RECONSTRUCTION: WEEKS 33-34

Objective: How did the United States try to recover from the war?

1. A) In 3+ sentences, describe a time when you had a serious fight with a close sibling or best friend. B) How did you make up? C) How did that fight make your relationship change with that person?
2. Go over exam from American War for Independence if skipping 2 weeks of review.
3. Unit VII Cover page: Reconstruction
4. Explain Reconstruction project and have students start. For this activity you'll need to plan one day in the computer lab and request from the librarian to get lots of books from surrounding libraries covering this subject, Reconstruction. The first class I have the students read over the worksheets with directions. They then have to decide what each member in the group will do and what topic they want. After they have written that down on a sheet of paper, one member comes up to me with the information. As soon as the topic is taken, I cross if off on the board so the rest of the groups know it's already taken. As soon as the group claims their topic, I give them a two-page summary of their topic to give them an idea of what they should look for in research. Also, when students present, be sure to video tape them!
   • WHAT: Your Group's mission is to become experts on a certain aspect of the period of Reconstruction in America following the War Between the States. You will then teach the class about what you have learned.
   • HOW: Your group will be teaching the class about one of the following topics:
     1. Presidential Reconstruction: Be sure to include: Freedman's Bureau, Forty Acres and a Mule, and Black Codes.
     2. Congressional Reconstruction: Be sure to include Fourteenth Amendment, Radical republicans, Reconstruction Act of 1867, Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, and Sharecropping.
     3. Southern Reconstruction: Be sure to include Scalawags and Carpetbaggers, 1868 Presidential Election, and Fifteenth Amendment.
     4. End of Reconstruction: Be sure to include Enforcement Acts, Amnesty Act of 1872, and Compromise of 1877.
     5. Reconstruction Reversed: Be sure to include Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws, and Plessy v. Ferguson.
   • WHEN: Presentations will begin on May 20 & 21. All aspects of your project should be finished by then.
   • Your group will be expected to make a 5-10 minute presentation of your area. For your presentation, you will need to prepare notes, a poster, and an activity for your classmates to complete to show you they learned what you taught them. All group members will help with all areas of the preparation and presentation, but each group member will have one area for which they ate responsible for having complete. Your group will have the following main responsibilities:
     1. MAIN RESEARCHER: You are responsible for finding most of the information and making sure that all the information on the notes, poster, and activity are accurate. You may use textbooks, the internet, encyclopedias, historical books, and any other items you find helpful.
     2. NOTE & ACTIVITY MAKER: You are responsible for creating the notes that your group will give to the class in order for them to understand your topic. Your notes can take the form of a web diagram, acrostic poem, outline, T-chart, or any other form you find most helpful. You are also responsible for creating an activity that you can give to the class in order to assess how much they learned about your topic from your presentation. This activity may consist of a worksheet (crossword puzzle, multiple choice, matching, etc.), quiz, or other activity you think will work best for assessment. *If you have a worksheet you want me to print off for the class, you MUST have it to me by the end of the day before you present or else you will have to copy it yourself.*
     3. TECHNOLOGY EXPERT: You are responsible for creating a power point presentation using the notes that your Note Creator gives you. This power point presentation will be used by your Main Presenter to present your group's notes to the class.
     4. POSTER CREATOR: You are responsible for creating a poster that illustrates the major aspects of your topic. It should be an attractive visual representation to help the class remember the concepts that you teach. The poster may consist of drawings and/or cut-out pictures. It may or may not include words.
     5. MAIN PRESENTER: You are responsible for most of the presentation of your material to the class. You will need to find a way to present your information in a meaningful and exciting way. This may be done through a song, chant, game, or other fascinating manner. You will also present the power point presentation that your Note Creator and Technology Expert made to the class.

Note: After students present their projects, we watch the presentations that were exceptionally creative. We then watch some videos on Reconstruction and go over some notes. We do not take an exam for this unit, though.