Creative Non-Fiction Unit The Gettysburg Address

11/10/11 Lesson 1
Lesson 1 (A nation as a place and an idea)

Skill: Close Reading

Objectives: Students will be able to cite textual evidence to support analysis and draw inferences from the text; to determine a theme of a text and provide an objective summary; to draw evidence from texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Aim: What questions (who, what, where, when, why, how) can we ask based on our reading of the first sentence of Lincoln’s speech?

Key Words: score, civil war, consecrate

Do now (5 minutes): Write down what you have learned in school about the Civil War. What do you remember about it from your research from the Bierce short story that we read? What do you know about Abraham Lincoln?

Gettysburg Address
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

• Read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address silently (10 minutes).
• Write down 2-3 questions about what you have read.
• Let us share these questions as a group.
• Keep the questions in mind as we read the speech aloud together.
• Read the speech aloud and follow along in the text. (10 minutes)
• Rewrite the first paragraph into your own words (two sentences).

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

• Let us share our writing and talk about the questions that we have (15 minutes).
• We will read a few paragraphs of our writing to the class.
• Let us take the time to answer the questions that we came up with earlier.
• What does Lincoln mean at the time of his speech by saying, “Four score and seven years ago”?
• What did Lincoln mean by saying this?
• Who are our fathers?
• What is Lincoln saying is significant about America?
• Is he saying that no one has been free or equal before?
• So what is new?
• How was this new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal?
• Let us summarize what we have learned so far: The nation did not exist before, was freely created, and is founded on the idea that “all men are created equal.”
• Rewrite your translation of the first paragraph a second time based on our discussion (5 minutes).

Transfer: What made you change your translation of the first paragraph when you wrote it the second time (3 minutes)?

HW#1 Finish the translation of the 1st paragraph of the speech.

11/14/11
The Gettysburg Address
Lesson 2 Skill: Close Reading

Objectives: Students will be able to use historical context to deepen their understanding of the speech.

Aim: Why is it important to use historical context while reading?

Key Words: conceived, dedicated, proposition

Do Now: Read the first two paragraphs of the Gettysburg Speech and explain how it speaks to you personally at present time.

Acqusition: Historical Context

When we read the speech, what historical information will we need to help us understand the meaning of the speech thoroughly? Why?

• 1776 Declaration of Independence
• Gettysburg Military Park

Text: “ Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."

• What is being tested by this war?
• What impact does starting the second paragraph with “now” have on its meaning?
• When Lincoln says the nation was “so conceived and so dedicated” what is he referring to?
• What is the point of including the phrase “or any nation so conceived and so dedicated?
• What would the sentence mean without it?
• What if Lincoln had used the verb “start” instead of conceive?
• How does an author establish why what they are saying is important?

Meaning Making-

1. Use the http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html site to find out more about the Declaration of Independence(text).
2. Translate what Lincoln would say about the meaning of "all men are created equal", "man is born with unalienable right" and "pursuit of happiness"

Transfer: How does knowledge of history assist us with our understanding of the Gettysburg Address?

HW#2 Do reasearch on Gettysburg battle. Find 10 most gruling facts about it.

11/15/2011 Lesson 3

Objective: Students will understand how diction and rhetorical devices help enhance the meaning of a text.

Aim: How does Lincoln make his speech reach directly to a listener's heart?

Do Now: Write a short speech with which you will persuade a teacher to believe you are a good student. Analyze what techniques you have used to make the sppech sound convincing.

Acquisition-rhetorical devices

• diction: dedicate, consecrate, hallow

• antithesis: add or detract; little note, nor long remember; the unfinished work ... nobly advanced; living...honored dead; "shall not have died in vain...hall have a new birth of freedom"
• Parallelism: "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."
• repetition: It is for us the living, rather...; It is rather for us to..
• Epistrophe - (eh-PIS-troe-FEE): Figure of repetition that occurs when the last word or set of words in one sentence: "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth"

Vocabulary

• Consecrate: to declare a place sacred
• Vain: without accomplishing anything
• Detract: to reduce the value, importance, or quality of something;

Meaning-Making

Translate the paragraph sentence by sentence in groups. Share our translation.

1. "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

2. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

3. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

4. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion

5. -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "

Transfer: How does the understanding of rhetorical devices help you understand the effectiveness of the speech?

HW#3 Translate the 3rd or last paragraph of the speech using your own words.

11/16/2011

Diagnostic Assessment-Annotations

Select and annotate 10 quotations from the Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy delivered 20 January 1961(http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkinaugural.htm).

11/17/2011

Objective: Students will be able to appreciate the last version of Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech and analyz its "eloquent simplicity & appropriateness".

Aim: What characterizes writing with "eloquent simplicity & appropriateness"?

Agenda

Do Now: The famed orator Edward Everett spoke to the crowd for two hours. Lincoln followed with his now immortal Gettysburg Address. On November 20, Everett wrote to Lincoln: “Permit me also to express my great admiration of the thoughts expressed by you, with such eloquent simplicity & appropriateness, at the consecration of the Cemetery. I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” Respond to the Everett's comments on Lincoln's speech.

Acqusition:

• Define "eloquent" -beautifully and gracefully phrased
• Style- simplicity: minimalism, succinct, no florid langauge,
• " appropriateness"- tone, diction, awareness of the audience, purpose

Lincoln wrote five different versions of the speech. He wrote the first version in Washington D.C. and probably finished it in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He wrote the second version of the speech the evening before he delivered the address. He held the second version in his hand as he delivered the speech, but made several changes as he spoke. The most notable change was to add the phrase "under God" after the word "nation" in the last sentence. Lincoln wrote the final version of the address " the fifth written version" in 1864. This version also differed slightly from the speech he gave at the dedication of the cemetery, but it was the only copy he signed. It is carved on a stone plaque in the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln used the Gettysburg Address to reveal his thinking about the war, as a fight not only to save the Union, but also ultimately to establish freedom and equality for all under the law. Many historians think his simple and inspired words reshaped the nation by defining it as one people dedicated to equality.

Meaning Making

1. Listen to the LOC historian's introduction to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address manuscripts
2. View the earlierst manuscript of the address
3. Browse the Smithsonian website to listen to the Gettysburg Speech

After browsing the LOC website and listening to the speech, work with a partner to respond to the following-

"One of the most famous speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address was only 9 sentences long, has fewer than 300 words and was delivered in less than 3 minutes. Three quarters of the words are only one syllable and 92% of the words have no more than two syllables" (Dr. James Beeghley). Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address has lived on well beyond the day it was delivered. Carved into monuments and recited by school children and politicians his words have inspired generations who believe in the principles of equality and democracy.

How has the speech inspired listeners including you who believe in the principles of equality and democracy?

Transfer: Redefine "eloquent".

HW# 4Complete the translation of the entire Gettysburg Address.

11/18/2011

Lesson 5 Determining Importance ( 7 Habits of a Good Reader)

Objective: Students will be able to identify key words or concepts in sentences to help them reach the deeper meaning.

Aim: How do we, as readers, uncover the deeper meanings of a text?

Agenda-

Do Now: Respond to the quotations,“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Acquisition:

Readers must decide which terms, topics, ideas, elements or concepts are the most important to the overall text.  This helps readers understand the content of the text and which parts require the most attention.

1. What are the key words or concepts in the quotation by Emerson? In what order should we place these words?

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

2. Practice one yourself, “A man can be destroyed but not defeated ” by Ernest Hemingway.

Meaning Making

Activity A. Translate the Gettysburg Address sentence by sentence using the strategy you have just learned today- identify and underline the key words or concepts to help you go deeper with the meaning:

Activity B. For those who have completed the translateion, please revise and work on "Why has the speech inspired Americans generation after generation to believe in and defend the principles of equality and democracy?"

• Select words or phrases that convey the belief in equality and democracy.
• How does Lincoln deliver the ideas so effectively ( stylistically)?

Transfer: How does the reading strategy help you get deeper with the meaning?

HW#5 a. Revise the translation of the address based on the "importance of details" strategy. b. Start working on Activity B.

11/21/2011-11/22/2011 Reading with a Specific Focus and Analyzing the Speech

Lessons 6-7

Objective: Students will reread the Gettysburg Address with a specific focus and find relevant textual details to prove a point; Students will trace the accumulated meaning of the word “dedicate” throughout the text. Student will write an analytical essay to demonstrate their in-depth understanding of the address.

Aim: How do we read effectively by having a focus? How does the focus help us gather revelant information? How does the meaning of “dedicate” change over the course of the text, and what does this reveal about the Gettysburg address?

Agenda

Do Now: Browse different versions of the Gettysburg Address

• An exhibition at the Library of Congress on the Gettysburg Address:
  http://www.myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/Pages/default.aspx
• Images at the Library of Congress of the very first draft (“Nicolay Copy”) in Lincoln’s own handwriting: http://www.myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/NicolayCopy.aspx
• A brief three minute video on why the “Nicolay” version is thought to be the version Lincoln actually read at the ceremony:
  http://www.myloc.gov/Multimedia/Gettysburg.aspx
• The only known photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg on the day of the address:
  http://www.myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/LincolnOnPlatform.aspx

Respond -

As it turns out, Lincoln wrote five different versions of the Gettysburg Address. While they are all similar, there are significant and discernable differences when comparing his first draft with the final “Bliss” draft. 

• What are some of the changes Lincoln made in his different version of the Gettysburg Address?

Acqusition: How do the changes affect the meaning and tone of the Gettysburg Address?

Compare and contrast the two versions provided below. Take notes on the differences you see between them in order to answer the initial comparison activity below

(Q1) Find three small (but not trivial) changes that Lincoln made between the two versions and explain what the impact of the change was on the meaning and/or tone of the Gettysburg Address.

(Q2) Lincoln made several small but significant changes to the first draft of the Gettysburg Address. For example, he changed the phase “those who died here” to read in the final draft as “those who here gave their lives.” What is the effect of moving “here” from the end of the phrase to the middle? Of changing “died” to “gave their lives”? 

... add solemnity and the notion of sacrifice to the final version.

(Q3) In the final draft Lincoln inserts the following phrase into the body of the third paragraph: “[It is for us the living] … to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” What do those words mean, and what do they add both substantively and rhetorically to the final draft “Bliss” version of the Address?

On the one hand this sentence effectively prepares the ground for the sentence that follows it, highlighting the “unfinished work” to be done. But it also adds a sense of singling out the northern soldiers in particular for special praise, as it was them who fought for and “nobly advanced” the defense of self-government.

(Q4) Both versions of the Gettysburg Address are three paragraphs long, but Lincoln changed his mind regarding where to locate the break between the second and third paragraphs, creating different opening or topic sentences for the third and final paragraph. Explain how the different topic sentences create different emphases and tone for how one might interpret the meaning of that all-important final paragraph.

The location of the break in the “Nicolay” version emphasizes those that died from those that lived by partitioning them into different paragraphs (the second versus the third). The final “Bliss” version links the living and the dead together, instead emphasizing the ineffectualness of Lincoln’s words and the actions of the living to dedicate the graveyard, and creating dramatic tension regarding what then is left for those gathered to do.

Meaning Making-

(Q1) Look carefully at Lincoln’s speech, how many times does he use the word “dedicate”? Circle the verb each time it appears in the text.
One instructional aim is to get students to reflect on how lingering on a key word can help to unlock the meaning of a piece. In a speech of only three short paragraphs, Lincoln uses a form of the word “dedicate” six times.

(Q2) What does the word “dedicate,” mean the first two times Lincoln uses it, and what other verb is closely linked to it the first two times it appears? 
Point out that the first two instances of “dedicated” are closely linked to “conceived,” and discuss how the latter shades the meaning of “dedicated” when applied to the proposition being defended (“all men are created equal”). So, here “dedicated” expresses how the country is founded, or based on an idea or ideal.              
(Q3) How is “dedicate” used the next two times, and how does it relate to the word consecrate? Who is now doing the dedicating?
Students should then identify how the meaning of “dedicate” shifts the next two times it is used and linked now to the word consecrate rather than conceive. The meaning of “dedicate” shifts to a very specific kind of religious action – consecrating the ground of the fallen dead by dedicating the field to their memory. This meaning gives dedicate a specifically religious connotation – to consecrate ground is to render it sacred.   Additionally, the subject doing the action, performing the dedication, shifts from the nation to the assembled crowd.
(Q4) How does Lincoln use “dedicate” the final two times, and how does it relate to devotion?

Lincoln finally links dedication to “devotion to the cause for which they gave their life.” The last meaning of the word “dedicate” relates to the intensity of personal commitment, the notion of “dedicate” as exclusive, full devotion. Students should see how the last two instances of “dedicated” link together the way Lincoln used the word in the first paragraph—connecting the action of the listeners on that day to the greater ideal of preserving the principle of self-government. This analysis lays the foundation for students successfully negotiating the culminating essay.

Summarize how the meanings of “dedicate” accumulate from the beginning of the speech to the end, and explain the impact of the meaning that has built up over the course of the speech.
The key discussion for students to have is how “dedicate” accumulates power, beginning with being linked to conception and ending by being tied to devotion. It is important that along the way dedication is linked to the religious meaning of consecration (and hallowing). The final word Lincoln uses, “devotion” retains the spiritual sense of consecrate. Students should see how dedicate moves from something you believe in to something you fight for. That it moves from being a principle on which our country was built to a spiritual thing that requires our devotion and defense. They should see how the word accumulates meaning and power across the text. A great deal of this work is done through the changing meaning of the word dedicate – to understand the development of this word is to glimpse what Lincoln has done in this short speech.

Meaning-Making

Reread the speech with a new focus ( the essay prompt).

• Underline the word "dedicate" as used in the address.
• Explain the meaning of each "dedicate". What kind of progression in meaning have you noticed? How does that help lincoln shift the focus of his address?

Here is one suggested progression in meaning:

commit-> determine-> honor -> consecrate-> devote-> sacrifice

The aim of the following prompt is to reflect on the particular genius of Lincoln’s brief speech—thereby acknowledging that Lincoln’s words cannot perform the task set before him and the assembled crowd, so he transforms the occasion into one that challenges his listeners to rededicate themselves to the task of preserving self-government and a new birth of freedom.

Write a page length essay based on your understanding of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Homework#6 Complete the essay based on the prompt and hand it in by the end of the class on Wednesday 11/23/2011 together with the rubric and the sentence by sentence traslantion of the Gettysburg Address.

See a sample essay.

11/23/2011

HW# 7 During the Thanksgiving break, prepare for the recitation of the Gettysburg Speech.

Recitation of Gettysburg address.

Resources:

The earliest recorded version of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address being read (W.F. Hooley in 1898):
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/berl:@field(NUMBER+@band(berl+136012))

Charles Laughton (in Ruggles of Red Gap in 1935):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0czJEX9Zlwo

Sam Waterson:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2009/02/12/sot.waterson.lincoln.gettysburg.cnn.html
Ken Burns documentary, The Civil War, Episode 5, “The Universe of Battle,” 1:29.08 – 1:31:18

Johnny Cash:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_hYZFUsOuw&feature=player_embedded

Mashup by Citizens of Central Illinois:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74KIjobf47E&feature=related