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Texas Secession Crisis

LESSON PLAN:	Texas Secession Crisis
CONCEPT:	Students will learn about the crisis of secession, and why it was such a passionate issue.
GRADE:	7
SUBJECT:	Statehood and Civil War
SOCIAL STUDIES TEKS:	History - 7.4(A), 7.4(B), 7.21(D), 7.22(C)
ATTACHMENTS:	Teachers’ fact sheets Various web links

Links to “stuff”

Content resources (Click on this one to see edited entries; some completed, others in progress)

Declaration of Causes

Immediate Consequences of Secession

Procedure

Briefly convey an overview of the issue, using the outlines and images provided

Link to overview (for teacher’s use only)

Link to outline and images

Divide the class into groups and assign them research links (see “Engaging Activity” below)

Bring the groups together for a mock secession convention (see “Engaging Activity” below)

The teacher will conclude the lesson by relating the dramatic events that attended the actual event

Link to mini-lecture

http:/

Engaging Activity

The teacher will divide students into pro-secession and anti-secession groups (one each, or more). Each group will make a chart that identifies the people who shared their views by 1) geography (e.g., frontierspeople); 2) profession/occupation (e.g., planters); 3) place of origin (e.g., German Texans; 4), political orientation (e.g., Sam Houston Democrats), and 5) prominent individuals (e.g., Louis T. Wigfall). Each student group will then build a case “for” or “against” secession, by listing under each category the reasons why each interest group was “for” or “against” secession.

Divide the class into groups.

Pro-Secession Texans

Anti-Secession Texans

You might consider having more pro-secession groups than anti-secession groups to amplify the voices that dominated the issue

Assign different links to each group

Each group will choose a leader to compile arguments on their chart

The following links will provide pro-secession arguments (me: put in blocks by proportion of reading)

Link

The following links will provide anti-secession arguments

Link

Mock secession convention

Students will quickly elect convention officers (composed of a president, sergeant-at-arms, and secretary)

Each office will be filled by an individual who is pro-secession to emphasize the convention’s mood

Group leaders will present their arguments (teacher will exercise flexibility in allowing officers to direct convention)

Ideally, the convention president will direct the sergeant-at-arms to conduct a roll-call vote, which will be recorded by the secretary on the dry-erase board

The sergeant-at-arms will announce the results

Time Frame

One 45-minute period introduction and begin research

One 45-minute period to conduct research

One 45-minute period to present the debate

Objective

Students will explore the reasons for and against the secession movement that ultimately led Texas to break with the United States and join the Confederacy

Students will gain an understanding of the social, political, and economic background of this important episode as well as the influential individuals and groups that played an active role

Students will apply critical-thinking skills to identify points of view

Students will apply critical-thinking skills by analyzing information in summarization

Students will communicate in oral presentations

Materials Needed

Internet access

Reference books

U.S. Annexation Oval

Texian Annexation Oval

The students will return to their groups to prepare arguments for their point of view to be presented in the classroom debate

The teacher will conduct a classroom debate over the issue.

After all groups have presented their arguments, the students may choose to move to a different group

To conclude the activity, the students will participate in “Don’t Break the Piggy Bank” activity. The students are told that they have “X” amount of dollars. They are to write a summary about what they learned from today’s activity and each word they write is worth “X” amount of cents. They can’t break the piggy bank by writing more words than they have money for (Example: They have $5.00 and each word is worth $.10-They can’t write more than fifty words).