Library Digital Content Access


Choosing the Lincoln Statue

Created By: Kay Grabow, Thomas Paine Elementary School (Urbana, IL)
Grade Level: 4th
Content Area: Social Studies
Database Integration: Students will search the TDC database for photographs or artwork depicting Abraham Lincoln during the time when he was traveling the 8th Judicial Circuit and practicing law in Champaign County. They will develop a web site with the photos and pictures, and ask visitors to vote for the image they would prefer to have made into a statue, which could be placed at the renovated courthouse in Urbana. They will develop a Powerpoint presentation of the results of the survey.


Illinois Learning Standards Achieved

Standard Achieved

Activity that Meets this Standard
State goal 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations. Students research life of Lincoln, using print sources and database, to find photos from the years Lincoln practiced law in Urbana.
State goal 14: Understand political systems, with an emphasis on the United States. Students attend a meeting of the Champaign County Board to give Powerpoint presentation of the results of the preference survey from their web site.


Materials:

computer with Internet access, software for web site building, scanner, print materials with photos and other images of Lincoln, reference materials including Lincoln as a Lawyer ( J.P. Frank, University of Illinois Press, 1961); The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia (M.E. Neely, Jr., McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1982); Life on the Circuit with Lincoln (H.C. Whitney, Estes and Lauriat, 1892).


Procedures:

  1. Students discuss chronology of events in life of Abraham Lincoln.
  2. Students use print materials and Internet to research years when Lincoln practiced law in Urbana.
  3. Students search the TDC database for images of Lincoln during the targeted years.
  4. Students create a web site with chosen images and capability for visitors to vote for favorite image.
  5. Students create Powerpoint presentation showing images chosen as favorites, with explanations of each.
  6. Students contact Champaign County Board member to arrange to give Powerpoint presentation to interested Board members as public input regarding feasibility of placing new statue at renovated courthouse.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on the entire project by a teacher-created rubric that is presented to the students and discussed at the start of the project.