Revision Flash Cards: Causes of the American Civil War 1860 - 1865

Dingbats are interactive flashcards designed to students you focus on key words and facts, while making learning and revision more social and enjoyable. Say ‘goodbye’ to solo studying! Dingbats promote teamwork and peer assessment, making revision a more social and engaging experience. Regular use of Dingbats, combined with the range of revision strategies which have been explained in the PowerPoint, will help to enhance your students’ memory skills and help begin to make important the important links and connections that they will need for their exam success.

Dingbats are an excellent choice for starter activities - as a fun and interactive game at the beginning of a lesson or as a mini plenary - to assess understanding during the lesson or reinforce learning at the end. They are also versatile and convenient as they can be included in a revision booklet or printed on card, cut out and easily kept in students’ pocket or envelops in your classroom. Additionally, students can use these cards independently for their revision.

When you download this lesson, you will be able to access a Word Document with the dingbats on the causes of the American Civil War 1860 - 1865, as well as a 18 slide PowerPoint which explains in detail how you can use them with your students. These include Game 1, where Player 1 reads out the key words, or facts, whilst Player 2 has to guess the heading, or topic. This is great for memory recall and helping students learn the key facts and concepts. Game 2, where Player 1 describe the topic or heading without using any key words on the card. This game tests both players and is a lot harder than Game 1. This is followed up by others ideas along similar themes that are designed to inject a bit of fun and competition into revision such as Pictionary and Charades. The final two strategies include slides on using the Dingbats to do a class talk for a minute and advice how to create your own. This is reinforced by a series of suggested homework tasks. Both documents have also been uploaded as PDFs to make these easier for printing and sharing.

The aims and objectives of this lesson are:
Theme: American Civil War
Know: What were the key events leading up to the outbreak of the American Civil War?
Understand: What were the main causes of the American Civil War?
Evaluate: Which factor was the most important?

WILF - What Am I Looking For?
Identify and describe: The chain of events that led to the outbreak of the American Civil War?
Explain: What were the main causes of the American Civil War?
Analyse: How were the causes interlinked and which factor was the most significant / important?