The Causes of the Civil War and the Contribution Different Groups Made

Introduction

Begin the assignment by watch this video - what is said will blow you away: 

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoG97ge66tA]

Could you imagine a world where America and its ideal were not known all over the world? Right now, America has influenced the world in both a postive and negative manner, but if it was not for changes made in the past, America may have been the ones being influenced by other nations, not the influencer. 

America before the Civil War was a nation that was highly influenced by their European founders, even though America was independent from them. Most people did not have many freedoms, and children were expected to drop out of school and work to support their families. Could you imagine living in this time?

Task

All of you are divided up into groups of six (no the groups will not be changed, and yes all of the members are expected to complete work). 

To assignment is going to have you research, analyze, and evaluate information about the causues of the Civil War, by identifying the events and differences between the northern and southern states, as well as describing the roles of whites, enslaved African Americans, free African Americans, and American Indians.

 

Process

There are multiple steps to completing this assignment, so make sure you read ALL steps carefully and thoroughly. 

PART I:

1. Find your group of six and have all group members meet in one area of the classroom/computer lab.

2. Divide up what each person is going to research about the causes of the Civil War and the different groups. 

For example: One person can research information on whites and African Americans in the Civil War, another can research the southern causes of the war, and so on....

3. Use different sources when researching for material. That includes - the Internet (only scientific articles, NO .com sites or Wikipedia), newspaper clippings, the encyclopedia, photos, journals, and books. 

4. Collect all different kinds of information that can be stated and then supported with evidence, because the more material the better for later on in the assignment.

5. Once all information is found and gathered, the group needs to come back together, and share their findings with each other. You then need to write a 4 to 5 page APA-style research paper, with a Reference page attached (Reference page does not count towards the page count).

6. This is expected to be done in the next 4 days that we are in the computer lab and ALL group member are expected to contribute. 

These are excellent websites to start your research: 

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/triggereve…

http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/beyond-the-textbook/23912

http://www.civil-conflict.org/civil-war-history/causes-of-the-civil-war…

PART II:

1. After the research paper is completed and turned in electronically over email, the group needs to get started on the movie skit.

2. In the skit, I want each person in the group to have a speaking role, and I want it to be recorded using a video camera, and then using the video software you were showed (either iMovie or Windows Movie Maker) to edit and perfect the skit. 

3. There is no time limit on the video, but it does have to be more than 3 minutes. 

4. Use the information you found for the research paper to make your skit. Now the information should not be reiterated over the video, because the information can already be read in the paper, we do not need to hear it verbatim twice.

5. Take the informaiton and apply it to scenarios that exist in today's world. You want to make it so that the class can remember the historical causes and roles, by applying it to their lives. 

Make sure that you still cover the information that you researched, but I expect a modern twist on the information that can be entertaining to the class.

6. DO NOT be vuglar in the video and any acts that I deem innapporpriate will make the video recieve an automatic zero. 

7. The videos will be viewed in class a week after this part is started. 

Evaluation

You will be evalutated not only off of my rubric, but the also the response of what the class thought about the video, because remember they are the ones you are teaching, not me. 

The rubric will be as followed (note: change where is says Middle School to High School):

http://www.olejarz.com/arted/digitalvideo/interviewrubric.pdf

Look at the rubric and make sure you hit all the points, because now that you have the rubric, there is no reason that you should miss many points. 

After each video, I will be asking for students imputs - both positive and negative. Their assessment will contribute to your overall grade - if your peers believe the video was educational, then you will have extra points added, if not, then 1 or 2 points will be deducted because the point of the assignment is to teach the class. 

Conclusion

Overall, I hope this assignment was easy and understandable for all of you.

It was not meant to be difficult, but more as a fun, engaging way to learn new information, instead of just reading out a textbook and completing worksheets. 

From this project, I wanted all of you to be able to demonstrate knowledge of the issues - political, social, and economic-  that divided our nation and led to the Civil War.

Later this week, I will be handing out evalutation forms about this WebQuest, and I want to know how you honestly felt about it - no matter if you thought it was a great project, or one that should never be done again. 

Credits