Find lesson plans, student activity sheets, interactive resources, classroom videos, and free professional development resources to expand your knowledge of the Civil War.
Image: Henry Herrick, Reading the Emancipation Proclamation, Hartford, Connecticut, 1864. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC07595)
Grade Level: 3–5
Recommended Time: Four to five 45-minute class periods
Over the course of five lessons students will closely read and analyze Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. They will select keywords from the text, write succinct summaries of selections from the text, restate these summaries in their own words, and ultimately write a short persuasive essay in response to a thought-provoking prompt based on the document.
Students will read and analyze primary source documents related to Black soldiers in the United States Army during the Civil War.
Students will identify arguments supporting and opposing the position that Lincoln’s assassination could have been avoided.
The Hamilton Cast Read Along videos feature cast members of the musical Hamilton reading award-winning children’s books that explore complex topics in American history. These videos can be integrated into your classroom to initiate student conversation.
Becoming the United States: Colonial America to Reconstruction (based on a traveling exhibition of the same name) is a collection of short narrated videos that will give your students an overview of key events and figures related to American history.
Read along with Hamilton cast member Marja Harmon as she tells the story of Harriet Tubman’s many roles throughout her life: spy, liberator, suffragist, and more.
Read along with Marc delaCruz as he tells the story of Teresa Carreño, a Venezuelan-born pianist who performed for President Abraham Lincoln at the age of ten.
Video 06 will provide your students with a general introduction to the Civil War.
Course Features:
Led by Joan Waugh, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Los Angeles
This course focuses on the American Civil War, from the breakdown of the Union in the 1850s through the end of the war in 1865, all while examining how we remember the conflict today.
In these lectures, geared toward elementary and middle school teachers, scholars focus on the people, ideas, and events that made America into a cultural, social, and political reality.
Lecture by Denver Brunsman, Associate Professor of History, The George Washington University
Resources referenced in the lecture
Lecture by Christopher Bonner, Associate Professor of History, University of Maryland
Resources referenced in the lecture
