This year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and a newspaper in Missouri created material to help young readers learn about this important event in American history.
The Joplin (Mo.) Globe donated the series to the Missouri Press Foundation, which reformatted the full pages into 10 in-paper features and 10 companion activity pages.
Educator Jason Navarro of Wheaton (Mo.) High School wrote the original series.
The Missouri Press Foundation Newspaper in Education program made the Civil War series available to press associations and newspapers across the country free of charge.
Papers can download the pages at www.mo-nie.com by using the download code “civilwar.”
After reviewing the material, the Indiana NIE Foundation provided a small donation to help Missouri Press Foundation with the cost of converting the material.
“We appreciate Missouri’s generosity in providing this material to all newspapers across the country,” said Karen T. Braeckel, director of the HSPA Foundation. “The NIE Advisory Board reviewed the series and deemed it timely and valuable.”
The Civil War began April 12, 1861, when the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina.
The 10-part series includes chapters on Stephen Douglas, John Brown, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as well as the common soldier, divided loyalties, changing course, the home front, total war and finally reuniting a nation.
The Joplin Globe created the NIE series in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History Project, the East Newton R-6 School District, the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence and the Missouri Southern State University Social Sciences Department (Joplin, Mo.).
