A Nation Divided: Exploring the Civil War Through Picture Books

The Civil War, or War Between the States, was arguably one of the darkest periods in American history. Over seven hundred thousand lives were lost in the conflict that pitted father against son, brother against brother. If this was such a horrific event, then why study it?

For some teachers, it's a part of their assigned curriculum, but textbooks rarely do justice to the personal perspectives of those who lived through this harrowing time. For other teachers, a common background knowledge of the Civil War is crucial to reading and comprehending Civil War era historical fiction novels such as Charlie Skeddadle, Rifles for Watie, Bull Run, and Soldier's Heart. Even the reader of the tongue-in-cheek misadventures described in the recent Newbery Honor winning The Mostly True Adventures Of Homer P. Figg can benefit from a basic knowledge of Civil War history.

Apart from these pragmatic reasons, though, why should we care about Civil War picture books? First, because the Civil War was the ultimate test of our young country's ability to stand united. Second, because the Civil War is as much a study in human rights as it is in states' rights. And third, because an understanding and appreciation of our existing rights comes only through an examination of the bloody conflict which guaranteed those same freedoms to all citizens.

The Last Brother by Trinka Hakes Noble serves as an excellent introduction to the external and internal conflicts of the Civil War. (You may recall an earlier post on The American Revolution where I praised Noble's The Scarlet Stockings Spy). In this tale, a young bugler is forced to choose between duty to country and loyalty to a friend; in the end, he is able to honor both. Like The Scarlet Stockings Spy, this book is incredibly well researched, using exacting vocabulary within a context that allows young readers to construct meaning, as well as a sense of time and place, without losing the narrative flow. At the same time, it delivers a compelling story that serves a snapshot of the torn allegiances suffered throughout the entire nation at this time.

In the Author's Note, Trinka Hakes Noble explains that the inspiration for The Last Brother came from her own family history:

Nearly one hundred of my ancestors were in the Civil War, which they called the States War. One large Hakes farming family from upstate New York sent all their sons. The youngest, a fourteen-year-old drummer, was the only one who returned. This tragic loss was not uncommon on both sides...

The Last Brother was written with deep respect and honor, not only for my ancestors, but for all who served in the Civil War.

Robert Papp's realistic paintings dramatically frame each page, providing additional impact to the already emotional tale, while showing equal attention to historical detail and accuracy.

Ted Lewin's Red Legs tells the story of nine year-old Stephen's first foray into battle. The text provides just the right amount of information for young readers, who at book's end discover that Stephen and his soldier father are actually Civil War reenactors, or living historians. "Reenactors do it," explains Lewin, "because they love history and wish to honor the memory of the men and boys on both sides who died so long ago."

The book's endnotes explain that the drummer boy is based on the life of Stephen Benjamin Bartow, a Civil War musician from Brooklyn's 14th Regiment, who not only survived the war, but went on to become a mason who helped to build the Brooklyn Bridge. The large format of this book as well as Lewin's bright and detailed paintings make this an excellent foray into the topic. (Check out a study guide for Red Legs provided by the Brooklyn Public Library).

Pink and Say is Patricia Polacco's true-life tale of two Union soldiers, one white and one black, who are caught behind enemy lines. Finding Say wounded on the battlefield, Pink transports him to the abandoned plantation where Pink's family was once enslaved. While there, the boys compare their experiences as soldiers fighting for the same cause.

When Confederate marauders invade the house and kill Moe Moe Bay (Pink's mother), the two boys are forced to flee North.

The bittersweet ending to this book (I won't give it away) delivers an emotional punch when we discover the author's relationship to one of the book's protagonists. If you want to put a personal face on the tragedies of war, get your hands on this book.

Voices of Gettysburg, like Pink and Say, provides personal perspectives of the conflict. In this case, however, we hear the words of several participants, including General Robert E. Lee, Rachel Cormany (a housewife of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania), General George Meade, and Colonel Joshua Chamberlain (once a college professor but now commnader of the Twentieth Maine Infantry).

These and other voices describe for us the anxiety, anger, and anguish surrounding one of the most pivotal battles of the war. If you're asking students to create mock journal entries, then author Sherry Garland has provided some excellent models for you to share.

In 1863, General Lee took the fighting to the North, leading his troops into Pennsylvania. Lincoln mobilized thousand of Union troops to intercept the Rebels. In The Battle of Gettysburg: Would You Lead the Fight? an engaging "you are there" format challenges readers to continually choose between courses of action, given the particulars of an historic situation. Each of the situations is, indeed, taken from history, and succeeding pages reveal the actual courses of action taken by generals and presidents, and the consequences of those actions.

This is the perfect book for students who want to feel that they're a part of history! Photographs, paintings, and battlefield maps round out the easy-to-read text. (Be sure to check out one of the other related titles in this series from Enslow Publishers: Would You Do What Lincoln Did?).

B is for Battle Cry: A Civil War Alphabet provides a fascinating look at all things Civil War, literally from A (Abraham Lincoln) to Z (Zouave, a brightly dressed soldier whose garb was inspired by African units fighting with the French in North Africa in the 1830s). Each page features a fantastic painting by illustrator David Geister, and poetry and prose by author Patricia Bauer. Students can read as far as they want on each page, as the text "drills down" to more specific topics. The page on Trains, for example, not only discusses their impact on the war, but also points out other innovations (submarines, rifled cannons, photography) which made the Civil War one of the first truly modern wars. If you're looking for a book that reads like a narrative, but acts as a reference, this should be on your classroom shelf.

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Civil War Soldier is from the "You Wouldn't Want to..." series of nonfiction books created by British author David Salariya. The series has since been taken on by several other writers, although the extremely talented David Antram continues to illustrate most titles. In a previous post about Salariya, I mentioned that the Manchester Evening News called this series "a fascinating full-on colour weapon in the battle to get kids to remember historical facts." This title continues in that tradition, sharing facts about army life that are rarely remembered today. The typical lot of the foot soldier on either side was boredom, filth, and hunger, only occasionally punctuated by horrific and bloody battles. This book begs the question, "So why did they do it?" and then answers that question. Again, a great resource for fictional eyewitness accounts, and one of those books that will be read at will in the classroom, especially by your boys.

Hands-On Extensions

For hands-on projects in the classroom, I can recommend no book more highly than Maxine Anderson's Great Civil War Projects You Can Build Yourself. First, this book comes from a long line of excellent resource books for teachers and students from Nomad Press (read a rave about them in an earlier post). Second, the book itself is an incredible source of information about the innovations and technology of the war. You could easily make those topics alone the focus of a related Science unit, and this book would yield enough activities for at least an entire marking period. Ample background about the war and the people who fought it would, in fact, make this an excellent stand-alone "textbook" for any classroom, grades four and up. Third, the activities are easily "doable," and actually pretty cool! I can't say the same for some other hands-on books that I skimmed and quickly dismissed. Few of the projects here require special materials, and most could be made by students with little assistance. Imagine creating a battlefield camera and a telegraph that actually work! (Check out a free resource from this book at their site).

Sites to See and Stuff to Do Online

Harpers Weekly was the primary contemporary source of news about the Civil War. Now you can see all of its archived issues in one place! At Sons of the South you can view the paper by week and year, or study specific battles.

To use the Harpers Weekly resource in class, team students up to research the main facts of a single battle, and then summarize those facts into three to four paragraphs. Using the The Newspaper Clip Generator (pictured) allows students to create a fictitious newspaper article with a realistic look, while at the same time limiting them in both space and word count. This forces them to tell only the most important facts.

The Brooklyn Public Library provides a number of lesson plans and resources about the Civil War, with special focus on Women, Slavery, Soldiers and Daily Life. The downloadable lesson plans take advantage of the interactive resources offered at the site, as well as easily attained picture books, like Ted Lewin's Red Legs, Anne Rockwell's Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth, and Shana Corey's You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer! Also available there, an easy to understand glossary which would be the perfect supplement to any Civil War unit.

If you're looking for more interactive-type reviews, check out Mr. Nussbaum's Civil War activities. There you'll find cloze passages, self-checking reading comprehension selections, time lines, word searches, and more.

Along that same line, you'll find several self-checking quizzes, reading resources, and lots of links at Mountain City Elementary's Civil War page. It looks old-school Internet, but I promise you, take the time to look around and you won't be disappointed! Explore the links to discover lots of reading and history integrated projects which are easily adaptable to your classroom.

The PBS companion site to The Civil War, a film by Ken Burns, features not only the expected classroom activities, but also a pretty neat project involving digital storytelling.

You might like what you see there, or that same idea could just as easily be executed using PhotoStory, Movie Maker, VoiceThread, Prezi, and even Power Point.


Note that the movie below, along with filmed interviews, makes extensive use of period photographs to tell its story.


Other resources at other sites include animated battle maps (such as this one of The Battle of Gettysburg), annotated time lines, student sites, short reading selections, and ready-to-go lesson plans created by teachers.

If you can't find what you're looking for anywhere else, or if your students are researching specific topics of the war (such as music, poetry, money, stamps, etc.), then try this comprehensive site from Dakota State University or this annotated outline from Great American History.

I'd love to hear your ideas as well, or to learn about a book or site that I neglected to mention. Leave a comment below!

Gods and Heroes

In a previous post I raved about Candlewick's awesome new pop-up book Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes. If you check out the video preview provided at the Candlewick site (be sure to go full screen), I think you'll agree that creators Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda have put together one impressive book!

I was therefore honored when Candlewick approached me to write a teachers' guide for using this book in the classroom. (I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love a publishing company that provides those extra perks for teachers and parents to get the most from their picture books). And in case that teacher's guide doesn't give you enough ideas for putting this book to work for you, I've compiled a list of over a dozen must-see books, sites, and activities that further supplement and extend this book.

Below I recommend some extensions for exploring and teaching with Gods and Heroes.

Related Titles

A perfect companion book to Gods and Heroes is World Myths and Legends: 25 Projects You Can Build Yourself (Nomad Press). Author Kathy Ceceri includes myths from all around the world, grouping them by continents and cultures, and providing all the cool components that I've come to love in the Nomad titles:

• integrated timelines and maps,
• Words to Know vocabulary boxes,
• Did You Know? fact boxes,
• plentiful tables and lists,
• a comprehensive glossary and index, and
• easy-to-pull-off projects using commonly found objects and tools.

Shawn Braley's illustrations bring life to the myths that Ceceri retells, while providing helpful diagrams and templates for the included projects. Check out some madly enthusiastic reviews, related web sites, and a sample project from the book.

If you're looking to get serious about Greek mythology, Scholastic's All in the Family: A Look-It-Up Guide to the In-Laws, Outlaws, and Offspring of Mythology is an indispensable resource for the classroom (trust me; I had students fighting over this thing!). It's simply a fabulous volume of personal profiles and family, flings, friends, and foes. Illustrated with classic art, cartoons, and photos, it's visually appealing, and the humorous, engaging text will keep students reading. A family tree, glossary, and a constellation map complete this title. Seriously, if your students are doing any kind of research on Greek gods, goddesses, and heroes, one copy of this book is not enough.

And of course, don't forget to check out Candlewick's own Mythology by Lady Hestia Evans. This book is part of the Ologies series, which features its very own site.

From the publisher's site you can download an activity kit with craft and writing ideas, easily adaptable to any myth or grade level, and a teachers' guide of related curriculum activities.
  

Hands-On Activities

Pop-Ups
As mentioned in the previous post, a great extension activity for students is creating their own pop-ups. Not as easy as it sounds, unless, of course, you have a resource such as Robert Sabuda's own web site which features printable templates for over two dozen pop-ups. These can serve as great presentation formats for seasonal poetry, short stories, or book reports, or for creating cards for a special occasion. (Candlewick has also posted a simple pop-up template on their site).

Roman Shields
My students saw this simple Roman shield idea some time ago and they thought it was pretty cool. I suppose students could each create designs that had some relevance to a particular god or hero.

Mythology in Reading and Language Arts

Writing with Writers: Myth Writing

At Scholastic's wonderful Writing with Writers site, students are guided through the writing process by a famous children's author who writes in a given genre (hence the site's name). The genres, hosted by such writers as Jack Prelutsky and Virginia Hamilton, include Biography, Descriptive, Folktale, Mystery, News, Poetry, Speech, Book Review, and, of course, Myth. The incomparable Jane Yolen begins the process with the telling of an original myth, and then provides step-by-step guidance as children create their own stories.

Scholastic has additional features including Myths from Around the World and an interactive Myth Brainstorming Machine. The Myth Brainstorming Machine is pretty amazing in that it allows students to create a story using pictures and effects, and then translates the chosen visuals into key words and character names, which would then be used to write the tale (note the Idea Outline tab on the image above, at the lower right corner).

Greek Myths: Understanding Word Roots and Meanings
At the US Department of Education's Doing What Works site, you can view an upper grade teacher's take on Greek Myths: Understanding Word Roots and Meanings. If you see what you like, you can download some sample lesson plans.

It's All Greek to Me
If you're interested in teaching students vocabulary through Greek and Latin roots, you'll find some good links to explore on a previous post (at my Teaching that Sticks site) titled It's All Greek to Me.


Recommended Mythology and Ancient Cultures Sites

Winged Sandals

Tops on my list is Winged Sandals, a fun and colorful site focusing on Greek mythology. Here students can hear stories of gods and heroes, play games, create crafts, learn more about Greek history and daily life, and even ask the Oracle to tell their future. A very thorough Who's Who link provides biographies of gods, monsters, and mortals, along with key "stats" and anecdotes. (Your students will also discover cool wallpapers and e-cards in the goodies section). Highly recommended.

Windows to the Universe: Mythology
Windows to the Universe is an original site which describes how the stars, sun, and other celestial bodies have been linked to mythology throughout the ages. Yes, we all know that constellations were named for Greek and Roman gods, but how did Celts, Egyptians, Inca, Navajo, and other cultures tell their stories through the skies? A fascinating site to explore, with many possibilities for research.

Myth Web
Myth Web is a fun place to read about the traditional Roman heroes, since the tales are told with cartoons and the writing's pretty lively. But this site also has an extensive research base, plus some tips and resources for teachers.

Encyclopedia Mythica

Encyclopedia Mythica is an astounding collection of mythology and folklore from every culture imaginable. While it isn't designed to be fun, it's certainly complete!

Men, Myths, and Minds
Men, Myths, and Minds not only tells about some of the more common Greek gods, but also describes how they were archetypes of behaviors, from which listeners of the ancient tales were to learn. Another good site for student research.

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Fun stuff to do online, related to the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Dress a Roman soldier, design a Greek Pot, print out timelines, etc.

Adventures in Ancient Greece
Although not a lot here about mythology, this site provides an interactive way for students to learn about Greek culture. Cartoon-based and kid-friendly.

Explore the World with Soccer

For some time now, American kids have been crazy about soccer! While the United States seems slow to embrace this sport which is loved worldwide, the first soccer team in this country was actually established back in the 1860s, and the U.S. Soccer Federation was formed in 1913 (joining the world governing body FIFA in that same year). While professional teams and matches still take a back seat to baseball, football, basketball, and even hockey, kids have embraced soccer as one of their favorite pastimes (of the 18 million Americans who play soccer, 78% of them are under the age of eighteen).

So it's only natural that we can use kids' obsession with this sport to get them interested in reading and world culture. Enter Nomad Press's innovative Soccer World Series, beginning with Soccer World: South Africa and Soccer World: Mexico.

The Soccer World Series follows former pro player Ethan Zohn as he visits different countries, learning about diverse cultures as well as the people who live there. A young player in each country introduces Ethan the nation's unique geography, natural wonders, history, customs, traditions, and sites. In context of these explorations are challenges for kids to act on the social and environmental problems of each country.

In addition to the clear and easily accessible text and colorful illustrations, the books in this series also contain key vocabulary, hands-on projects and activities (including recipes!), and a thorough glossary and index. Students can also visit the series' web site to find additional activities and resources, as well as the opportunity to share their own projects with Ethan.

To help get your students psyched about soccer, you might want to encourage some research into its history and rules of play. Kids First Soccer is a great place to start, and World Almanac for Kids offer the latest up-to-date information on teams and the World Cup.

Speaking of the World Cup, this once-every-four-years event is on for 2010, so what better way to get kids psyched? While the FIFA official web site doesn't have a kids' section, you can find some preliminary activities and print-outs at Activity Village. At EFL Club you can find an interesting listening activity involving drawing flags of the 2010 World Cup nations using geometry vocabulary.

For dozens of additional links, check out the teacher approved links at the Soccer Section at Edgate. And for lots of free, awesome resources on a number of topics, be sure to visit the Nomad Press site. Read more about their titles and downloadable activities at a previous post here.

Books to Inspire Learning: Nomad Press

Often as teachers we have a terrific theme (Survival, Balance, Interdependence) or topic (Transportation, Inventions, Rain Forest), and plenty of awesome trade books with which to explore that theme or topic, but what we're missing is the "hands-on" component. Hands-on has become almost a buzz word that I dislike when simply slapped onto a math curriculum that might use manipulatives for one lesson each week. But what I mean here by hands-on is projects, experiments, activities, and explorations that use "stuff" to help students truly understand what they're learning.

When I taught third grade, for example, high school students who returned to visit their old classroom didn't reminisce about worksheets, basal reader stories, or spelling quizzes. They instead fondly recalled when we created a working model of the Erie Canal lock system out of milk cartons, or a paper mache mountain to model the water cycle in the Appalachians, or when Mr. Schoch lit the classroom reading rug on fire trying to demonstrate how fire needed oxygen to burn. And that was just September!

You might be saying to yourself, "Keith, I love ideas like that (with the possible exception of setting the rug on fire), but where can I find the time and the ideas to make that happen?" Nomad Press has the answer. I recently discovered this publisher while ferreting out free resources for teachers, and boy, I wish I had owned their books two decades ago when I started out in third grade!

First of all, the books. From their Explore series, Nomad shared with me their Explore Colonial America and Explore Transportation titles. Both contained the coolest projects, experiments, and activities! But the design of the books themselves is very smart. While both books would be helpful to the teacher, they're also are super kid friendly and readable on the elementary level. Both books contain text inserts featuring Words to Know (vocabulary, with easy-to-understand definitions), Guess What (cool facts, which some of my students would read in their entirety before reading the rest of the book), Then and Now (contrasting technology in past and present) and occasional fact boxes, containing relevant whos, whats, whys, and hows. The projects are explicitly titled (Make Your Own Water Compass) while the experiments present titles in the form of a question (What Floats? What Sinks?), getting students into the practice of forming a hypothesis when exploring an unknown concept. (Explore Colonial America also includes "spotlights" on each of the thirteen colonies).

If you want a better sense of what this looks like, Nomad provides free sample downloads of a project or experiment from each book at their site. The site itself is an exemplary resource for parents and teachers. In addition to book summaries and samples, you'll also find neat sidebar features including Latest News (cool facts from science and nature), This Day in History (great topics for discussion and writing), Word of the Day, and Did You Know? Overall, it's an extremely clean site which begs further exploration. Somewhere in that site, yes, they are selling books, but not at the expense of the user experience.

Individual book summaries (such as this one for Amazing Biome Projects) make for interesting reading, because they include not just the book's contents, but also related web sites, related resource books, a media kit containing fact sheets and author interviews, and endorsements. In recommending Amazing Biome Projects, for example, Greg DeFrancis, Director of Education Montshire Museum, said:

This high-powered tour of ecological principles is chock full of information, activities, and science vocabulary. The indoor and outdoor activities connect kids to the science being discussed in each chapter. Science educators and parents will be thrilled with the amount of information the author has packed into Biomes.

If you teach math, science, or social studies, I highly recommend Nomad Press. Give their site a look, try just one of their titles, and I think you'll be hooked! And also, whether you're a teaching novice or an old vet like me, be sure to check out their teacher titles, such as The New Teacher's Handbook: Practical Strategies and Techniques for Success in the Classroom from Kindergarten Through High School and The Power of Positive Teaching: 35 Successful Strategies for Active and Enthusiastic Classroom Participation. Perfect titles for those seeking professional development reading selections for their PLCs.