The Week That Was In 505

Have you ever had a lesson idea only to kick it aside and do something else? This happens to me all the time. However, I write these ideas down and sit on them for a while and the time is right. Or, until the lesson is ready. The time was right on Monday. I could have easily taught about some Civil War battles, the Anaconda Plan, strengths and weaknesses of the North and South. Why though? It’s the end of the year and I wanted something new and engaging.

There is an old cemetery next to my school named Watkins Hill Cemetery. This was the original cemetery created for the village of Susanna before it was merged into the village of New Richmond. It’s a historic cemetery and I have always been interested in the people buried there. The cemetery contains a few Revolutionary War veterans, Civil War veterans, WW1 veterans, etc. However, I never knew where to begin with uncovering some of the stories surrounding these people. I didn’t know how to spot Civil War veterans buried in the cemetery.

All of the above was true until I learned a few things from the student teacher in 505. We took a trip to the cemetery and he pointed out some gravestone commonalities for students.

For Union soldiers, he pointed out to look for marble headstones containing a shield. We also discussed Co. C stands for Company C. The 2nd Ohio H.A. stands for 2nd Ohio Regiment, Heavy Artillery division. This was an awesome learning experience for everyone and we visited the cemetery with a purpose. This was the start we needed to shed some light on these Civil War veterans and tie some local history into the Civil War.

Monday – Cemetery visit and name collection, Fast and Curious

Tuesday – Research, Iron Chef

Wednesday – Research, Iron Chef, bio

Thursday – Thick Slide Battle, add to bio

Friday – Finish bios and record tribute

Monday

To begin the Civil War, and out local history research project, I created a Fast and Curious Quizizz with some basic information. In the quiz I included terminology such as Company, Regiment, mustered, and basic information about the Civil War. Students took the Quizizz and all classes ended up with a low 40% class average. I gave some feedback and we took the Quizizz immediately and raised class averages to 60% or a bit higher.

After the completion of the Quizizz, we took a class trip to the Watkins Hill Cemetery. Here we asked students to find Civil War veterans. The goal was to write down 3-5 names and all of the information from the gravestone (company letter, regiment number, etc). After 20-25 minutes, we returned to the classroom with information to begin research on Tuesday.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Now that students had their 3-5 names, we began research for people. WE used the National Park Service site (NPS), Ancestry, and Civil War Index. I encouraged students to find as much information as they could – enlistment date, age at enlistment, rank, discharge date, battles they fought in. I explained the ultimate goal was to explain how this local Civil War veteran contributed to the Civil War.

At first, students were caught up in only using one site. Some were confused by the terminology. Other were bound and determined to find something out about 1 soldier. We encouraged students to try another soldier, try another site, or ask questions. When this entire project began, I knew as much as the students knew. As a result, this experience created a collaborative environment for the students and me. We worked together researching and sharing information with each other. It was fun as we tried to unravel some mysteries.

During this process, here are some cool things we discovered:

1. Some of these veterans never fought in battles.
2. Some veterans signed up near the end of the war for a $100 enlistment check.
3. One veteran had the rank of musician.
4. One veteran’s brother was captured and died at Andersonville prison.
5. One veteran was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh.

Once students collected 8-10 facts, I had them rank their facts from the most interesting to the most boring. The goal was to use some boring facts to set up the veteran’s life, but use the interesting facts to enhance the bio. It was cool to watch this experience play out and to discover new information about local veterans. Here are some biographies typed up by some of the students:

Thursday

After finding some enlistment and discharge dates, it was time to figure out how these Civil War veterans contributed to the Civil War. To do this, I created a Thick Slide with places to include basic battle info, numbers related to the battle, a relevant picture, and a quote.

As the research continued, we discovered that many veterans fought in the Battle of Shiloh as many men from New Richmond fought in the same regiment. Some of the men only fought in minor “skirmishes” in Tennessee. In order to learn more about these battles, a great site we used was American Battlefield Trust. After students researched a battle and completed their Thick Slide, they went back to their biography and added a new paragraph.

Once their 2 paragraph bio was complete, I had the students revise/edit and think about recording a tribute to their veteran with Flipgrid. Here are some Battle Thick Slides:

Some students asked what to do if their veteran didn’t fight in any battles…..here was my suggestion, “Change the heading on the Thick Slide to make it work you.” They followed my suggestion and did an awesome job!

One idea I changed during this project was a paraphrasing idea. I originally had the idea of students paraphrasing their original biography paragraphs. However, they were cutting out too much information and important details. I stopped paraphrasing and focused on having them record a tribute on Flipgrid.

Friday

I hoped research and biographies would be finished for Friday. I set up a Flipgrid so students could record a tribute to these local Civil War veterans. Here is that link: https://flipgrid.com/b79d05a5

It’s amazing how we started with a simple gravestone, researched some information, and created a small story about these local Civil War veterans.

This project is something I’ve had on my mind for years and I finally made it happen. I love flying by the seat of my pants and trying things out. It’s exciting and I plan to add more to this project in the future.