Teaching the Civil War with Technology

The National Park Service has created a series of lesson plans known as Teaching with Historic Places and one of those historic places is Gettysburg. Choices and Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg is one such lesson plan.

This lesson plan starts with an inquiry question that asks the students to examine a photo of the Trostle Farm littered with dead horses and debris.

The Trostle Farm circa July 6, 1863 — Alexander Gardner photo

The lesson then presents the events leading up to the battle and has the students locate information on a few maps. The lesson presents some great readings on events that occurred with accompanying discussion discussion questions for the students to consider. The lesson contains three activities for the teacher to use with their students, each with a different perspective on the battle.

Finally, the Supplementary Resources of the lesson provides links to some excellent digital resource centers such as the Valley of the Shadow Project.

Posted under Lesson Ideas, Primary Sources

Kevin Honeycutt has developed an excellent website for integrating technology to teach the Civil War.  This collaborative learning project is focused around the H.L. Hunley, the famous Confederate submarine.  This website is provides an in depth look into the history of the H.L. Hunley along with providing a great collection of links, photographs and videos.  Let’s take a look at some of the different pages and sections of the site.

According to the page, the challenge for students is to “Partner up with another classroom and create a ten minute documentary telling the story of the  H.L. Hunley.”  The photos section of the website provides a nice collection of photographs related to the Hunley along with some additional links to Hunley related lesson plans. The Starter Videos Section provides links to a few videos realted to the Hunley along with a great article about how Archeology Meets Technology.  Finally, the Hunley Blog page contains a place where students place their artifacts, discuss their projects, share photos along with sharing their research and findings.

There is a great quote by Kevin on the website that says, “By allowing kids to collaborate with others online we allow learners to build and flex new muscles. These muscles will serve them well for the rest of their lives!”  I could not agree more.

Here are some additional websites related to the Hunley for your viewing pleasure:

• Interactive Blueprints of the Hunley
• Son of the South website
• National Geographic site on the Hunley
• Historical Navy Ships website

UPDATED – October 2008:   Check out Kevin’s NEW Tell the Story of the Hunley PBL site

Until next time…

Posted under Lesson Ideas, Miscellaneous, Websites