ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

This unit will help students discover why Andersonville has come to symbolize the treatment of all prisoners of war and how prisoners cope with an environment that deprives them of liberties we usually take for granted. Students will question their own values and morals whether they would resort to the cruelty practiced at Andersonville. This will be used with the Civil War unit concerning prisoners of war.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: Students will better comprehend the prisoner of war experience and understand how the story of Andersonville is relevant today. Goal(s): Students will investigate their own values, ethics, and morals to learn how they would apply them in a pressure situation. Students will practice skills of interpretive reading, analysis of visual data, and synthesis of disparate forms of data. 

Questions Answered

Essential questions: Why was Andersonville chosen as the site for a prison camp? Why did prison have such a high mortality rate? How did the poor treatment of prisoners cause so many deaths at Andersonville? After the war, prisoners held at Andersonville returned home with horrible stories of prison life. How did post-war events directly influence former prisoners? How did prisoners keep themselves occupied and entertained during their confinement? How did the lack of necessities needed by prisoners cause problems and why were they not provided? Objectives: Using the information from the webquest students will describe living conditions at the Andersonville prisoner if war camp and what causes of these conditions. Students will discuss as a class methods used by prisoners to cope with the prison environment and conditions. Students will explain how values influenced the attitudes and behavior of the prisoners in a one-page essay. Students will examine Andersonville’s emotional impact on the nation during the post-war months. After examining the emotional impact student will conclude with a one-page written essay. Students will identify the location of prisoner war camps in their community or region by using a map of the area.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? A movie outline will be used for students to fill in while viewing TNT’s movie, “Andersonville.” A movie post-viewing activity. An Andersonville Test based on activities,the movie outline and post-viewing activity. What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding? The movie will be stopped during pivotal points the event discussed. Then check progress on movie outlines. Students will be focusing on moral and ethical behavior and envision themselves in Andersonville. Would they be loyal to their fellow soldier in arms or join the Raiders? What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? Post-viewing activities will be essays, journals, or portfolios based on questions from the webquests, readings, & movie. What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? Students will create class rubrics, group discussions and student critiques of essays.

Instructional Strategies

Students use inquiry-based learning to explore their own ethical and moral views pertaining to loyalty versus survival of the fittest compairing the pros and cons of each side. Debating the concept of joining ranks with fellow soldiers in arms for mutual survival through brotherhood and compassion or joining forces with a group that preys on the weak & sick to stay stronger. Students will explore problem-based learning and focus on a class debate what they would do in order to stay alive. Student will then develop a class consensus which side would be beneficial for survival. The problem would be a choice of loyalties. Project-based learning would be used in interviewing any known surviving POWs or reading activities, record their story, invite them to tell their story to the class. Students will then compare their class consensus with the stories of the actual POWs and discuss what the POWs choice was.