Choose one:

How does Lincoln, in the Gettysburg Address, try to change what his readers/listeners believe about what it means to be dedicated to the American idea that “All men are created equal”?

OR

How does Douglass, in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, try to change what his readers believe about what it means to be dedicated to the American idea that “All men are created equal”?

After students notice Lincoln’s repetition of the word “dedicate” and his efforts to define his audience’s dedication, they step back from the speech, working in small groups to look back at the texts they have read, to consider what they know about Lincoln’s 19th century audience and what they were dedicated to. Each of the five small groups will complete its separate short answer questions at the same time, starting at the first Group icon (Activity 3).

When students present their findings to the class, the point here is for students to realize how fragmented Lincoln’s audience was—but where he may have found some common ground among all of them.

Students tackle the second paragraph in which Lincoln has the “nerve” to use the word “we” to refer to all of the people of his country, citizens of Northern and Southern states, and to make some claims about what they are and should be doing.

Students paraphrase the sentences in which he first calls on his audience to consider themselves “we,” drawing their attention to the enormous sacrifices that all of the soldiers have made in the war, amazingly trying to unite the divided country with the recognition that they are all working so hard to defeat each other.

The Solo students complete before this lesson guides them to review the Declaration of Independence—in particular to remember their understanding of the first sentence of the second paragraph: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The lesson begins with some targeted questions to help students use the timeline to put Lincoln’s speech in context. The questions in the Instructional Guide should help students zero in on the key points about the timing of this speech: It was happening in the middle of this brutal war. The country was even more divided than ever.

Students return to their paraphrasing skills to try to figure out what Lincoln is saying in the first sentence of his speech about what is “new” about this country—and how he is saying it in a way that could possibly get people’s attention at this moment in history

Title: Civil War Presentation

- Each slide must have 2+ pictures

1.) Timeline of    Civil War - Important events

        -  3 Bullet points of the 3 most important event and important battles.

2,) Causes of the Civil War

        - 3- 5 Bullet Point explanation

        - How was Abraham Lincoln involved?

3.) Confederates

              - 5 facts ..bullet points…. Include symbols, flags, themes, colors

4.) Union

                 - 5 facts ..bullet points ..bullet points…. Include symbols, flags, themes, colors

5.) Children of the Civil War

                 - 5 facts ..bullet points

6.) Black Soldiers

                 - 5 facts ..bullet points

This lesson is divided into two sections. In the first part, students read and annotate Chapter 2 of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl to understand how Jacobs’s life changes after she realizes that she is a slave. Jacobs’s style here is a fairly straightforward chronological narrative about how the cruelty of slavery seeped into and defined her life. In the second part of the lesson, students look at Jacobs’s more literary writing in Chapter 3 in which she contrasts the images of New Year’s Day for the slaves and for their masters. After having looked so closely at Douglass’s use of surprising oppositions, it is an interesting opportunity for students to consider another writer’s attempts to use contrasts to bring out the truth of slavery.

And, just as when students read Douglass’s text, they will again consider which sort of writing best helps them understand Jacobs’s main point about the cruelty of slavery by answering the following Writing Prompt:

Just like Douglass, Jacobs is making a case for abolition. Do you understand slavery better when she focuses on New Year’s Day as a symbol for the cruelty of slavery (the contrast between the whites’ and the slaves’ experience), or do you get it more when she tells us the details about her life as a slave in Chapter 2?

Students will work in this lesson to figure out why Douglass begins his narrative with this unique collection of information about himself. Students at this age, of course, think a lot about how they let people know what matters to them, and they are in a good position to consider Douglass’s choices. Some of his choices, of course, are not surprising—many people think it matters where they are born. But others are quite strange and interesting—like the extended information about what he does not know.

Notice that the students work in pairs at first so that they notice there are many good right answers to these questions—they simply need to dig into the text to support them. Once they have practiced talking about the question of what Douglass seems to really care about in these first paragraphs, they will complete this Writing Prompt: What does Douglass emphasize in the beginning of his autobiography, and what is he telling the reader about what matters to him?

This lesson is as much about Douglass’s text as it is about the critical skill of paraphrasing. Students have been putting the text into their own words in various units throughout the Amplify program, but in eighth grade, as the texts become richer in content and style, we want students to become even more purposeful and confident when they paraphrase.

The lesson begins by making sure students understand the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing—spending some time sorting that out, so that if students struggle with this skill, you can be sure it's not because of this confusion.

The students practice using different tools for paraphrasing when they get stuck. And then they work with partners to paraphrase a short section of text, focusing on one sentence in particular:

“It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant.”