Reading through the Civil War: an intermediate literature discussion unit for elementary students using four books from the Dear America series : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

This literature based discussion unit is divided into six sections. The first section includes a rationale as to why this unit is valuable, and includes the correlating Fourth and Fifth grade required English/Language Arts standards and proficiencies taught within the unit. These standards and proficiencies are based on the Standard Guides published by the Indiana Department of Education in 2000. Section two includes a sample meeting agenda, a sample schedule, and a sample evaluation checklist used during each meeting, as a guide for future users to follow if desired. Section three contains the various vocabulary lists and quizzes that connect to each book. These lists incorporate vocabulary that is both meaningful and necessary to the comprehension of the literature. The fourth section is a collection of the various materials and activities that students complete to demonstrate their knowledge of the chosen texts. These activities have been chosen using Bloom's Taxonomy, a scale illustrating the different levels of thinking that students use to demonstrate learning, as well as Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. Section five includes a bibliography of sources used, as well as a bibliography of trade books that can be used as an enrichment independent exploration activity for children to explore more in-depth about the topics of the Civil War and the Underground Railroad. The final section includes a written reflective piece examining the knowledge that I have gained from teaching this unit, and ways that I feel it could be improved upon in future usage.