acceptance, which spread outside of the South. Students need to understand the connection between the Reconstruction-era amendments and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Although undermined by the courts a century ago, these amendments became the legal basis for all civil rights progress in the twentieth century. Unit Standards History Content 8.7.2 Trace the origins and development of slavery; its effects on black Americans and on the region s political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development; and identify the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve it (e.g., through the writings and historical documents on Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey). 8.9.1 Describe the leaders of the abolition movement (e.g., John Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment, John Brown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Weld, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass). 8.9.5 Analyze the significance of the States Rights Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846), the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay s role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858). 8.10 Students analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War. 8.10.1 Compare the conflicting interpretations of state and federal authority as emphasized in the speeches and writings of statesmen such as Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun. 8.10.4 Discuss Abraham Lincoln s presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their relationship to the Declaration of Independence, such as his House Divided speech (1858), Gettysburg Address (1863), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865). 8.10.6 Describe critical developments and events in the war, including the major battles, geographical advantages and obstacles, technological advances, and General Lee s surrender at Appomattox. 8.11 Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction. 8.11.1 List the original aims of Reconstruction and describe its effects on the political and social structures of different regions 8.11.5 Understand the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and analyze their connection to Reconstruction. History Analysis Skills Chronological and Spatial Thinking: 1. Students explain how major events are related to one another in time. 2. Students construct various time lines of key events, people, and periods of the historical era they are 3
studying. 3. Students use a variety of maps and documents to identify physical and cultural features of neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries and to explain the historical migration of people, expansion and disintegration of empires, and the growth of economic systems. Research, Evidence, and Point of View: 4. Students assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources and draw sound conclusions from them. 5. Students detect the different historical points of view on historical events and determine the context in which the historical statements were made (the questions asked, sources used, author's perspectives). Historical Interpretation: 2. Students understand and distinguish cause, effect, sequence, and correlation in historical events, including the long- and short-term causal relations. 3.Students explain the sources of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events explains the emergence of new patterns. 5. Students recognize that interpretations of history are subject to change as new information is uncovered. 6. Students interpret basic indicators of economic performance and conduct cost-benefit analyses of economic and political issues. Common Core Reading for History CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.8 Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.9 Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.10 By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. Common Core Writing History, Science, and Technical Subjects CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content. a. Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. c. Establish and maintain a formal style. d. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented. 4
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. A note from the framework on the integration of content and skills: The framework and standards emphasize the importance of studying major historical events and periods in depth as opposed to superficial skimming of enormous amounts of material. This emphasis on depth over breadth is also a central component of the Common Core. The Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills require students to examine and understand the causation behind historical events and to learn to approach their studies in the same way that historians and social scientists do. The integrated and correlated approach proposed here requires time; students should not be made to feel that they are on a forced march across many centuries and continents. 2015 HSS Draft Framework, Chapter 1 5
Benchmark Blueprint Standard Question Type Number of Questions Total Points 8.10.4 Discuss Abraham Lincoln s presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their relationship to the Declaration of Independence, such as his House Divided speech (1858), Gettysburg Address (1863), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865). 8.11.5 Understand the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and analyze their connection to Reconstruction. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.9 Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic. (using content standards 8.10.1 ) Chronological and Spatial Thinking 2. Students construct various time lines of key events, people, and periods of the historical era they are studying. (using content standards 8.10.6) 4 6 2 3 2 3 2 3 6-8.WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content. Short Essay 1 5 d. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. (using content standards 8.11.1) 11 20 6