The Battle of Gettysburg

The Turning Point of the Civil War

The date is June 30th, 1863. You are a newspaper reporter in the small, quiet town of Gettysburg. There is rumor that a small skirmish may be headed toward your town. You are eager for the excitement and a chance to finally make the front page of the news. You round up a small news team and set out to get first-hand information on the upcoming battle and aftermath. However, your excitement quickly turns to fear and confusion as you find yourself in the middle of the bloodiest conflict ever fought in America.

The Task

As aspiring young reporters in the town of Gettysburg, it is your job to put together the front page of the newspaper that reports on the great battle between the states. Your newspaper must give an accurate and complete summary of the battle, and must answer the following questions:

• 
• What event started the battle?
• Through what dates did the battle occur?
• Who were the major leaders in the battle?
• What was the day by day analysis of the battle?
• What happened during Pickett's Charge?
• What was left in the aftermath of the battle?
• Why is this battle considered the turning point of the Civil War?

Resources

As a newspaper reporter, you are always in need of good sources of information. Fortunate for your news team, there is a plethora of resources concerning the Battle of Gettysburg. Of course, you may always refer to encyclopedias or social studies books. However, listed below are several Internet sites that you may also find useful in your search.

The Process

1. First, get into news teams of 3 to 4 students. (Your teacher will put you into your teams)
2. As a news team, decide on the name of your newspaper.
3. Vote on one member to be the editor in chief for your news team. The editor will edit and approve all reports and will be the main contact with the teacher.
4. Vote on one or two members to be news reporters. These reporters will lead the group in gathering information and taking any notes.
5. Vote on one member to be the head of photography. This member will be in charge of any graphics, captions, and headlines.
6. Search the given and outside sources to find information about the Battle of Gettysburg. Make sure to find the answers to the specified task questions.
7. Decide on what type of article or articles each news team member will write.
8. With your school's word processing program, type your article using the column format to make it look like a newspaper article.
9. Put your articles together on a piece of legal sized paper to make your front page. Be creative and use either hand-drawn or computer generated graphics to spice up your front page.
10. **Remember! Always work together to create the best product.

Congratulations! You are finished!

Evaluation

Each news team member will be graded based on the following criteria.

• Content of the news page. 35 points
  Where all the task questions answered completely and accurately?
• Creativity of the page. 10 points
  Were the articles and graphics put together in order to make an appealing front page?
• Spelling and grammar. 5 points
  There should be no (or minimal) spelling or grammar errors.

Conclusion

The Battle of Gettysburg was a monumental battle in the history of the United States of America. It was, indeed, the bloodiest conflict that has ever occured on America's soil. Both the North and the South fought courageously for their causes, and thousands of lives were sacrificed in order to preserve our great Union. I hope a greater understanding and appreciation of this battle was gained by all news team members.

This site was created by Lynette Bazzell. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to e-mail me at lynetteb@fcg.net. Thank you for visting my site and I hope you enjoyed your stay!