Posted by Cindy on January 20, 2013
In this final installment of my unit study series, I’m going to share with you how to design a unit study that is fairly in-depth. For those of you new to this series, you can catch up by reading…
In this post, I’ll walk you through how I plan for a large unit study, in particular Slavery and the Civil War. This study lasted about ten weeks!
How do I go about putting together a thorough study on such a large topic?
1. I gather all the resources I currently have in the house – resource books, files, e-books, and living literature.
2. If I don’t have much, I browse the internet for free units and lessons plans. If I’m still lacking, I search my local library’s database.
3. I go through all the resources looking for main topics that need to be covered in the unit.
4. Once the main topics are listed, I go back through the resources and start jotting down activities and/or literature that will cover each topic.
5. My list is usually way too large, so I whittle it down to the best ideas and start making a list of supplies I might need – including any library books that need to be checked out.
6. I don’t worry about covering every single subject within one unit study. Why? Partly because I already use separate math and language arts curricula, so it’s not imperative that I incorporate all subjects. And partly because the end-of-unit projects will cover a large selection of academic areas.
7. I don’t schedule activities until right before I’m ready to use the unit. Even then, I only schedule one week at a time in case we go over, take a rabbit trail or need to make other adjustments.
8. Once we dive into the unit, I start brainstorming a list of potential end-of-unit project choices. I might also start accumulating questions for a “final exam.”
Now, let’s take a more practical look using my example of Slavery and the Civil War.
I have taken numbers 1-8 above and made specific planning notes below.
1. I own: The Underground Railroad for Kids
, The Last Safe House: A Story of the Underground Railroad
and Civil War Days: Discover the Past with Exciting Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes
.
2. I have plenty of in-house resources, but decide to do an internet search anyway and come across a few good websites: Lesson Plan: the Civil War, Slavery in the United States, and Civil War in Children’s Literature.
3. The main topics I decide to incorporate after going through my resources include:
- What is slavery?
- When did slavery begin? How did it begin in America?
- What was it like to be a slave in America?
- Who played major roles in the abolition movement?
- What were major events of the abolition movement?
- What was the Underground Railroad and who were some major figures in helping slaves escape to freedom?
- What was the Civil War?
- For what reasons did the Civil War take place?
- What were several major battles and who were several major figures of the war?
- What was the war like in Kentucky (a divided state)?
- What is the Emancipation Proclamation?
- What was life in America like directly after the war?
- How did life change for former slaves after the war?
- What struggles did former slaves still face after the war and for many years to come?
- Where is slavery still taking place in today’s world?
4. Under each of the above topics in my notebook, I write down activities, assignments, books, online games and/or field trips that will adequately cover the topic. Sometimes, I simply assign my children a book to read and consider the topic covered. Sometimes, we go on a field trip and consider a few of the topics covered. Sometimes, we do a few hands-on activities and a writing assignment – you get the idea.
5. Large lists of the library books we read can be found at Slavery and Civil War Book Treasures and Slavery and Civil War Resources.
6. Nothing to say here, aren’t you thankful?
7. One week at a time, I go down the list of topics with their activities and schedule what I think we can handle per day. This often needs adjustment, so I write in pencil!
8. At the end of the unit, I give my children a list of projects from which to choose (so I have some say, while giving them choices at the same time.) In this instance, they had to choose three of the four projects below. I gave them one week to complete the projects, starting on Monday and presenting them on Friday.
- Choose one famous slave. Learn all you can about that slave and be prepared to tell us about the slave in first person. Don’t forget to create an authentic costume.
- Choose one Civil War battle. Create a model of the battle front and tell everything you can about the battle as you reenact it with the model.
- Choose one famous Civil War figure. Prepare a file folder biography about that person. Be sure to include pictures or illustrations when applicable.
- Either read or recite the Gettysburg Address.
There you have it. A large unit study takes just a tad more time to organize than a small unit, but your time will be well-worth the effort!
Posted by Cindy on May 18, 2010
Tucked away in downtown Maysville, KY, overlooking the Ohio River is the National Underground Railroad Museum. My children had the pleasure of touring the museum located in the Bierbower House, which was a safe house for runaway slaves. Crawling through an underground tunnel that opened into a small room of four beds, runaway slaves could rest here before crossing the close-by river into Ohio and into freedom.
Many stories, artifacts and displays went along with a tour of the house and safe quarters. It’s a good addition to a study of slavery, along with The Freedom Center in Cincinnati.
Posted by Cindy on April 8, 2009
This is the list that was in my sidebar as we worked through the slavery and Civil War unit. There are several great resources that I didn’t want to forget for future reference. I hope you find them useful as well.
National Geographic Underground Railroad Interactive
Carol Hurst’s Suggestions for Slavery Literature
Civil War Unit Plan
Civil War Timeline
Civil War for Kids
Eyewitness to History – Nice for Research
Carol Hurst’s Suggestions for Civil War Literature
Posted by Cindy on April 4, 2009
Our last history unit of the year has been completed, and what a wonderfully rich unit it was! I think I mentioned in a previous post that this study was mostly literature-based. We chose really good books and learned about the life of slaves and struggles of the Civil War through the stories. Between books, field trips and hands-on projects, I don’t think there’s a much better way to learn history!
Before I go on, I’ve been asked several times how we fit in all the literature we read for our units. It’s really very easy! Many of the chapter books are checked out as books on tape and we listen to them in the car. We usually read one or two other chapter books together over the course of the unit, while some of them are reserved for individual reading time. Those reserved for individual reading time will have only been browsed ahead of time by me. We also still read a lot of picture books. I’m a sucker for picture books and I don’t think you’re ever too old to stop reading them! In all, we read together about 30-45 minutes a day. The kids read on their own 30-45 minutes each day. And we listen to books on tape almost anytime we’re in the car.
This week was project week, which means the children were assigned several projects and had all week to complete them. Friday night, all the projects were presented to the rest of the family. This is always a precious time for me! I get to see how much they’ve soaked in during the study and how creative they can be in completing projects. For those of you wanting to do “school” in ways that better meet the individual needs/gifts/learning styles of your children, projects are a great tool!
Last Friday, I handed each of the kiddos a project list that looked something like this:
- Choose one famous slave. Learn all you can about that slave and be prepared to tell us about the slave in first person. Don’t forget to create an authentic costume.
- Choose one Civil War battle. Create a model of the battle front and tell everything you can about the battle as you reenact it with the model.
- Choose one famous Civil War figure. Prepare a file folder biography about that person. Be sure to include pictures or illustrations when applicable.
- Either read or recite the Gettysburg Address.
On Monday morning, we headed to the library so the kids could find books to help them learn more about their chosen topics. The rest of the week was spent on math and completing projects.
Here’s a peek into project night!
Mahayla portrayed Harriet Tubman and Caleb became Henry “Box” Brown.
Mahayla set up this model of the Battle of Perryville – a battle that took place not to far from us in Kentucky.
Caleb chose the Battle of Bull Run. They both gave very detailed information and maps of their battles. They even found photographs of the battle sites to share.
Caleb’s Civil War figure was Robert E. Lee. He was very impressed with himself for finding pictures of all of Lee’s family, his home, his college and more. We looked at pictures for quite some time!
Mahayla’s Civil War figure was Ulysses S. Grant. You can see the file folder template we used below. It came from Easy File Folder Reports. We love that book!
Caleb practiced and practiced reading the Gettysburg Address throughout the week. He didn’t miss a word on project night!
Mahayla created little copies of the Gettysburg Address for each of us so we could follow along with her. Eli enjoyed his upside-down!
And that brings us to the end of another history unit. My wheels are already turning for next year’s units!
Next week the main assignment will be writing a children’s book. And the following week will be presenting a chemistry show. I’ll be sure to share both projects here.
So sorry if my blogging slows down for a little while. Melissa and I are working steadily on our nature study units and hope to have them completed by June. We are so excited about them and hope you will be, too!
