Paths to Freedom Standards

District of Columbia Social Studies Content Standards

5.5. Broad Concept: Students summarize the causes and consequences of the Civil War

5.5.1. Describe the extension of and controversy about slavery into the territories, including popular sovereignty, the Dred Scott decision, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

5.5.3. Describe the emergence of Abraham Lincoln as a national political figure and the secession of Southern states.

5.5.4. Identify Union and Confederate States at the outbreak of the Civil War. Yankees and Rebels (Blue and Gray), and the role of African American troops in the war.

5.5.6. Analyze the rationales for the Emancipation Proclamation and the emancipation of African Americans in D.C.

Grades 4-5 Historical and Social Science Analysis Skills

Chronology and Cause and Effect

• Students place key events of the historical era they are studying and interpret information contained within time lines and comparative time charts
• Students explain how the present is connected to the past, identifying both the similarities and differences between the two, and how some things change over time and some things stay the same
• Students summarize the key events of the era they are studying and explain the historical context of those events
• Students distinguish cause from effect and identify and interpret the multiple causes and effects of those events

Historical Research, Evidence and Point of View

• Students analyze societies in terms of the following themes, military, political, economic, social, religious, and intellectual
• Students pose relevant questions about events they encounter in historical documents, eyewitness accounts, oral histories, letters, diaries, artifacts, photographs, maps, artworks and architecture.
• Students use nontext primary and secondary sources, such as maps, charts, graphs, photographs, works of art, and technical charts

Grade 6 Historical and Social Science Analysis Skills

Chronology and Historical Interpretation

• Students explain how major events are related to one another in time
• Students construct various time lines of key events, people, and periods of the historical era they are studying
• Students explain the central issues and problems from the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place
• Students understand and distinguish cause, effect, sequence, and correlation in historical events, including the short-term causes or sparks from long-term causes
• Students explain the sources of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events explains the emergence of new patterns.
• Students detect the different historical points of view on historical events and determine the context in which the historical statements were made (the questions asked, sources used, and author’s perspectives).

Maryland Social Studies State Curriculum

Grade 4

Standard 5.0 History

Topic C. Conflict between Ideas and Institutions

Indicator 2: Explain the political, cultural, economic and social changes in Maryland during the early 1800s.

• Describe the importance of changes in…rights, and freedoms in Maryland, such as…slavery.

Indicator 3: Analyze regional differences in the Civil War and its effects on people in Maryland

• Explain why loyalties to the North and South were divided in Maryland

Indicator 4: Analyze how the institution of slavery impacted individuals and groups in Maryland

• Compare the lives of slave families and free blacks.

Grades 4-6

Standard 6.0 Social Studies

Topic A.Learn to Read and Construct Meaning about Social Studies

Indicator 3: Use strategies to monitor understanding and derive meaning from text and portions of text (during reading)

• Identify and use knowledge of organizational structures, such as chronological order, cause/effect, main ideas and details, description, similarities/differences, and problem/solution to gain meaning

Topic B. Write to Learn and Communicate Social Studies Understandings

Indicator 1: Use informal writing strategies, such as journal writing, note taking, quick writes, and graphic organizers to clarify, organize, remember and/or express new understandings

• Identify key ideas
• Connect ideas to prior knowledge (personal experience, text and world)

Topic F. Analyze Social Studies Information

Indicator 1: Interpret information from primary and secondary sources

• Interpret information in maps, charts and graphs
• Analyze a document to determine point of view
• Analyze the perspective of the author

Indicator 3: Synthesize information from a variety of sources

• Recognize relationships in and among ideas or events, such as cause and effect, sequential order, main idea and details

Topic G. Answer Social Studies Questions

Indicator 1: Describe how the country has changed over time and how people have contributed to its change, drawing from maps, photographs, newspapers, and other sources

• Present social studies information in a variety of ways, such as mock trails, simulations, debates and skits

Indicator 2: Use historic contexts to answer questions

• Use historically accurate resources to answer questions, make predictions and support ideas

Virginia History and Social Studies Standards of Learning

Grades 4-5

VS.1 The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, including the ability to

• identify and interpret artifacts and primary and secondary source documents to understand events in history;
• determine cause-and-effect relationships;
• compare and contrast historical events;
• draw conclusions and make generalizations;
• make connections between past and present;
• interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives;
• evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing;
• analyze and interpret maps to explain relationships among landforms,water features, climatic characteristics, and historical events.

VS.7 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the issues that divided our nation and led to the Civil War by

• identifying the events and differences between northern and southern states that divided Virginians and led to secession, war, and the creation of West Virginia.

USI.1 The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, including the ability to

a) identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history to 1865;

• make connections between the past and the present;
• interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives;
• evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing;
• interpret patriotic slogans and excerpts from notable speeches and documents;
• identify the costs and benefits of specific choices made, including the consequences, both intended and unintended, of the decisions.

USI.9 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the causes, major events, and effects of the Civil War by

• describing the cultural, economic, and constitutional issues that divided the nation;
• explaining how the issues of states’ rights and slavery increased sectional tensions;
• identifying on a map the states that seceded from the Union and those that remained in the Union;
• describing the roles of Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and Frederick Douglass in events leading to and during the War.

National Center for History in the Schools History Standards

Grades 4

4A: Demonstrate understanding of how the United States government was formed and of the nation's basic democratic principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Therefore, the student is able to:

• Analyze how over the last 200 years individuals and groups in American society have struggled to achieve the liberties and equality promised in the principles of American democracy.
• Describe how historical figures in the United States and other parts of the world have advanced the rights of individuals and promoted the common good, and identify character traits such as persistence, problem solving, moral responsibility, and respect for others that made them successful.
• Describe the history of events, such as the signing of the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence, and the writing of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Emancipation Proclamation.

4C: The student understands historic figures who have exemplified values and principles of American democracy. Therefore, the student is able to:

4D: The student understands events that celebrate and exemplify fundamental values and principles of American democracy. Therefore, the student is able to:

Grades 5-6

United States Era 4 Standard 3B

The student understands how the debates over slavery influenced politics and sectionalism. Therefore, the student is able to:

• Explain the Missouri Compromise and evaluate its political consequences.

United States Era 5 Standard 1A

The student understands how the North and South differed and how politics and ideologies led to the Civil War. Therefore, the student is able to:

• Explain how events after the Compromise of 1850 and the Dred Scott decision in 1857 contributed to increasing sectional polarization.
• Explain the causes of the Civil War and evaluate the importance of slavery as a principal cause of the conflict.

United States Era 5 Standard 2A

The student understands how the resources of the Union and Confederacy affected the course of the war. Therefore, the student is able to:

• Evaluate provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln's reasons for issuing it, and its significance.