Making Lincoln’s Speeches Stick: A Practical Guide for Middle School

Lincoln’s speeches are legendary—but they weren’t written with 13-year-olds in mind.

If you’ve ever seen a student’s eyes glaze over at “Four score and seven years ago,” you’re not alone. But with a little context, some smart scaffolding, and a few tried-and-true strategies, these speeches can go from “Huh?” to “Whoa.”

Here’s how I help students not only understand Lincoln’s words, but actually connect with his leadership, tone, and message.

🕰️ Step 1: Set the Stage (Without a Lecture)

Before diving into the text, students need to know what Lincoln was walking into. I use a super simple timeline or a political cartoon as a hook—something like:

“Imagine you’re Lincoln. The country’s falling apart. Would you try to calm everyone down, or lay it all out?”

This quick framing sparks discussion and gives the speeches real weight. A few dates on the board (Dred Scott, secession, Gettysburg) and a clear essential question—like How did Lincoln’s tone and purpose shift during crisis?—are all you need to get going.

✍️ Step 2: Break the Speeches into Bite-Sized Lessons

Lincoln didn’t write short—but you can break his speeches into manageable chunks. Here’s how I structure my 3-day unit:

• Day 1: Warning & Reassurance
  House Divided and First Inaugural → Students track urgency, tone, and how Lincoln tries to calm fears.

• Day 2: Mourning & Healing
  Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural → The tone shifts to reflection, sacrifice, and moral reckoning.

• Day 3: Synthesis Gallery Walk
  Students match quotes to each speech and justify their thinking with evidence from the texts.

Each day builds on the last, and by the end, students can actually explain how Lincoln evolved as a leader.

💬 Step 3: Make Room for Real Thinking

This isn’t about memorizing quotes—it’s about helping students notice Lincoln’s tone, purpose, and message, and how those changed over time.

I use:

• ✏️ Sentence stems like “In this speech, Lincoln wants to…” or “His tone here is…”

• 👯 Partner talk before writing, especially for ELLs or reluctant writers

• ✅ Bullet-point comparison charts so students can focus on ideas, not formatting

And yes—some speeches still confuse them. That’s okay! It opens the door for real conversations about language, power, and historical change.

🔁 Step 4: Connect Then and Now

One of my favorite questions to ask at the end of the unit:

“Which speech feels the most relevant right now—and why?”

It gets students thinking about modern parallels to Lincoln’s words on division, unity, forgiveness, and democracy. (And spoiler alert: They always have strong opinions.)

🎁 Want to Try It?

If you want to test it out in your own classroom, I’ve got a free quote analysis activity you can download here. It a preview of the full unit:
Lincoln’s Leadership Through Crisis – 4 Speech Analysis Activities
→ Print-and-go PDFs
→ Scaffolds for all levels
→ Deep, standards-based thinking

You can grab the full set on TpT here, or start small with the freebie and see how your students respond.