Lesson 6: Another Side of Abel – The Courting Letter

Click here to download in PDF format.

Essential Questions/Enduring Understandings:

How does examining multiple sources give us a better understanding of history?

Materials needed:

Courting Letter (Champaign County Historical Museum, Champaign, Il.)

Transcription

Setting the Purpose:

Students will examine a courting letter Abel wrote to his first wife’s father to get a fuller picture of the type of man he was.

Procedure:

1. Write the question on the board and have children answer in notebooks: “What type of relationship do you think Abel had with his wives?” Give a few minutes to write down answers, then discuss thoughts.

2. Distribute letter, transcription and Written Analysis Sheet. Give kids time to examine the letter and fill in the analysis sheet.

3. Distribute the Courting Letter Questions. Have students get in groups of 4 or 5 to discuss and write down responses. Have groups of students come up with one new question they can pose to the rest of the class. Also, have the students postulate how the father responded to the letter. Why do you think so? How do you think she responded to Abel writing this letter to her father?

4. Discuss the answers each group came up with as a whole class, then post the new questions the groups came up with. Have students add any questions they liked to their prediction sheets.

5. Wrap up with students answering any questions they answered today on the prediction sheet/KWL and add any new questions that popped up.

Time frame for lesson:

1 day/class period

Analysis of Local Primary Sources:

Will use written analysis sheet to examine document, and then answer questions in class.

Assessment

Participation points for discussion; the day’s documentation will be checked in notebooks.