Lesson Three: What is Reconstruction?

Lesson Objective:

To show me that they understand students will answer questions throughout the lesson and will add to their books in the end. For their books there will be questions already written for them about reconstruction and they will have to write in the answers.  Also, students will talk about what they learned today about reconstruction with each other 

1 Focusing Activity:

a) “What was the war about?

The war was over if there should be slavery or not, and if states had the right to be free to break away.

b) Who fought in the war? Why?

Student Response: The North and the South did because they were fighting over if there should be slavery, and if there could be two countries instead of one

c) What was a slave’s life like? Were all owners means to their slaves?

Student Response: If the owners were mean then the slaves had to wear rags, they were beaten and they had to work long hard hours. They couldn’t be educated and they only got Sundays off. Sometimes the owners were really nice, and then the slaves were well rested, fed and wore descent clothes. All of the slaves had to work hard though.

d) What happened to slavery after the war?

            Student Response: Slavery was over

If students have a problem answering these questions I will have them refer to their books from last time and at the maps that they colored. After this discussion is over I will say, “I’m glad you all remember so much about slavery and it being abolished because today we are going to talk about what happened after it was abolished.”  Then I will ask the following questions to get the students thinking about today’s topic.

a) After the war what do you think our country was like?

Student Response: Guide the students to think creatively about what some of the problems might have been back then.

b) Did everyone get along or no?

Student Response: I will guide the students to answer “No.” and then I will say, “No they did not, and so President Lincoln started the idea for reconstruction as a way to get our country back together.

2 Instruction:

1) I will begin the lesson by giving each student a bag full of blocks and tell them to each build a building. Then I will say, “Oh no! The Civil War is happening and so all of your houses have been destroyed.” All of the buildings will be knocked over by the students and then I will say, “After the war the U.S. was left with their homes destroyed and no slaves to rebuild, or reconstruct, their homes. Also, the people in the U.S. were all still angry with each other. Today we are going to talk about how the U.S. got put back together again so that they had building and homes and so that they got along.” After the opening discussion I will have students sit around in a circle on the floor as I tell them about reconstruction as though it is a story. I will have time for questions and answers at the end, but for the most part it will be like they are listening to a story. As big words or dates come up I will write them on a “Fact Sheet” so they can see them written down. 

2) The story I will tell the children will be: “Every country is like a big family full of people who work together and help each other.  Well, during the Civil War the United States started to do what a lot of families do from time to time, and that is they started to fight with each other.  Usually the government can help with fights, but this time it was such a big big fight even the president couldn’t help.  When the war started some of the states even tried to leave their family and they formed their own separate countries. Do you know what that separate bond of states was called?” Then I will wait for students to say the “Confederate States of America.” And then I will write that word on the butcher paper.

3) I will go on to explain that “The Confederate States of America were the south and they had their own flag, constitution and they had slavery, but just like slavery the Confederate States of America were taken away after the Civil War. For four long years it stayed like this until finally the war ended in 1865. Well once slavery was taken away for good the Confederate states still didn’t want to come back to rejoin the union. President Lincoln knew that he had to do something fast to get this family back together again. He started Reconstruction which is defined as a movement that tried to bring the U.S. family back together after the Confederacy and slavery were both taken away.” Then write the term and the definition on the butcher paper.

4) “So in 1865 when the war ended President Lincoln had to find away to get the North and the South to come together to be a family again.” Pause to write this date on the butcher paper. “The people also had to decide what to do with the freed slaves because do you think that when the slaves were freed they were just allowed to do what ever they wanted?” Pause for kids to answer “No!” Then I will continue with, “That is right, they still couldn’t go to school, or find jobs, or get respect.  Also, they had no homes! People started fighting over all of this. This was the biggest fight the U.S. family had ever had and nobody would listen to each other. Do you think that helps solve problems when we are fighting?” Give students a chance to discuss.

5) Then go on to say that, “When President Lincoln was shot do you know who took over?” Wait for students to answer Andrew Johnson and then write his name on the paper.

6) I will go on to say, “Just like your family and my family have certain rules to help us from fighting, the U.S. had to get three new rules. These rules are called amendments. When I tell you about each amendment one of you will get to rebuild your building. This is because the amendments, or rules, helped the U.S. rebuild its family.” Write that term on the paper and then write the three amendments on paper. Say, “The first rule was the 13^th Amendment made slavery illegal in all of the United States. Do you know what illegal means?” Pause and give students a chance to discuss that illegal means against the law. Then explain that the second rule was the 14^th amendment which said what being a citizen really meant and it said that those who use to be in the Confederacy couldn’t be in congress.  Even though those people did something wrong do you think it was okay to not let them be in congress?” Give students time to discuss their feelings and then continue by saying, “The last rule was called the 15^th amendment and it said that you can’t tell someone that they couldn’t vote just because of their race.  What did that mean for Black people?” Wait for students to say that it meant that the Black men could vote. Then go over all the three again and make sure they are written clearly.

7) Close by saying, “The U.S. family did start to get along a lot better with these new rules. How do you think the U.S. changed with these new rules?” Give students time to discuss. Then go on to say, “The new rules helped this family a whole lot, just like rules help your family.  The U.S. still has fights today, and it took a long time before they really stopped fighting about slavery, but after the Civil War things got a lot better.

8) After going over all of these facts I will go on to talk about the morals behind what we learned. Give students time to discuss and share their feelings after each questions. I will ask the students, “What do you think about reconstruction?  What was good about the three amendments that we talked about?  Do you think all families have fights like this?  What was wrong about the way the North and South treated each other?  What would have been better ways to have treated each other? How would have this changed the outcomes?” I will let students discuss and make self discoveries about the morals that can be learned through learning about reconstruction and about how we should always listen to each other and treat each other with respect. 

9) Once done go through the purpose of the lesson. Ask the students why learning about this was important. Hopefully their response will have to do with that it is a big part of history, it is why we are the way we are today in the U.S. and that it shows us that we should always respect each other. After the students are guided to these answers say, “Yes, that was the purpose of learning today’s lesson.”

3 Response Activity

Once the lesson is over I am going to have students get with an assigned partner and have them discuss three things that they learned in this lesson. Then give each set of partners a piece of paper and a pencil. Tell them to use the butcher paper as a reminder and then to write down three big things that they learned that day and one thing they still don’t understand. Then have them share those three things with the group. Go over the things they are unclear on again. Hand out the books that the students have been working on along with the new pieces of paper with the new questions on it.  Go through each question with the students and guide them towards the correct answer. As they answer the questions have them write in the answers. These questions will include questions about what reconstruction was, why they needed it, a matching section on the three amendments that were taught during that time, and who was involved in reconstruction. Leave the board up to help students with spelling and remembering facts.

                                                                                                                                 
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