Unit
Unit 9: Reconstruction for 6-8 (1865-1877)
Guiding question
How successful was Reconstruction in addressing the challenges of rebuilding the nation and ensuring equal rights for African Americans?
- 10 Lessons
- 21 Activities
- 6 Essays
This unit invites students to examine the challenges of rebuilding the nation after the Civil War, including the issue of race relations and the struggle to create a new social order. It emphasizes the successes and failures of Reconstruction in addressing the challenges of rebuilding the nation and ensuring equal rights for African Americans.
Lessons
How successful was Reconstruction in addressing the challenges of rebuilding the nation and ensuring equal rights for African Americans?
How did federal and state government actions differ during reconstruction?
What were President Andrew Johnson's goals for Reconstruction?
Explain how Reconstruction impacted the lives and experiences of African Americans
How did Reconstruction impact the lives of formerly enslaved people and their families?
Explore the personal stories of formerly enslaved individuals and their experiences after the Civil War.
Identify and explain the factors leading to the end of Reconstruction and describe the legacy of Reconstruction on the nation
To what extent did Reconstruction help African Americans? Did African Americans get trapped in a situation similar to slavery, or did they make any progress during this period?
What was the legacy of Reconstruction for the nation?
Analyze primary sources using the VIEW method, group them by historical themes, and use evidence and context to develop and support a clear thesis about a historical topic.
Unit resources
How successful was Reconstruction in addressing the challenges of rebuilding the nation and ensuring equal rights for African Americans?
Understand President Andrew Johnson's goals for Reconstruction.
The text of this speech with terms defined and reflection questions to guide an understanding of President Andrew Johnson's goals for Reconstruction.
Engage diverse viewpoints, perspectives, and ideas to understand pluralism within an American identity.
Seven images that showcase the legacy of Reconstruction.
Identify and describe factors that led to the end of Reconstruction and how those factors had lasting effects.
Document Set that address the question: how successful was Reconstruction in addressing the challenges of rebuilding the nation and ensuring equal rights for African Americans?
Scaffolded Document Set that addresses the question: How successful was Reconstruction in addressing the challenges of rebuilding the nation and ensuring equal rights for African Americans?
Graphic Organizer to analyze the primary sources using the VIEW method, group them by historical themes, and use evidence and context to develop and support a clear thesis about a historical topic.
How did Lincoln and Johnson's plans for Reconstruction differ from congressional Reconstruction?
How did Reconstruction impact the lives of formerly enslaved people and their families?
How successful was Reconstruction in addressing the challenges of rebuilding the nation and ensuring equal rights for African Americans?
Standards
Related content
In this middle school history lesson, explore the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War. Using Thomas Nast’s 1874 political cartoon The Union as It Was and the Currier and Ives lithograph The First Colored Senators and Representatives, students analyze how art captured both the progress and the resistance that defined the nation’s attempt to rebuild. Students use DBQ methods to guide their thinking: Group, VIEW, Evidence, Context, Thesis. By categorizing sources, applying the VIEW analysis, pulling direct evidence, adding historical context, and writing a clear thesis, students learn to make evidence-based arguments about how successful Reconstruction was in ensuring equality and rebuilding the nation.