Reconstruction

See what your students get, and why it lands.

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A worksheet was never going to teach the trade-offs of 1865.

Your students are not answering questions about Reconstruction. They are the sole Superintendent of a Freedmen's Bureau district in Mercer County, and the day's dispatch just handed them a real call. The Faction document in front of them lays out five groups, Radical Republicans, Moderates, Redeemers, Freedpeople, and the Planter Aristocracy, each with a strategic interest and a consequence for neglect. Fund the schools, and a planter manufactures a labor stall. Register new voters, and the Redeemers escalate intimidation. There is no option that satisfies everyone, so your students argue from this document, weigh who they can afford to disappoint, and spend finite Political Capital to make a choice they will have to defend.

Tap to see the faction document

They are graded on the path, not whether the district thrives.

A student can run their district into the ground and still earn full marks, because the rubric grades the rigor of their reasoning, not the outcome. The Hybrid-100 model splits 100 points across daily journal engagement, holistic journal quality, and a final reflection. Each daily entry is scored against the Named and Numbered standard. To earn the full five points, a student must cite a specific dispatch detail, a number such as a Political Capital cost or a sector-health change, and a named faction or character like Isaac Turner or the Redeemers. A sound, evidence-led justification behind a district that fails beats a lucky guess every time. This protects risk-taking and rewards the careful thinking the era demands.

Tap to read the grading rubric

Let the workbook hold the bookkeeping so students spend their energy on judgment.

Reconstruction is full of moving parts, and the student Workbook carries them so your students do not have to. The spreadsheet tracks Political Capital as it is spent, the five sectors of district health from Education to Public Safety, and the running history of every decision made. When a student commits to a posture on the schoolhouse and the land early in the simulation, the Workbook holds that choice quietly until it returns days later as an Old Ghost. Because the tool does the tracking, a student is never lost in arithmetic when a dispatch forces a hard call. Their attention stays on the trade-off in front of them, on which faction they can afford to disappoint, and on writing the reasoning that earns the points.

Tap to see the tracker

Every day is already scripted. You bring the facilitation.

The Teacher Guide scripts the simulation day by day, so you can run it with zero nightly preparation. Each session follows the same three-beat rhythm: you read or project the day's dispatch to set the scene and surface a named bias, students select a policy option and spend Political Capital, then students journal their reasoning with evidence. The guide tells you exactly what to say, what to watch for, and how the day connects to the days before and after it. Self-contained sessions mean an interruption or a short class never breaks the narrative logic. You handle the discussion and the facilitation; the simulation handles the structure, the scenario, and the assessment, so prep stays light and your energy goes to your students.

Tap to read the teacher guide

The lesson plan is already written.

Every simulation comes with a fully editable, admin-ready lesson plan. Standards alignment, daily pacing, learning objectives, differentiation, and an assessment plan are already done, so you can hand it to an administrator or adapt it to your district template in minutes.

Tap to preview the lesson plan

The moment the bold reform stops looking brave.

Maya runs Mercer County like a reformer should. Early on, she pours Political Capital into a federally backed school and a sweeping land registration, certain that dramatic action is what justice demands. The dispatches reward her at first. Sector health climbs, the Radical Republicans send praise, and her journal fills with confident entries about transformation arriving fast. She has a theory, that bold federal intervention is the lever that lifts a district, and the early days seem to prove it. Then the simulation turns. A dispatch reports that federal troops are being drawn down, and the authority her whole strategy rested on begins to thin under her feet.

At the pivot, Maya can defend her theory or read what the evidence is telling her. The Legacy Report looms, and her Old Ghost from earlier returns to test the posture she set on the schoolhouse and the land. She can keep insisting the bold path was right, or she can admit her gains were built on sand. When she trusts the evidence, she sees it plainly. The reforms that endure are the boring ones, the locally run schools and the community institutions that survive federal abandonment, because they never depended on troops staying.

One superintendent, one district, 1865 to 1877.

Your students take the role of a Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent in Mercer County, in the State of Freedonia, the sole authority in their district. They manage five sectors of district health, Education, Land and Labor, Political Reconstruction, Public Safety, and Economic Development, while keeping five factions from abandoning them. Every choice spends finite Political Capital and carries consequences. The individual role removes the bystander effect of group work, so each student owns the pressure, the trade-offs, and the outcome alone.

Engineering better thinkers.

Reconstruction faltered partly because of external opposition and partly because of the human tendencies that distort judgment under pressure. Here the history teaches the bias and the bias illuminates the history. Each day pairs one named bias with the capacity that defeats it.

15 days of decisions under withdrawing authority.

Day 0 sets up the district, the factions, and the Workbook. The case then runs across fourteen days of dispatches, decisions, and journals. An early posture on the schoolhouse and the land returns later as an Old Ghost, and the simulation closes with a Legacy Report and a transfer reflection that ties Mercer County to the historical record.

Standards alignment.

Reconstruction aligns to the C3 Framework and NCSS standards for historical inquiry, and supports APUSH-level US History work for grades 9 through 12. Students develop and evaluate claims about Reconstruction-era policy (C3 D2.His.14.9-12 and D2.His.16.9-12), analyze the perspectives and interests of competing factions (D2.His.4.9-12 and D2.His.5.9-12), and use specific evidence to justify decisions (D2.His.10.9-12 and D4.1.9-12). The daily evidence standard, requiring a named detail, a number, and a stakeholder, builds the sourcing and corroboration habits these frameworks demand. The final reflection meets the C3 transfer goal by connecting the past to a named present-day institution.

Turnkey, classroom-ready.