Michael Schirtzer

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In one of the scenarios, our students answered “we should have a 3/5 compromise for former Confederates,” not allowing them to vote, yet counting them as 3/5 for purposes of the house of representatives and the electoral college.

Students found it engaging to make decisions about the future of their lives. They liked that the scenarios gave benefits and disadvantages of making specific choices.

As the teacher, I loved that the lesson had great guiding questions with well written, historically accurate activities that provided a great background of Reconstruction. In this time we are living in it is important to see how we got here. Our students were able to draw connections between the experience of African-Americans today and the legacy of Reconstruction.

Related Resources
Teaching Activities (Free)

Reconstructing the South: A Role Play

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 17 pages.
This role play engages students in thinking about what freedpeople needed in order to achieve — and sustain — real freedom following the Civil War. It's followed by a chapter from the book Freedom's Unfinished Revolution.