Find lesson plans, student activity sheets, interactive resources, classroom videos, and free professional development resources to expand your knowledge of Reconstruction.
Image: Frederick Dielman, “Celebration of the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia by the Colored People, in Washington,” Harper’s Weekly, May 12, 1866. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC01733)
Grade Level: 3–5
Recommended Time for Completion: Three 45-minute class periods
Over the course of three lessons the students will examine primary source documents—including broadsides, letters, legal documents, and speeches—related to the period of Reconstruction following the Civil War. They will first learn to identify the explicit messages in these materials and then draw logical inferences about the implicit messages. They will demonstrate their understanding by writing succinct summaries, answering critical thinking questions, and taking part in a mock press conference.
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.
Video 07 will provide your students with a general introduction to Reconstruction.
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 Kellie Carter Jackson, Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Wellesley College
Resources referenced in the lecture
