Using the War as a Selling Point: Discovering a Local Community during the Civil War through Ads and Artifacts (Grades 3-5)

Katie Hickey Snyder

Summer Fellowship 2009

To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.

Lesson 1

As a whole group, students examine current advertisements found in newspapers. Through this examination they learn about the lives of the people being targeted as consumers in the ads.

For this lesson, students should be seated in table groups of 4 students.

Procedures

• Using LCD projector, Smart board, or computer lab, show class the following example of a modern day newspaper advertisements. http://www.automotiveaddesign.com/img/CarNewspaperAdsLarge1.jpg

• If technology is not readily available, in this lesson and in all subsequent lesson, pictures can be Xeroxed and distributed to the class.

• As a whole group, fill out the following document analysis. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/misc/2007/nara/written_document_analysis_worksheet.pdf

• Distribute copies of a current, local newspaper. In partnerships, students select an ad.

• In same partnerships, students fill out the document analysis sheet. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/misc/2007/nara/written_document_analysis_worksheet.pdf

• Each partnership presents their document analysis to other partnership in table group.

Ties to National Primary Source

There is no tie to a national source in this lesson.