Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
Due to utility work, the intersection of 10th Street and F Street is currently closed and inaccessible to vehicular traffic. The Atlantic Building parking garage can be accessed by turning north on 10th Street from E Street NW. Please use extreme caution when accessing the garage as the block serves 2-way traffic during this closure. Please allow for extra time to arrive at the museum and theatre.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES |
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GUIDING QUESTIONS |
From the Assassination page on Ford’s Theatre website:
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ADDITIONAL GUIDING QUESTIONS: |
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With the classroom teacher, students review the background information for the assassination as well as four initial questions from the Ford’s Theatre assassination page on the Ford’s Theatre website.
Students will explore testimony from various eyewitness as they follow the events of the night of April 14, 1865. Students will record findings on a graphic organizer.
Students will examine material evidence from the night of April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre. Students will record findings on a graphic organizer.
Students will return to the initial four questions to determine how the pieces of evidence and/or the various testimonies assisted the investigation into the Lincoln assassination. Students will use their analysis of the evidence to craft a written response to the Ford’s Theatre questions. In their written response. students will consider the impact and connections of the assassination to present day.
Review the background information about the Lincoln assassination. Ask the students what they know about the assassination and what questions they have about the event. Explain that as a class you will examine the evidence and primary source artifacts from the night of the assassination to better understand the event itself and how it connects to present day. Introduce the guiding questions, including the four questions from the Ford’s Theatre assassination webpage:
Individually or in pairs, students will explore testimony from various eyewitness as they follow the events of the night of April 14, 1865, when John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre. A photo of Ford’s Theatre with chronological annotations documents the location of the action within the theatre and includes the specific eyewitness testimony for each event. Students will fill in a graphic organizer to capture their findings.
Next, prompt students to consider the evidence. Individually, or in pairs, ask the students to write responses to the following questions on their graphic organizer: “How do statements from different witnesses match up?” “How could there be different versions of the same event by eyewitnesses?
In what ways, if any, do the statements from the witnesses in 1865 differ from those made many years later? Why might that be?” If needed, provide students with the sentence starter so they can make predictions as they complete their graphic organizer, “I predict that witness statements recorded decades after the assassination will be ________ than those record immediately after because___________.”
What can we learn about the event from analyzing the physical evidence? What are your findings?
As a class, lead a discussion about students’ findings. If needed, talk with the students about how memories may fade and change with time, but explain that people may have strong memories of traumatic events that they believe to be accurate. What does this tell us about our understanding of historic evens? What does this tell us about the Lincoln assassination specifically?
Individually or in pairs, students will move from these testimonies to an examination of clues from the night of April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre through material evidence, which includes the items Booth was wearing and carrying as well as President Lincoln’s clothing that evening. Students will use their graphic organizer to record their findings.
Individually or in pairs, students will consider and write responses to the four questions on the handout provided. As a class, students will discuss their responses. Students will discuss the guiding questions below as part of their discussion:
Individually, students will write responses to the four questions. Students should use at least three eyewitness accounts and two of the physical artifacts to evidence for their response.
Students will complete a “3, 2, 1 Exit” ticket describing three facts they learned about the assassination night, two things about the event that surprised them and one idea about why the assassination is important to our history.
To complete the below activities you will need the following materials, in addition to pencils or pens and one sheet of paper for each student.