For Home and Country: A Civil War Scrapbook

The Book:

Bolotin, N.(1995). For Home and Country: A Civil War Scrapbook.
New York: Lodestar Books, 1995.

Summary:

This book contains a variety of visual images from the war. Tracing the war by using primary documents, historical events and political issues are seen through the perspective of many small, everyday details: letters, photographs, songs, diaries, newspaper clippings, and advertisements.

This is a really dense book that could be used as a reference and in conjunction with other civil war books. The vocabulary in the book could be a challenge but not unmanageable. If this book is used in the middle of the unit, the students would be more familiar with most of the vocabulary associated with the civil war.

Center Activity: T-Chart on the impact of the War

SC Social Studies Standard 3-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the events that led to the Civil War, the course of the War and Reconstruction, and South Carolina’s role in these events.

Indicators:
3-4.3 Summarize the effects of the Civil War on the daily lives of people of different classes in South Carolina, including the lack of food, clothing, and living essentials and the continuing racial tensions. (H, E)
3-4.4 Explain how the Civil War affected South Carolina’s economy, including destruction of plantations, towns, factories, and transportation systems. (E, H)

Objectives:
The Student will analyze the positive and negative impacts of the civil war.

Assessment:
The student will be assessed by reviewing their T-Charts for accuracies.

Materials:
For Home and Country: A Civil War Scrapbook
Other reference civil war books if possible
Pre-made “T-Chart” sheets [2 columns with headings and main theme on top]

Procedure:

This center would be one center used towards the middle of a unit on the Civil War since the students would have to feel comfortable with the terms and have already been introduced to the war.
1. The center would contain a folder of the Pre-made T-Charts and the books.
2. Before center time begins the teacher will review the basics of each center for this center the teacher would have to help the students figure out what the word impact means in order to send them on the right path in their search.
3. Each group at the center would work together to find out a list of positive and negative impacts of the civil war and each student will decide which ones they will put into their individual T-Chart. Each student will have to put at least 3 impacts in the columns.
4. The next day’s lesson on the civil war can start by reviewing the previous day’s T-Charts since there could be a wide variety of impacts that the students considered. By reviewing what their peers thought of could help all of the students understand the impact of the war fully.