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);
No comments:
Post a Comment