Lesson Plan - Words That Would Set People Free

Watch a Video: America’s Civil War

Discuss: How did the issue of slavery lead to the Civil War?

Preview Words to Know

Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.

• document
• secede 
• 13th Amendment

Set a Purpose for Reading

As students read, have them think about why the Emancipation Proclamation was important.

1. According to the article, why did some Southern states want to break away when Abraham Lincoln became president? The article states that some Southern states thought Lincoln would put an end to slavery in the U.S. The text explains that “they thought each state should have the right to make its own decision.”

^{(RI.3.1 TEXT EVIDENCE)}

2. What did the Emancipation Proclamation say? The Emancipation Proclamation said that enslaved people in the Confederate states were free.

^{(RI.3.2 MAIN IDEA)}

3. What was the effect on the Union Army when Black men were allowed to join it? When Black men were allowed to join the Union Army, it made the Army stronger. That helped the Union win the Civil War, in April 1865.

^{(RI.3.3 CAUSE AND EFFECT)}

FEATURED SKILL: Summarizing

Use the Skill Builder “Finish the Summary” to introduce the idea of summarizing, and have students complete a cloze-style summary of the article. 

^{(RI.3.2 SUMMARIZING)}