The Freedmen’s Bureau (Grades 6–8): Relief, Schools, and Rights in Readers Theater
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Give students a human window into 1865–1872. This readers theater follows agents, teachers, and freed families navigating schools, labor contracts, and violence during early Reconstruction.
What’s Included
Printable readers theater script
Student worksheet
Classroom Uses
Role-play agency dilemmas with text-based claims
Map skills: track where schools emerged (teacher extension)
Source-pairing: match dialogue to Bureau aims
Extra Historical Overview
For teacher background (not part of product): Congress created the Bureau to coordinate relief and education, yet funding limits and local resistance curtailed its reach—even as tens of thousands of students entered new schools across the South.
