Teams and Game Board Set-up

Teams and Game Board Set-up:

Teams:  As students enter the classroom, hand them a note card with their assigned team on it.  There should be one "Britain", one "Native American", and the rest should be divided between North (USA) and South (CSA).  I always make sure the North has a few more students to simulate the fact that they had a huge manpower advantage during the war.  Though I always make it seem that I am "randomly" passing out the cards, I recommend that teachers give some thought as to whom they want on each team before day one.  This especially applies to the two umpires who will also play Britain and the Cherokee.  I recommend choosing someone that is highly interested in history, outgoing, dependable, and willing to do a bit of extra work (know the rules enough to watch for infractions).  Having someone not qualified or not interested in these roles can adversely affect the quality of the simulation.  I would also recommend giving a bit of though as to who is on the North vs. the South.  I try to balance the teams so the South has a couple more of the stronger students to simulate the fact that, overall, the Southerners had more quality generals throughout the war.  It is also important to consider the minority students in the class, especially the black students.  I doubt very much that they would want to fight for the CSA, even if it's just a simulation.

Game board:  Teachers should have the game board prepared and ready to display on day 1.  Having it up on the Smartboard when they walk in might stimulate interest, although I usually have a cover slide displayed with the simulation's targets (objectives) and I show them the board a bit later in the period.  Obviously, not every teacher will have a Smartboard.  If this is the case they many need to get creative in order to keep the general idea of the game board.  When I first started doing this simulation, there was no such thing as a Smartboard, so I used cork board with colored push-pins to represent the different pieces.  Really, anything tactile that the students can manipulate would work, though I believe Smartboard works best if one has access to it.  Here is what the board looks like at the beginning of the simulation via Smartboard:

The map is where the action will take place.  Any existing states not on the map are "out of play" for this simulation.  States that do not have a border are "combined states" and only count as 1 state for purposes of this game. A "C" on the map represents a capital and a "P" on the map represents a port.

  On the right are the pieces that the students will control and eventually place on the board. Each circle represents about 20,000 soldiers and each are given a number so students can keep track of where their individual troops are located.  They are color coded based on uniform colors of the time period.  They include:

Blue = Union

Blue flagged ships = Union naval fleet

Grey = Confederate

Red  = Britain

Red flagged ships = British fleet

Green = France (France's main uniform color of the time period was blue but to avoid confusion I just made them green)

The Native American on the horse = The Cherokee Nation

In the lower left had corner is the timer, which will be used often throughout the simulation.  In the lower middle (where it currently says "start") is where the teacher will type in the current season that the simulation is in.  (Summer of 1862, Fall of 1863, etc.)

In the lower right hand corner is the morale counter.  Both teams start the game with an equal number of "morale points" (a justification is given in the rules which will be posted later).  Throughout the game, depending on the results of battles or the various political, domestic, and foreign decisions, the morale counter will fluctuate.   

There are many other pieces that may, or may not, be added to the game depending on a variety of factors which will be explained in a later post.  Those will be stored in the "Smart Notebook Gallery" so the teacher can easily import them into the game when needed.

Cover Slide:

Here is the cover slide I use in case anyone wants it:

Civil War Simulation Game board (smartnotebook file);

https://drive.google.com/a/naperville203.org/file/d/0B2doVZ0YZ_8gNXZqN2RSa0hSTzA/view?usp=sharing

Classroom Set-up

Classroom Set-up:

The Civil War Simulation takes about 4-5 days to complete.  One day for the students to choose their roles and hear a brief explanation of the rules, and 3-4 days to actually play the simulation.  This blog will be discussing how the teacher sets-up the classroom prior to the students arriving on the first day, and on each subsequent day.


Before the students come to class, the teacher should re-arrange the classroom (space depending).  The actual arrangement is part of the simulation and designed to reflect reality as much as possible.  First, the teacher should split the room in half, Southerners on one side of the Smartboard and Northerners on the other.  Next, the teacher should line up 4 desks in a straight line facing the Smartboard (where the battles will take place), but as far away from the Smartboard as possible.  These four desks are where the politicians (will be discussed later) will sit.  They are the furthest away from the Smartboard because, in real life, the politicians will be as far from the battle as possible.  Next, the teacher should place a single desk, for each side, facing each other.  These should be a bit closer to the board than the politicians but still far enough away to be "off the battlefield".  Sitting here will be the 5-Star General who, like in real life, will be close enough to see the action but also out of harms way.  Finally, the rest of the seats on each side should be clustered as close to the Smartboard as possible.  These will be where the "field commanders" will sit and they need to be close to the board because they are the ones actually fighting the battles.

There also needs to be two additional seats for the "umpires" to sit, who will also play additional roles.  One umpire will also play Great Britain in the simulation.  Despite British neutrality, their seat should be somewhere on the Southern side due to Britain's dependence on Southern cotton (at least during the first two years of the war).  The other umpire will be playing a Cherokee Chief and also acting as recorder.  Place them somewhere where they can see the board clearly.

It should look something like this:

Here is a shot that doesn't show the politicians but shows the other seats:

You can see the field commanders closest to the smartboard, the student in the light blue shirt is a 5-star General and is sitting across from the desk of the other 5-star General.  The Cherokee Chief is sitting immediately in front of the camera and the politicians would be to the immediate left and right of the photographer. Britain would be somewhere on the Southern side, close enough to the politicians to speak with them. 

Introduction

Introduction:

My name is Mike Albiniak, history teacher at Naperville Central High School for the last 16 years.  I teach a variety of subjects including: 20th Century History, Military History, Decades, Ancient History, and U.S. History.  Of those classes, U.S. History has been the one that I have taught the longest; 15 years including 14 summers.  During my second year teaching U.S. History, I took a major risk and decided to play a Civil War Simulation that a colleague of mine found in a "Simulation" book.  The risk payed off as the students instantly became engaged in the material in a way I hadn't seen up to that point.  It was then that I decided that this simulation is something that I would do every year.  As good as the simulation was it did, however, have some flaws.  Therefore, for the past 14 years I have been adapting, tweaking, subtracting, and adding things to make it as realistic a simulation as I can.  The purpose of this blog is to share what I have created, connect with other history teachers who may be interested in trying this simulation, and to hear suggestions from other teachers about things that can make the game even more accurate.  I will be posting a series of blogs, each of which will examine a specific component of the simulation which will include:  the classroom set-up, teams and game board set up, day 1 walk-through, rules, game play walk-through, and assessment.  Obviously, everything that I discuss in these blogs is only the way I do it and all of it can be altered or modified to fit the needs of the individual teacher. Since I use a Smartboard to play the simulation I will be referring to that often.  Many teachers many not have access to a Smartboard.  In which case, they may need to invent alternative methods to play the simulation.