The American Revolution Unit contains several wordy stories of American History. The goal of the unit opener should be to assess prior knowledge and plant the seeds of recognition of a few key characters and motivations so that the following stories are comprehensible and relevant.
Unit Opener Objective
Students will be able to explain the reasons behind the Revolutionary War and tell at least one significant fact about two key figures of the Revolution.
Advanced Tip:
Give students index cards to keep track of new learning and questions to place on concept/question board throughout the unit opener. Teachers may wish to chart new knowledge and questions on a KWL chart at the front of the room as well so that non-writers can at least copy from the chart.
Anticipatory Set:
Using the key figures of the revolution picture file, spark students’ interest in some of the characters they will be reading about throughout the unit.
Ideas:
Use any combination of these. I tried to use every one and it was a bit much.
- Using Google Earth, map the journey of the British from England to the New World or view a pre-made film here.
- Causes of the Revolution Role Play: Shawn Gibson presents an idea where students play the roles of king, tax collector, and citizen. As students pay taxes they understand the reasons why Americans wanted war.
- Yertle the Turlte. This tale by Dr. Seuss cleverly illustrates the abuse of power and the feeling of taxation without representation.
- John, Paul, George, and Ben
is an amusing story by Lane Smith which provides just a little information about several of the key revolutionary figures students will be reading about. The book is also available on DVD.
Also see:
Available free revolutionary war movies to use as unit openers.
Online Concept/Question Board created using VoiceThread by teacher, Alice Mercer
American Revolution Webquest submitted by Obi Okediashi who suggests setting up a digital projector and working through it with students.
Ideas for follow-up activities using Comic Life and Kidpix.
You’ve got some great ideas for teaching history here, Mathew. I like this quote: “…plant the seeds of recognition of a few key characters and motivations so that the following stories are comprehensible and relevant.”
Using Google maps to track the journey of the British should be a lot of fun. It could be used to show the locations of the battle, too. Never thought of this before.