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Reconstruction Point-Counterpoint

Guiding Questions:

  • To what extent did Reconstruction help African Americans? Did African Americans get trapped in a situation similar to slavery, or did they make any progress during this period?

Objectives

  • Students will:
    • Identify a thesis statement and evidence in an essay.
    • Engage diverse viewpoints, perspectives, and ideas to understand pluralism within an American identity.
    • Employ historical thinking and reasoning to understand and analyze complex issues.
    • Appreciate the complexities of American history and government by engaging in multiple perspectives.

Student Resources:

Anticipate

  • To prepare for this lesson, students should have a good understanding of creating a thesis and providing evidence.
  • To activate students’ prior knowledge, ask students to create a t-chart on paper or create one together on the board. The categories are Thesis Statements and Evidence.
  • Sort the following items or create your own. Answer questions and clear up misconceptions as you go.
Thesis Statements Evidence
  • Saturday is the best day of the week.
  • The Constitution is the basis for American government.
  • The Civil War was the most important war in American history.
  • 56% of students agree that tacos are the best school lunch meal.
  • The Declaration of Independence states “All men are created equal.”
  • Antietam is still the bloodiest one-day battle in American history.

    • Engage

    • Use the Step In, Step Out, Step Back framework to ignite student interest and begin to frame the inquiry.
    • Students can write their answers to each of the following questions on sticky notes and place them in an assigned area when they are done, such as a table, chart paper, or white board.
    • Display the quote: “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” W.E.B. Du Bois, 1935.
      • Step In: Du Bois wrote this in a piece reflecting on Reconstruction in 1935. Based on what you know, what do you think he might have felt, believed, known, or experienced when he wrote this?
      • Step Out: What would you need to learn to understand Du Bois’s perspective better?
      • Step Back: What do you notice about your own perspective? How does it affect your understanding and assumptions of this quote?

    Explore

    • Glossary term(s): summarize, argument, situation, progress, segregated, sharecropping
    • Divide students into groups of 2-3.
    • Give each group a copy of the Point Counterpoint essay and highlighters.
    • Ask students to read both argument A and argument B within the Point Counterpoint Essay. These two arguments take different stances on the question.
    • Then, assign students to work together to highlight the thesis and two pieces of supporting evidence for each argument.
      • Assist students in dividing roles for the assignment. You can suggest that students assign a reader for each argument in the Point Counterpoint Essay and a recorder to highlight for the group.

    Assess & Reflect

    • Thesis and Supporting Evidence
      • Each student should complete the organizer on their own. It will ask them to examine the arguments, thesis statements, and evidence supplied.

    AND/OR

    • Exit Ticket: I used to think, Now I think
      • Ask students to reflect on the opposing perspectives they read and their own growth by completing an exit ticket.
      • I used to think _______. Now I think ________.