Announcing the “52 Footsteps” Facebook Challenge . . . is YOUR class up for it?

Looking for a way to keep your kids connected to history throughout the school year? Need a way to match your students’ interest in social media to your learning objectives? Well, have we got a deal for you!

Try Gettysburg National Military Park’s “52 Footsteps” Facebook Challenge! Each Wednesday throughout 2013, Park Rangers will introduce you to a new person – and one dog – involved in or affected by the battle of Gettysburg. The “52 Footsteps Facebook Challenge” is available on the park’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/GettysburgNMP.

For local and Adams County schools, award your students extra credit points when they post their photograph at the challenge spot each week. Their challenge is to get to the Gettysburg spot where that person stood, snap their picture, and post it. For schools outside of the region, Park Rangers will provide other ideas for posts connected to the featured challenge. For example, if you can’t make it to the Angle on Gettysburg’s Cemetery Ridge to snap your photo in the spot where John Cassidy was hit by a bullet through a Bible near his heart, but you can make it to his burial site in Philadelphia, you have met the weekly challenge.

National Park Service staff at Gettysburg is using the challenge to introduce Facebook friends to new and lesser known stories and places around Gettysburg. The first “52 Footsteps” challenge will be issued on Wednesday, January 2.

Some of the featured stories include: Thaddeus Stevens, the staunch abolitionist who lived and worked in Gettysburg from 1816-1842; Elizabeth Thorn, caretaker of the town cemetery who carried out some of the first burials while six months pregnant; and Federico Cavada, Cuban immigrant fighting with the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry near the Peach Orchard.

This blog will feature additional information on many of these challenge personalities, as well as discussion points for you and your class. So stay tuned . . .

The “52 Footsteps Facebook Challenge” is part of Gettysburg National Military Park’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg.

Planning a Civil War unit – with a Bull’s Eye

Planning a Civil War Unit can be a daunting task. Often , the Civil War Unit comes in the spring time when there are many other things going on at school, In Pennsylvania, we have state tests which take up several weeks, field trips, special events, field days just to name a few. Or, as some teachers from Philadelphia, PA expressed to me recently, they are required to cover from the “Land Bridge” to the 20th Century in one school year. So what do you focus on as a teacher with limited amount of time?

Hershey Middle School’s
Bull’s Eye

Narrow it down

In my 8th grade Civil War unit , my 2 colleagues and I have tried to narrow our focus of our unit on the Civil War. Faced with the time challenges we all face as teachers, along with the varying ability levels within our students we have developed a “Bull’s Eye” to focus our lessons.

The Goals of the Bull’s Eye

• 1. create enduring themes that students will be able to connect to;
• 2. ensure that all students are taught the same information;
• 3. provide guidelines for teachers to prepare assessments based on student ability.

Click here to download a copy of  our Civil War Bullseye

Civil War Unit Themes
The enduring themes we selected were
1. There are many reasons why people choose to fight wars.
2. War is difficult for everyone.
3. Decisions have both intended and unintended consequences.
4. The cost of war is measured in more than dollars and cents.

These are themes that, we hope, most students can relate to and allow them to see connections between our lessons in class and real life situations.

The items on the inner ring of the Bull’s Eye will be something that all students would be accountable to demonstrate knowledge of on assessments.

The items on the outer area of the ring will only be studied if time allows and are also the basis for extension for students in the classroom who have demonstrated mastery of the content in the inner circles.

General Daniel Sickles

Why a Gettysburg focus?

If you notice, our Bull’s Eye has several details related to the battle of Gettysburg. We choose to do that due to the fact that our classes take a field trip to Gettysburg during the unit. The battle of Gettysburg becomes a strong topic to relate to our themes.
Included on this blog is our lesson related to Daniel Sickles and his choices at the battle of Gettysburg.

Daniel Sickles decisions at Gettysburg Student guide sheet pdf file

Daniel Sickles decisions at Gettysburg Student guide sheet Word format

Daniel_Sickles at Gettysburg power point in a pdf format
Daniel Sickles at Gettysburg power point for lesson
On Target

When creating your Bull’s Eye, start with some enduring themes that all students can relate to. As you expand out in your Bull’s Eye, the things closer to the center are what all students should be held accountable for on assessments. As was said before, in a middle school classroom like mine, with varying levels of ability, I would not assess some students on elements in the outer rings. You may not cover everything in the outer rings of the Bull’s Eye, but it will give you a focus for extension activities and lesson plans.

Blank Bull’s Eye to create your unit

Comment here with ideas and other uses for the Bull’s Eye format for your Civil War Unit and other units as well.

email:rfinkill@hershey.k12.pa.us

Twitter: @RobFinkill