Samantha's+topic+one

8th Grade Social Studies, NC History

4.01:What’s propaganda and how was it used to stir the pot?

In this lesson I want my students to understand why and how the civil war got started. I would like them to understand that this was a war that not everyone wanted to take part in, but how powerful it became and how it gained tremendous support. This lesson will be a good way for language arts to play a role, because I will be showing the usage of propaganda and speeches that were made and given to change people's minds. Persuasive language plays a huge role in propaganda for the civil war. I would like the students to see the different roles the North and South took in the war, but also the different roles men and women took. The biggest thing I want the students to realize is that this was not a wanted war. It caused much controversy and still continues to be questioned. We will be reading excerpts from Paul Fleischman's book, __Bull Run__, to help the students acknowledge the different views of everyone and the roles people played in the war. We will then split into groups and research propaganda pictures and statements with reasons to back them up and have each group illustrate their findings and present them to the class. As we conclude class, we will discuss the power of language and propaganda and get the students ready to continue discussing the actual battles of the civil war. The way I will determine how much each student has learned will be based on class discussion and their presentations to the class.