Civil War Unit | Content Standards & Overview

Civil War Simulation:  Instead of focusing on one assignment I decided to present a unit instead. I will not go into much depth about the nitty-gritty details of the simulation, if you want the full write up, then you can go here. Otherwise, my intention is to share several student centered/ tech utilizing assignments that could be used for this simulation.

Overview
This simulation pits the North against the South in a 3 week simulation where 6 contingents, or table groups, (4 North, 2 South) fight against one another to attain victory. Contingents will achieve victory by getting the highest score by the end of the three weeks. Points can be gained or loss through various means:

• Battles, contingents will battle one another by asking each other trivia questions about the Civil War from the classroom armory (aka box o' books)
• Destiny Dice, Are you feeling lucky, punk? Dice (either real or virtual) are rolled and each outcome has a corresponding consequence that can either bring fortune, or disastorous for a contingent.
• Daily Assignments/Trivia, there will be daily assignments and trivia for students to complete every day that will give students the ability to earn points.

With the aid of the laptops and web apps, students will work, research, share,  and engage one another collaboratively within their respective contingents in order to understand what it meant to live durring this tumultous time period as well as understand the key events throughout the war.  The simulation will immerse the students into the this great conflict and there will be various web based assignments to help students better understand what it meant to either fight or live as a civilian during this time.

Content Standard:
8.10: Students analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War.

ISTE Standard:

• Student Centered Learning. Planning, teaching, and assessment centered around the needs and abilities of students.
• Curriculum Framework - Content standards and related digital curriculum resources that are aligned with and support digital-age learning and work

Context
This simulation is designed to be implemented within an 8th grade U.S. History classroom. The foundation for this unit is based off of the Interact Simulation of the Civil War, but tweaked for my own purposes. I originally ran this simulation with my master teacher this previous school year and I thought there could be some changes made to better fit a tech friendly classroom.  Before I begin I must make it clear that there are several assumptions to be made that will be necessary for this project to work:

• There is a laptop available for each individual student
• The classroom has Wi-Fi accessibility. 
• Students have a Facebook and G-mail account.

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