SUBJECT
American History, The Presidency

GRADE
5-8

Abraham Lincoln

Students study the events of Abraham Lincoln's life and organize these on a timeline.

Objectives
• Conduct Web research on the life of Abraham Lincoln.
• Construct a timeline of Lincoln's life.

Duration
• Two days

Materials
• Chalkboard

Directions

• Dicsuss what students know about Abraham Lincoln.

• Organize responses into a word web on the chalk board.

• Invite students to find out more about this famous American. Encourage them to research other sites as well.
• Challenge students to record dates for events they find, including dates for relevant information in the word web.
• Have small groups copy the word web from the board onto butcher paper. Ask them to add information they've found from the Web.
• Have students discuss significant events from their webs.
• Begin to write events on the chalkboard, and assign them dates. You may wish to prompt this activity by asking "Name a significant event that happened in 1865." (Lincoln's assassintation.)
• Once you have enough information on the chalkboard to begin a timeline (3 or 4 entries) invite small groups to create their own timelines. Require that timelines include ten events from at least five distinct years.
• Once groups have completed the timelines, have them share their work. Hold a discussion about what students have found.

Ask:
• Are there any events that you feel are missing from your timeline?
• Which events probably shouldn't appear the timeline? Why?
• How are timelines a helpful way to show information?

Assignment

Have students choose an event from their timeline for further research. Challenge them to create another timeline based on that event.

Extend

• Ask students to memorize all or parts of The Gettysburg Address to recite to the class.

• Have students conduct research about Lincoln's assassination and write a news article of the event as if they were the journalist reporting on this story for the April 15, 1865 edition of the newspaper.

Evaluate

• Did the Web links provide enough information for students to create timelines?

• Was enough time allotted to share and discuss time lines?

• Were the selected Web sites useful and interesting to the students?

• What other resources could I have used to help students better understand Abraham Lincoln's life and its relevance to the American experience?

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The Donner Party

by Roger Wachtel

SET FEATURES:

Expanded subject coverage
Subheadings clarify what text is about
Informative sidebars integrated with text highlight areas of interest
Glossary words now boldfaced in text
Comprehensive timelines
"To Find Out More" sections and index now in every volume

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