Photographs: Putting a Face To It

Civil War: Pieces of the Puzzle Lesson 5

Grade Level:
6-8

Subject(s):
Language Arts
Social Studies

Learner Outcomes:
Students will use writing prompts to do creative writing.
Students will examine photographs and integrate what they have learned in previous lessons to write a story connecting artifacts and people.

Time Frame:
2 (50 minute) class periods

Materials:
Paper, pencils

Technology Tools/Courseware:
Internet resources
Data Projector
Word processing
Inspiration Software

Teacher Notes:
This lesson is a culminating activity for knowledge gained in the investigations conducted in the prior lessons in this unit.
Presentation of photographs may be adapted to available technology, projecting directly from the Internet, putting images on transparencies for an overhead projector, etc.

Select photographs before the class begins, the Library of Congress’ American Memory Site has a large collection. For a list of some of our favorites click here.

Procedures:
Model using a photograph as a writing prompt:

Project a Civil War era photograph so that the whole class can view it.
Have students work in pairs to share their thoughts about the photograph including descriptive details and emotions.
Each pair may share their thoughts with the class.
Each student will then use the discussion of the photograph as a prompt to write a creative story about the people (or person) connecting it to at least three of the items studied in the previous lessons (invention, troop roster, letter, event from time-line). Inspiration software may be used to web each story, helping students organize their selection of people, places and things and their connections.

Modifications:
Students could work in pairs to write stories.

Enrichment activities:

Have students include more than one character in their story.
Let students find a photo from the Library of Congress American Memory site. Save the photo to a word document under which the story will be written.

Evaluation/Assessment:
Rubric for story

West Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives (IGO's)
Writing
6.57 7.54 8.55
Social Studies
8.55

National Standards
Language Arts Standard 2 Benchmark

References:
Civil War Internet Sites

Created By:
Mary Hansen
Sally McCumbee
Susan Thomas
Warm Springs Middle School, Berkeley Springs, WV


writings	timeline	muster roll	inventions	photographs