Time-Travel Spies

A Civil War WebQuest for

7th Grade - Social Studies

Designed by:

Pamela Dear	pameladear2001@yahoo.com
Iris Duran	duranica@comcast.net
Amy Hill	amykhill22@netscape.net

Introduction

You are a time-travel spy. Your commander is sending you and four other spies back in time to the United States during the tumultuous CivilWar era (1861-1865). This war affected the nation so greatly that citizens continue to memorialize and reenact battles 150 years later. Your commander wants to know what made this time so special in the United States history that people are still talking about it after everyone involved with it has been long gone.

Task

You and your fellow spies are going to travel back in time to gather artifacts that will help your commander understand more about this time. Several groups are going back in time, each assigned a year between 1861 and 1865 and a region (North or South) to give the commander a thorough understanding through many perspectives. The commander will divide your time-travel spy class into groups of five and give each spy a role to perform within the Civil War:

SOUTH	NORTH
Slave	Free African-American
Confederate Military	Union Military
Politician	Politician
Plantation Owners	Abolitionist
Female Citizen	Female Citizen

As you live in your assigned role, each of you must keep a time-travel journal or write a memorandum to your commander describing your life and how the events of the time affect your life. Additionally, you must work together in your spy group to decide which artifacts you want to bring back to your commander in the time capsule. Each of you are required to add three artifacts to the time-travel capsule for a total of 15 artifacts: your time-travel journal or memorandum to your commander and two group determined items. The items you choose should portray the daily life, news events, clothing, technology, music or art of your assigned year. Keep in mind that your commander wants to know what life was like for people in these roles during the Civil War. Why was the nation so affected by this war?

Process

Each spy must read the following articles on the Civil War to get familiar with the time and events you are about to witness: The History Place and Civil War Timeline by Year
You have to understand your role before you can impersonate someone during the war. Click on your role to link to information to learn about your specific Civil War character. Familiarize yourself with the life of your character so that you can bring this information to your spy team. Looking at a primary source will give you a more personal view of your role, and the secondary source a more general view.

SOUTH	NORTH
Slave	Free African-American
Confederate Military	Union Military
Politician	Politician
Plantation Owner	Abolitionist
Female Citizen	Female Citizen

Your commander has provided you with a worksheet for developing your character. Complete the worksheet and have your commander approve it before you begin your time-travel mission.
Meet with your spy team to decide which artifacts you would like to include in your time capsule. Remember that each of you needs to keep a time-travel journal or write memorandum to your commander explaining your findings. The remaining artifacts should be chosen for representative qualities of the assigned year. You and your spy team should review some examples of artifacts from the time period to familiarize yourselves with them. Your commander has provided additional instructions for you in your time-travel spy guidebook which will help guide you through the decision process.
The task of this spy team is to come up with a list of things that will fit in the capsule which is fairly distributed in terms of the importance and interestingness of the artifacts.
After the mission is complete, each team must report to the commander to present the time-travel capsule. As a team you must come forward and explain the significance of each artifact you chose in the context of the assigned year, region, and role of the person you impersonated.

Evaluation

Your grades will be based on the entire spy team's effort. If one member of the team does not contribute to the artifact decisions or creation, this will hurt the entire team's grade. Try to encourage and help each other contribute ideas, research and develop the artifacts. Support from each other will help you remain focused and on-task.

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Group Self Score	Teacher Grade
ARTIFACTS Historical Accuracy Content/Creativity 3 Artifacts required per student	Artifacts are historically inaccurate. Minimal research; predictable, bland, no creativity. Only one artifact submitted.	Some historical inaccuracies. Acceptable research, limited information. Few original touches. Little creativity. Two artifacts submitted.	No more than one historical inaccuracy. Good job of research. Efficient use of information. Creative, clever and interesting. Three artifacts submitted.	All historical data is accurate. Excellent job of research. Effectively utilized information. Unique, engaging approach. At least three artifacts submitted.
WRITTEN ELEMENT Understanding Grammar, spelling and punctuation	Demonstrates no understanding of research task. Numerous grammar, spelling and punctuation errors.	Demonstrates little understanding of research task. Some grammar, spelling and punctuation errors.	Demonstrates some evidence of overall understanding of research task. No more than one grammar, spelling and punctuation error.	Demonstrates clear understanding of research task. No grammar, spelling or punctuation errors.
ORAL PRESENTATION Organization/Communication Voice Projection and Body Language	Disorganized; no ideas communicated clearly; voice not projected; poor body language.	Some organization evident; few ideas communicated clearly. Voice not always projected; inconsistent body language.	Organized and easily understood; most ideas communicated clearly; adequate voice projection; appropriate body language.	Well organized and concise; clearly communicated all ideas. Excellent voice projection; exciting body language.
GROUP DYNAMICS and TEAMWORK Cooperation and respect for each others' ideas Members' contributions to finished product	Group did not work well together; no teamwork. Product does not contain equitable contributions from all members.	Group attempted to work well together. Finished product contains contributions from some of the members.	Group worked well as a team with everyone involved. Finished product contained some contribution from each team member.	Group worked extremely well with each other. Solicited, respected and complemented each other's ideas. Finished product contained equitable contributions from all members.

Conclusion

Now that your mission is complete, you should have a much more thorough understanding of the United States Civil War period. From the Southern slave to the Northern soldier and wives and daughters waiting at home or nursing the wounded, the Civil War had a profound effect on this nation and its people. The effects of the Civil War were immediate and far-reaching. How was the nation affected by the Civil War? Perhaps your commander will send you on another mission to discover the answer. The commander has access to other resources that help to put the effects in perspective. If you report back to the commander with additional information on the effects, you will be given additional time-traveling privileges.

Credits & References

Thanks to Bernie Dodge for the inspiration and groundwork for this WebQuest. We used his pattern suggestions for this WebQuest that are available at The WebQuest Page and Design Patterns.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

Last updated on August 16, 2002. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page