SS4


Grade 4, Social Studies Std 7: Identify reasons for Alabama’s secession from the Union, including sectionalism, slavery, state rights, and economic disagreements.

Lesson Plans: The Underground Railroad This lesson will integrate some of the famous writings about the Underground Railroad to encourage students to develop their questioning techniques for analysis of literature while furthering their knowledge of this era in American history. As an extension of this study, students will create a class quilt to illustrate the depth of their research. Lincoln Goes to War To explore how Abraham Lincoln made the decision to secure Fort Sumter despite Confederate objections, evaluate the extent to which Lincoln's actions were calculated to provoke conflict, and gain experience in working with official papers, private correspondence, and public speeches as resources for historical study. The Road to War (1846 - 1860) The student will evaluate reasons for secession from the Union. This lesson is written about Mississippi, but can be adapted for Alabama. Did You Hear the News? After studying about the differences between the North and south prior to the Civil War and how Alabama decided to secede from the Union, students will write a newspaper article on this important decision. They will go back in time and imagine they lived in Alabama as a journalist in the year of 1861. Expository Writing and The Civil War This lesson is designed to help students strengthen their research and writing skills, while learning more about the Civil War, as they produce an expository paragraph. Students will glean information from an article about the causes of the Civil War and then use the "Step Up To Writing" technique to write their paragraphs.

Resources: Alabama Department of Archives & History: Timelines, activity sheets, teacher resources. Alabama Secedes: Includes text from Harper's Weekly and links to key documents. Secession Acts of the Thirteen Confederate States: Scroll down page to read each in order of adoption. Alabama History Timeline: A very thorough resource. Causes of the Civil War: This compelling program reveals how the interests of the industrial North and the agricultural South (the Cotton Belt) came to clash over critical issues such as plantation slavery, and how these issues eventually led to the secession of the southern states. United Streaming. The American Civil War: Causes of the War: At a time when the North and South differed economically and socially, political compromise could no longer quell the division between the two factions. States' rights versus the constitution, tariffs, division of labor, slavery, abolitionism, and legislative mandates all led to the great war. United Streaming. Suggestions for English Language Learners: (E/B=Entering/Beginning, D=Developing, E=Expanding) (E/B) Students reproduce historical highlights from timelines or visually supported newspaper headlines. (E/B) Students produce entries for historical journals from timelines or visually supported newspaper headlines. (E/B) Students gather research with a partner. (E/B) Students scan for information. (E/B) Students develop a pictorial timeline. (E/B) Students create a diorama. (D) Students maintain historical journals in chronological order based on timelines or newspaper headlines. (D) Students match visual with a description. (D) Students use well-illustrated resources. Complete a graphic organizer with student-researched information. (D) Write questions on researched information in groups. Then ask each other questions following a teacher model. (E) Students produce reports from historical journals (using technology). (E) Students respond to inferential questions. (E) Students write a short report.
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