American Civil War Essay Research Guide

Teaching U.S. history? What lesson could be more important than giving your class the opportunity to research and synthesize the life of a significant figure of the Civil War? This carefully scaffolded and easy-to-assign-AND-assess resource has been designed to guide student learning from simple (and multiple choice!) Civil War figure selection, to subject fact-collection, essay planning, and the development of a properly-cited and well-organized five-paragraph research essay. 

Do you need help instructing your students on the use of MLA style? Download it HERE!

Implementing this lesson into your social studies or language arts curriculum is so simple! Start by handing out the background research and note-taking worksheet (you could also ONLY hand this out if you want a shorter lesson!). Once students have selected their subject, all you have to do is provide them the opportunity to conduct research using the straightforward information planner, then distribute the essay outline activity, which guides students step-by-step through the requirements of their research essay. From there, essay drafting, using the provided peer review checklist, and submitting their final draft will be easy for even the most reluctant writers! And then you can assess their work with the provided Common Core-aligned rubric! That’s right: there’s no need to write a rubric!

Use this entire resource as a complete research lesson or just part of it as a short research activity or sub plan! 

This TeachSimple download includes:

• A figure of the Civil War essay writing assignment with directions, requirements, research essay writing tips, a peer review checklist, and Common Core-tied grading rubric 

• An editable rubric, provided as a link, that lets you make adjustments to the grade values and guidelines. This link is provided as as Google Sheet specifically built for integration into Google Classroom, although you can also modify it for use in other Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

• A significant Civil War participant note-taking worksheet that will guide your students through information gathering. This straightforward two-page handout includes instructions for background research, subject selection section (with 1-2-sentence biography summary), a fun drawing section, and an area to cite quality sources and organize conducted research

• A research essay outlining worksheet, so students build on their selected subject notes in a clear and simple manner as they build their work towards a draft and final paper

• All 6-pages of this lesson are provided in full-color and B&W versions
  

Although this resource can be fitted for any secondary Language Arts classroom, it has been carefully designed to work best in grades 7 through 10. The included rubric is subtly but specifically tied to Common Core ELA Standards for Language (3) and Writing (2, 5, and 7). This resource is provided as a print-ready, bookmarked, and adjustable PDF file. The rubric is also included as an editable Google Sheet.

This resource contains 6 pages and 1 Google Sheet.