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Home > INSTRUCTION > State Standards and Frameworks > English Language Arts > Unit_Overview

 Gr. 7 Unit: Consequences


Essential Question:

How do our choices affect the consequences that people face?


Lesson Calendar

Days 1-2 - SEED 1

Days 3-5 – PLAN 1

Days 6 - SEED 2

Days 7 - SEED 3

Days 8-9 - SEED 4

Days 10 - SEED 5

Days 11 - SEED 6

Days 12-17 – PLAN 2

Days 18-23 – PLAN 3

Download Seeds, Plans, and Resources (zip)

Unit Overview

CCSS Standards for this Unit

Monitoring Templates

Send Feedback to MSDE’s Reading Team

Unit Overview

The Consequences Unit focuses on how the actions of one historical figure had enormous consequences on various people and events during a particular time in American history. During this unit, students will read, discuss, and write about the consequences of John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Using “Chasing Lincoln’s Killer” by James L. Swanson as the mentor text, students will get an opportunity to analyze how he uses language choices, primary sources from the time period, and quotes from actual historical figures to explain Booth’s reasons for the assassination and the challenges his faced after the heinous deed.

Students will write using multiple sources describing a single scene or small connection sequence of events leading up to and/or including the assassination of Abraham Lincoln from at least two different perspectives. Students will write narratives based on the text.

Students will write a journal entry about a dream or personal goal. Students will read, analyze, and discuss the poem, “Dreams” by Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, excerpts from Chasing Lincoln’s Killer —Introduction—From 1861 through 1865 and pages 138-139, and the article, “Booth’s Reason for Assassination” by Christopher Hamner.

Students will also compare Swanson’s account to multimedia presentation(s) of Booth’s escape after the assassination of Lincoln.

This unit’s lessons and lesson seeds assume students have a basic understanding of the writing process and are able to self-analyze their own writing and the writing of their peers with direction and guidance from the teacher.

James L. Swanson’s Chasing Lincoln’s Killer has a lexile score of 980L. The novel has grade-level equivalent of 8.3. Other factors that make this an appropriate novel for reading on the 7th grade are the theme, purpose of the text, structure of language in terms of conventions and clarity, and the historical aspects of the novel. The complexity of the tasks assigned to the reading also determines its appropriateness.


Text Models For Lessons and Lesson Seeds

Books

  1. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson
  2. Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker: The Unlikely Friendship of Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Todd Lincoln by Lynda Jones (one copy for teacher to use)
  3. Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

Poetry

  1. “Dreams” by Langston Hughes http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dreams-2/

Primary Sources

  1. John Wilkes Booth’s diary: http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln52.html
  2. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/boothdiary.html (Booth’s Last Diary Entry)
  3. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf

Articles

  1. http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24242 “Booth’s Reason for Assassination.”
  2. http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART%3B0000160243 (The Doctor Who Nursed His Jailers)
  3. http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART%3B0000029209 (Assassination of President Lincoln)
  4. http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART%3B0000027275 (Did Lincoln’s Assassins Get Away With Murder?)
  5. http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART%3B0000141465 (His Name is Mudd)
  6. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1342168/Abraham-Lincolns-assassin-gave-death-bed-confession-40-years-later.html (Did Abraham Lincoln's assassin escape and give a death-bed confession 40 years later? Relatives demand DNA test to resolve mystery)
  7. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/civilwar/booth.htm (Tracking an Assassin)
  8. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/booth.htm (The Death of John Wilkes Booth, 1865)

http://www.history.com/topics/john-wilkes-booth/interactives/john-wilkes-booth-timeline-and-map
http://www.samuelmudd.com/the-booth-escape-route.html
http://www.fords.org/sites/default/files/virtualTour/index.html
http://www.awesomestories.com/flicks/national-treasure/story-preface
http://www.mikelynaugh.com/booth/index.htm (Booth Escape Sites)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fthxS32aMbE (The Diary of John Wilkes Booth)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUhZNV-KNXA
http://killinglincoln.nationalgeographic.com/
http://www.history.com/topics/john-wilkes-booth/videos#on-the-trail-of-john-wilkes-booth

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    Last Updated 7/21/2019 11:17 PM