Resources for Students

In the Pennsylvania’s Standards Aligned System for Social Studies, the History section promotes developing historical analytic skills in students so that they can perform like a historians. Secondary students can build Competencies and answer Essential Questions through an active study of Civil War.

Essential Questions:

Each Case Study poses an issue in the Civil War. After a short background essay, a question is posed to direct student research. Links to primary and secondary allow students to gather, analyze, and interpret information that helps them form their answers to the specific research question and thus the essential question.

• How is it possible for different people to interpret an event differently?

  Case Study: The need for soldiers to fight in the Army of the Potomac

• Why is time and space important to the study of history?

  Case Study: To come

• What role do multiple causations play in describing a historic event?

  Case Study: The causes of the Civil War

• What role does analysis have in historical construction?

  Case Study: To come

Competencies:

Historical competencies can be built while answering the essential questions above. Within each case study, competencies are keyed by number to various research tasks.

• Analyze the interaction of cultural, economic, geographic, political and social relations for a specific time and place.
• Articulate the context of a historical event or action.
• Evaluate cause-and-result relationships bearing in mind multiple causations.
• Contrast multiple perspectives of individuals and groups in interpreting other times, cultures and place.
• Generate a historical research paper or presentation