Evaluating Reconstruction Lesson Plan for US History

This awesome activity on the Period of Reconstruction has students assume the roles of different Americans during the 1870's to evaluate how various Reconstruction policies and events would affect them.

Students are assigned one of 6 different characters:

• Freed slave
• Poor white farmer
• Former plantation owner
• Freedmen's Bureau teacher
• Former Confederate general
• Radical Republican

After reading about their character, students have to think critically about each aspect of Reconstruction. They then decide which parts of Reconstruction would be positive for their character and which would be negative.

There are 14 different aspects of Reconstruction (Scalawags, Carpetbaggers, Black Codes, the KKK, etc), students must analyze. They then decide whether Reconstruction was a success or failure from that person's perspective.

This is an awesome higher-level thinking activity that will help your students gain a deeper insight into the lasting effects of Reconstruction.

This download includes both printable and Google Docs versions of the activity! If you're in a paperless classroom or just want to integrate more digital resources, you can use the provided link to bring this resource into Google Classroom!

The Google Doc version also includes links to online sources for students to research how each aspect of Reconstruction affected different Americans.

You can find a great companion PowerPoint on the Age of Reconstruction here which I use prior to this activity. Both of these activities are also part of my Civil War & Reconstruction Unit Bundle.