Download SIOP Lesson Plan

Social Studies SIOP Lesson Plan
Teacher: Stuart Bayne
Site: Townsend Middle School
Time Required: 3 class periods
Grade: 7
Unit/Theme/Title
Civil War/Major Battles/Gettysburg
Standards
Strand 1: American History
Concept 6: Civil War and Reconstruction
PO2. Determine the significance of the following events of the Civil War:
b. major battles-Bull Run, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg
Content Objective(s)
1. Describe how Gettysburg helped turn the tide of the war in 1863.
2. Explain why General Lee decided to invade Union territory.
Language Objective(s)
1. The student will express orally his or her own thinking and ideas (Listening and Speaking).
2. The student will analyze text for expression, enjoyment, information, and understanding
(Reading).
3. The student will express his or her own thinking and ideas (Writing).
Key Vocabulary
Gettysburg, Lee, Longstreet,
Pickett, Chamberlain, Meade,
Hancock, Seminary Ridge,
Cemetery Ridge, Little Round
Top, Pickett’s Charge.
Materials
Gettysburg packet printed from following website:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/TwHP/wwwlps/lessons/44gettys/44gettys.htm
VHS film “Gettysburg” from Tucson-Pima Public Library
Technology Integration
Overhead Screen Projector
NEC Projector
Airliner
Preparation
Discuss/brainstorm with class any prior knowledge of the Civil War, writing responses on overhead
screen projector. Possible answers could be, but are not limited to:
 The North/Union fought the South/Confederacy
 slavery was abolished
 names of generals such as Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, W.T. Sherman
 many soldiers were killed or wounded
Also, some questions to stimulate further discussion are:
 Were there family members fighting on both sides?
 Did officers on either side know each other?
Point out that many generals on either side had attended West Point and served in the U.S. Army
together before the South seceded from the Union. Sometimes brothers fought on opposite sides.
Lesson Sequence
1. Brainstorm about Civil War. (see Preparation)
2. View PowerPoint slides of individuals involved in the Battle of Gettysburg, reminding class that
these are the actual men involved in clash. Tell class to look at each picture. What impressions
might be drawn? Ask for observations/comments. What does each picture show? Comments
which could be used to stimulate discussion are:
 Slide 1 (Robert E. Lee) How old do you think this man is? (mid-50’s) A lot of his soldiers
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laughed when he was given command of the Army of Northern Virginia, calling him “Old
Granny.” Lee was one of the best generals this country has ever produced. President
Lincoln offered Lee command of the Union Army of the Potomac, but he turned Lincoln
down because Virginia seceded and he couldn’t turn against his home state.
 Slide 2 (James Longstreet) One of Lee’s best commanders. He was very much against
fighting a battle at Gettysburg, fearing a Confederate defeat.
 Slide 3 (George Meade) Given command of Union forces only days before battle. After
battle, angered Lincoln by not pursuing Lee.
 Slide 4 (Joshua Chamberlain) Professor from Maine. Commander at one of the most
important clashes at Gettysburg, a place called Little Round Top.
 Slide 5 (Charge from Little Round Top) A painting, not a photo. Still, look at the
conditions these soldiers are surrounded by. What do you see? Possible answers are
smoke, confusion, terror, chaos.
 Slide 6 (George Pickett) One of Lee’s ablest commanders. Charged with leading the
final attack at Gettysburg, the one that bears his name. Lost half of his 12,000 men in
the attack. Haunted by this until he died. Bore a grudge against Lee because of it.
 Slide 7 (General Hancock) General facing Pickett’s attack. Wounded but survived.
Good friends with some of the officers attacking his lines.
 Slide 8 (Pickett’s Charge) Much of the same responses about Little Round Top would
apply here. We see Confederate soldiers and officers reaching Union lines on the 3rd
and last day of the battle. There men crossed a mile of open ground, under fire from the
start, and almost broke the Union lines.
 Slide 9 (Confederate Prisoners) How would you describe the appearance of these
men? Do their uniforms look the same? Remind class that many Confederate soldiers
had civilian dress and even went barefoot because their government didn’t have enough
supplies. One of the reasons Lee went to Gettysburg was that a warehouse full of shoes
was in the town.
 Slide 10 (Union Dead) This unfortunately is the cost of victory. Ask students to look
closely at their condition while you zoom in closer. What do they look like? Possible
answers are bloated, mutilated, laying everywhere. Point out that some dead never got
buried, just left where they died if the battle was in a remote location. If the battle was
near a town, like Gettysburg, local civilians might come out to gather the dead for burial.
This was for sanitation, nobody wanted disease spreading. Also, Gettysburg happened
in July, so corpses had been lying around for several days and were quite smelly from
decay.
3. Read selected sections from provided packet aloud as a group, pausing to discuss each
paragraph. The above listed website provides lesson materials, which are presented here. I
didn’t have time to use all information provided, but instead would recommend anyone divide this
site and present over several lessons. The material is excellent.
This is the content of my lesson, drawn from provided website:
Gettysburg was a pivotal battle of the Civil War, involving more than 160,000 combatants from
both sides. The three days of fighting, July 1-3, 1863, resulted in 51,000 casualties, the greatest
number of any Civil War battle. Militarily, it was the South's last attempt at a full-scale invasion
of the North. Confederate General Robert E. Lee had hoped to gain European support for the
South, fuel the growing movement for peace in the North, turn the attention of Union armies
away from Confederate territory, and find provisions for his army. His failure to achieve a
victory at Gettysburg made it the turning point in the eastern theater of the war; after the
Gettysburg campaign, the Confederate army could no longer sustain an offensive.
After the carnage of Gettysburg, thousands more men would be killed and maimed during the
two more years before the Confederates surrendered. There were many issues that had motivated
some Americans to call for war--tariffs, territorial expansion and the potential spread of slavery,
and the abolition and the secession movements. The ordinary soldiers' reasons for fighting in the
war were as personal and individual as those that all of us must make in life. The implications of
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many of these personal choices in the Civil War had great impact on the nation and its future.
Map 2: The Disposition of Both Armies During the Three Days of the
Battle
July 1
July 2
Each of these maps represents
the positions of the opposing
armies before the day's major
battle action.
July 3
Both the Army of Northern Virginia (the Confederate army) and the Army of the
Potomac (the Union army) concentrated their forces near Gettysburg after May 1863.
The network of roads surrounding Gettysburg was the key to each army's arrival at the
battle.
1) According to the maps, how did each army's position change between the start of
July 1's main fighting and the start of the July 2's main fighting? In your description, be
http://ushistory.tusd.us/participants.htm
sure to refer to the roads and terrain features named on the map.
2) How did each army's position change between the start of the main fighting on July 2
and the start of the main fighting on July 3? Again, refer to the roads and terrain
features named on the map.
3) What does the map for July 3 show as that day's main event?
4) How did the Union army use the terrain to its advantage during the Battle of
Gettysburg?
Reading 1: Three Days of Carnage at Gettysburg
(Refer to Map 2 as you read the description of the battle.)
Units of the Union and the Confederate armies met near Gettysburg on June 30, 1863,
and each quickly requested reinforcements. The main battle opened on July 1, with
early morning attacks by the Confederates on Union troops on McPherson Ridge, west
of the town. Though outnumbered, the Union forces held their position. The fighting
escalated throughout the day as more soldiers from each army reached the battle area.
By 4 p.m., the Union troops were overpowered, and they retreated through the town,
where many were quickly captured. The remnants of the Union force fell back to
Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, south of town. The Southerners failed to pursue their
advantage, however, and the Northerners labored long into the night regrouping their
men.
Throughout the night, both armies moved their men to Gettysburg and took up positions
in preparation for the next day. By the morning of July 2, the main strength of both
armies had arrived on the field. Battle lines were drawn up in sweeping arcs similar to a
"J," or fishhook shape. The main portions of both armies were nearly a mile apart on
parallel ridges: Union forces on Cemetery Ridge, Confederate forces on Seminary
Ridge, to the west. General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate troops,
ordered attacks against the Union left and right flanks (ends of the lines). Starting in late
afternoon, Confederate General James Longstreet's attacks on the Union left made
progress, but they were checked by Union reinforcements brought to the fighting from
the Culp's Hill area and other uncontested parts of the Union battle line. To the north, at
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the bend and barb of the fishhook (the other flank), Confederate General Richard Ewell
launched his attack in the evening as the fighting at the other end of the fishhook was
subsiding. Ewell's men seized part of Culp's Hill, but elsewhere they were repulsed. The
day's results were indecisive for both armies.
In the very early morning of July 3, the Union army forced out the Confederates who
had successfully taken Culp's Hill the previous evening. Then General Lee, having
attacked the ends of the Union line the previous day, decided to assail the Union. The
attack was preceded by a two hour artillery bombardment of Cemetery Hill and Ridge.
For a time, the massed guns of both armies were engaged in a thunderous duel for
supremacy. The Union defensive position held. In a final attempt to gain the initiative
and win the battle, Lee sent approximately 12,000 soldiers across the one mile of open
fields that separated the two armies near the Union center. General George Meade,
commander of the Union forces, anticipated such a move and had readied his army.
The Union lines did not break. Only every other Southerner who participated in this
action retired to safety. Despite great courage, the attack (sometimes called Pickett's
Charge or Longstreet's assault) was repulsed with heavy losses. Crippled by extremely
heavy casualties in the three days at Gettysburg, the Confederates could no longer
continue the battle, and on July 4 they began to withdraw from Gettysburg.
A. Which army had the advantage after the first day of fighting? What were some
reasons for their success? Could they have been even more successful?
B. What was the situation by the evening of July 2?
C. What evidence from the previous day's fighting brought General Lee to decide on
the strategy for Pickett's Charge on July 3? What was the result of that assault?
D. Why did General Lee decide to withdraw from Gettysburg?
Application/Practice
Class answers questions from reading in cooperative groups of 2-3, writing down responses. Then, they
discuss answers as a class at end of lesson. At the end of the discussion the answers are handed in.
Review/Assessment
Students view film “Gettysburg.” It is rated PG, so parental permission forms will be sent out several days
before viewing in case any parent does not want their child to watch. Film was released in 1993 for
television viewing and was shot on the actual Gettysburg battle site. The footage provides an excellent
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presentation of the events that happened here on July 1-3, 1863. The film will be pre-set to two different
scenes, each portraying important parts of the battle. Showing the whole film would take more than three
class periods and would be impractical, so I selected two important clips. Any teacher could make a
different but no less important choice as far as scenes for viewing. The first clip is roughly 20 minutes
and portrays the clash at Little Round Top on July 2. Prep students by having them look for certain
circumstances such as visibility or lack of it (caused by gunsmoke), what direction the Confederates were
moving under the hot July sun with little or no water, the horrible losses both sides took, and how
desperately close the Union forces at the top were to losing and what caused them to win, how bravely
both sides fought. Using these clues, have students individually write five observations gained from this
part of the viewing. Encourage them to use the clues, but to also comment on anything that only they
might have seen. The second clip portrays Pickett’s Charge, the final clash at Gettysburg on July 3.
Prep students by telling them to view the conditions both sides fought under, then tell them to individually
write down at least five observations drawn from viewing this film clip. Point out that it was July. The
battle took place with the sun high in the sky, so imagine what it was like for a soldier carrying a weapon,
pack, many barefoot, marching across a mile of open ground. Ask class to look for how long they were
under fire. Remind class to look at the Confederate uniforms and describe them. Even with the chaos
surrounding them, ask class to decide if either side panicked in spite of the losses. Speaking of losses,
ask everyone to look especially close at the wide-angle shots later in the viewing, and describe what
littered the ground as far as you could see (dead and wounded). Finally, when the battle is over, say to
pay close attention to the reactions of Lee, Longstreet and Pickett. This was probably the most important
battle of the war and they came close to winning it. What did they say? How did it affect them (especially
Pickett, who lost half his men)? At the conclusion of the film, discuss as a class the observations gained.
Many of them will be similar of course, but some students will have some very insightful information
others may not have caught. Someone may catch the ironic tragedy of the Confederate general reaching
the Union lines, so close to victory, only to be shot down. Before dying he asks if his friend Union
General Hancock has survived. Hancock was his friend and former comrade in the U.S. Army, now
facing each other as enemies. In addition to the observations made from film viewings, students will
answer in writing the following questions in at least a half-page essay: How might the outcome of the
Civil War been different had the Confederates won at Gettysburg? How might our country been affected
today? Tell them to remember that slavery was legal in the South.
Reflections
I was a bit surprised at how little many of the students knew about the Civil War. There were a number
who made the discussions productive, but many didn’t even know who the Union or Confederates were.
The site used for this lesson provided more than enough material for several lessons which I intend to
use in the future.
http://ushistory.tusd.us/participants.htm