Imagine that our class runs a social media handle called “Historical Snacks” with daily posts (“snacks”) about a historical figure or event. Most of our posts have an image with a quote superimposed on top of it with an accompanying caption. They sometimes consist of a handful of images with a longer caption, or they link out to a blog post with even more detail. We also sometimes create short videos or slideshows about the historical figure or event. The goal of the social media handle is to present history in “digestible, snack-sized pieces that encourage awareness, engagement, and reflection about the past and present.” This week all of our posts are focused on the Civil War.

With this goal and framework in mind, your task is to create a post to share on our hypothetical class social media handle using a format that is modeled after a social media platform of your choosing (think: Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, Facebook, etc.). Have fun and be creative! The post should be informative and include at least one picture. You may use any program you’d like, including the actual social media platform, but PPT, Google Slides, Canva, Genially, Picktochart, and Adobe Spark are good options for creating visuals.

Instructions:

Step 1: Pick an interesting or important person or event from the Civil War time period and create a social media post related to this topic. The post should be historically accurate, reference at least one historical figure or event, and teach about something novel or interesting. Some ideas for this post include focusing on specific military battles, military leaders, policies/laws/amendments, medicine, technology, personal narratives (stories from soldiers, the enslaved, women, children, etc.) or other lesser-known moments related to the Civil War. You could use this timeline of the Civil War for ideas.

You can create the post inside of the social media platform and directly link to your finished product, or you take screenshots of your work, or create a document or slideshow presentation in the same style of a social media platform.

Step 2: If not already part of your initial social media post, be sure to include at least a 250-word description for the extended caption. In this explanation, you need to cite at least two sources, one of which must be an academic source, such as a primary source document or journal article.

Step 3: Post your finished product to the discussion forum. You may comment on others’ posts, though this is not required.

Rubric