The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a pivotal moment in American history, but what were the immediate effects throughout the newly unified country? A document-based question focuses on the consequences of the first assassination of an American president with witness accounts, illustrations, and other primary sources.

Concepts

abraham lincoln, assassinations, the united states civil war, document-based questions, informational texts, john wilkes booth, primary sources, osama bin laden

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Tie to your unit on the Civil War, or when discussing the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• Create a cross-curricular assignment between language arts and social studies, using Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!"
• Use to practice for the document-based question section of the AP US History test

Classroom Considerations

• One image requires Quicktime and a TIFF decompressor to see, though learners don't need the image to understand that particular document

Pros

• Provides a five-point rubric to assess writing
• Includes space for instructor comment for the writing section
• Prompts learners to compare the monetary reward and manhunt for John Wilkes Booth to the search for Osama Bin Laden after the attacks of September 11, 2001

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.8.1 RI.8.2 RI.8.3 W.8.1.a