Teaching American History Grant
American Tapestry
Lesson Plan
Teacher: Heidi Fredricks
Unit Topic: The Life of a Civil War Soldier
Grade: 4
History Essential Questions:
What was the day-to-day life of a Civil War soldier like?
Standards of Learning:
History SOL: Students will
Develop awareness of historical context; enhance their observation and interpretive skills; and
develop conceptual learning techniques.
Reading SOL: Students will
1. Students will be able to describe the use of the equipment, uniforms, weapons, and other
items that soldiers would have carried.
2. Students will be able to identify three reasons why battles happened in a certain location
3. After reading portions of soldiers’ letters, students will be able to identify and discuss
hardships soldiers faced.
4. Students will be able to discuss the role of the African American and immigrant soldier using
primary and secondary sources.
Lesson Objectives:
Content: Students will
Investigate through literature and primary/secondary source documents the hardships that
soldiers faced during the Civil War.
Process: Students will
Read an excerpt from the tradebook, The Boys’ War by Jim Murphy, investigate the day-to-day
life of Civil War soldiers through primary/secondary sources and a flipchart presentation, and
develop a paragraph citing specific examples of the hardships from their everyday lives.
Materials:
Tradebook: The Boys' War by Jim Murphy
Life at War Flipchart
Handouts:
§ Anticipatory Questions with Answer Key
§ Life at War Cloze Activity
§ A Soldier’s Pack
§ Analyzing a Primary Source Letter
§ Exit Ticket
Primary Source Document: Samuel Cabble’s Letter Home
Secondary Source Document: John Sweet’s Letter Home
Internet Resources:
http://www.civilwar.com/
http://www.civilwar.org/
http://civil.war-letters.com/
http://www.nps.gov/features/waso/cw150th/index.html
Assessment/Evaluation: Students will
1. Complete the Life at War Cloze Activity and A Soldier’s Pack Handout.
2. Respond to the Anticipatory Questions
3. Participate in informal assessment through questions during the flipchart presentation
4. Analyze a Primary source letter
6. Complete the Exit Ticket in which students list two hardships a Civil War soldier faced
Lesson Procedure
Background Knowledge and Purpose Setting: The teacher will:
1. Distribute Anticipatory Questions to each student.
2. Have students complete their observations and answer questions with a partner.
Before Reading: The teacher will:
Utilize the flip chart on the Life at War. See “Notes Browser” for teacher notes during
presentation.
During Reading: The student will:
Pass out the Life at War and A Soldier’s Pack Worksheets to each student. Read and discuss the
Life at War flipchart with the class, discussing different aspects of soldiering. Have students
complete the worksheets during the presentation.
After Reading: The student will:
As a class, read and discuss Samuel Cabble’s letter home. . (Primary Source letter is embedded
into flipchart.) Then break the students into small groups (4-5 students) and assign each group a
primary source letter written by a Civil War soldier. Students will individually read their
assigned letter then meet with their group to complete the worksheet, Analyzing a Primary
Source Letter. Each group will present important aspects about their letter with the rest of the
class, using the Analyzing a Primary Source Letter handout as a guide for the presentation while
other students take notes on each group’s letter.
Closure:
Have each student complete the Exit Ticket that discusses hardships faced by Civil War soldiers.
Using the assessment rubric, review with students the expectations for the assignment. Be sure
to stress to the students that they will need to include two specific examples from the soldiers’
everyday lives to support their descriptions of the hardship.
Assessment Rubric:
Content (10 pts.):
Description of hardship
Example #1
Example #2
Excellent
Good
Fair
Conventions (10 pts.):
Paragraph Format
Spelling
Punctuation
Neatness
Teacher Comments:
Extension/Differentiation: The student could:
Diary Entry: Student will pick one of the battles discussed in the day’s lesson and write a diary
entry from a Civil War soldier’s point of view.
Student will focus on describing how he/she felt during the events of that day in war.
Student will include details about soldier’s meals, sleep, communication with others, daily
war duties, etc.
Students will consider what hopes she may have had for the future/outcome of the Civil War.
Bringing History to Life: Find a recipe for hardtack and with your parent/guardian create a
batch. Bring some in to show to the class and reflect on your experience eating it.