Teaching the US Civil War can become a touchy subject. How do you fit its complexity and battles and leaders into the small amount of time you have available? You have to take all the pieces, break them down into age-appropriate lingo, and create engaging lessons and activities.
I’m dedicated to providing teachers opportunities and resources to share meaningful and relative lessons with students. Engagement is great, but I want to see students able to make applicable connections for a lifetime. Grab my complete Civil War Unit for ready-to-use activities.
Teaching the US Civil War
How to Pace Lessons on the Civil War
I definitely understand the worry of fitting everything in. There’s always more to learn and more depth to find, but for me personally, I spend about 20 days teaching the unit. This way I can easily sort the topics I will focus on. I can spend a whole week discussing the events that led to the US Civil War because I feel it’s important to discuss these causes. Otherwise, the war itself doesn’t make sense. Then I can choose to focus on the battles and significant events during the war before bringing students to an overview of what happened afterward. It keeps me from adding too much to any one area and allows me to go more in-depth so students can digest the material in sections.
Enduring Lessons from the US Civil War
Teaching sttraight-up facts miss the mark in social studies. It is not enough for teachers to just teach the facts. What will students truly learn from history if we only acknowledge facts and not the lessons behind those details? There is so much more to understanding social studies, and students don’t care about memorizing dates or battle names. The best thing to keep students hooked on the lesson is to show them how “this” applies to their lives. Forming connections is what really keeps them engaged and helps your lessons stick with them long after they leave your classroom.
Respecting differences
One of the biggest take aways from the US Civil War is the importance of respecting differences in others. There are many dark and non-child-friendly aspects of the US Civil War’s political and socioeconomic motivations. But even our young people sitting in our classrooms can learn and understand the value of respecting the differences in others. This is a topic that students can easily discuss and add to the conversation.
How to learn from the dark parts of our history
A hard topic to understand and teach is how the dark parts of our history can be accepted as part of the story without being something we repeat. Future generations do not have to be afraid of, or ignore the dark parts of history. But they do need the space to process and teachers should be willing and ready to lead those discussions on how we take that information and learn from it so that we can do better.
Activities for teaching the US Civil War
Students should enjoy what they’re learning (that’s how we make those connections). There are some great resources you can find below to help you figure out how to teach the US Civil War in your own classroom.
Understanding battles beyond the dates they happened are sometimes hard to picture. I remember even in high school having a hard time not zoning out when it came to listening to battles. Find YouTube videos that include illustrations or pictural depictions of battles so students can see where people moved, or how specific battles affected different areas of the country.
Mix it up with activities. Instead of just one type of activity, try to mix in a variety of ways for students to glean the information. Try task cards, matching vocabulary terms, and powerpoints. If you need more inspiration, I have a variety of US Civil War activities in my shop that you can find here.
Are you looking for planning resources that are easy to use, minimal prep, and ready at your fingertips? I have created a planning document for upper-elementary social studies teachers, and you are definitely going to want to go check it out! 👀 I have pacing, linked resource ideas, and essential questions ready to go for you. If you teach in the upper elementary classroom, there is something for you in that document. What are you waiting for? Go check it out HERE!
Teaching the US Civil War doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task and it doesn’t have to be a drain on your students. Have a variety of stories, videos, and activities that focus on lifelong takeaways your students can use beyond the classroom.
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