Suzanne's+Thematic+Unit



After discussing this with my CT, we will be covering the Civil War during the dates I plan to teach. Because of this I feel somewhat limited to that particular topic...I'll investigate further on different ways to approach it.

Some possible themes:

Civil Rights - exploring the progression from Jim Crow to the present

Abraham Lincoln - Anti Slavery or Pro Union

The economics of slavery

Life for Slaves

The Underground Railroad

After further discussion in class and the readings on thematic units, I have a better understanding of themes. The theme I plan to focus on for my unit covering the Civil War is loyalty. What does it mean to be loyal? How important is the concept of loyalty? Can you be loyal to people, causes, geographical regions - all of these? Is loyalty worth dying for? I think this theme has tremendous potential for getting students to think about the motives behind war.

Some resources for unit :

//Rifles for Watie// by Harold Keith (YA Literature selection)

//The Red Badge of Courage// by Stephen Crane - book/film

__Andersonville__ - movie based on Georgia POW camp during Civil War

//Southern Families at War: Loyalty and Conflict in the Civil War South// - Mary Stovall Richards (edited by Catherine Clinton)

__Divided Loyalties__ - drama set in Civil War era by Amy Miller

__Economists Study Value of Loyalty During Civil War__ - article found on NCSU Library website

Loyalty - author unknown

Loyalty - James Tate

Oh Captain My Captain - Whitman

Carolina

The poem Carolina appeals to North Carolina to join in the war - in essence asking NC to declare where its loyalties lie

website with poetry of the Civil War -

http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/confederate/index.html

//The Civil War// - Ken Burns

Step Three

more to come...