Coming of the American Revolution: Boston Tea Party
A dozen primary documents alongside transcribed excerpts with a couple of questions attached to each - bite-sized interpretation exercises that can be completed one after the other
The Boston Massacre
In this lesson, students will be asked to learn the disputed and agreed upon facts of the Boston Massacre in small groups and then discuss them and propose a website definition of the Massacre as a class. This lesson should not only provide students with an opportunity to look at disparate representations of so-called history facts surrounding a very famous event that preceded the American Revolution, but will also teach them to deliberate with their classmates in a cordial fashion.
George Washington: The Living Symbol | EDSITEment
How does an individual become the embodiment of a nation? Can the process be reversed to permit a glimpse into the human life underlying the symbol? Lesson involves reading primary and secondary documents and categorizing images of George Washington
Religion and the Argument for American Independence | EDSITEment
Using primary documents, this lesson aims to introduce students to how the American revolutionaries employed religion in their arguments for independence.
Voices of the American Revolution | EDSITEment
In this lesson, students are taught how to make informed analyses of primary documents illustrating the diversity of religious, political, social, and economic motives behind competing perspectives on questions of independence and rebellion. Making use of a variety of primary texts, the activities below help students to "hear" some of the colonial voices that, in the course of time and under the pressure of novel ideas and events, contributed to the American Revolution.
The Boston Massacre: You be the judge!
Seven highly readable and short documents in this lesson could easily be adapted to a synthesis or perspective lesson. Can students come up with one story using these different accounts? But notice also, this lesson has students trying to discover what really happened? What's the better lesson - showing how each side deliberately tried to shape the narrative
Teaching The Declaration Of Independence High School History Lesson
This 9 minute video demonstrates an effective launch to a Declaration of Independence lesson, though the real value of the lesson is the manner in which the teachers facilitate the students building of their own knowledge. Watch this, then steal it.
The Boston Massacre | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
n this lesson, students will be asked to learn the disputed and agreed-upon facts of the Boston Massacre in small groups and then discuss them and propose a website definition of the Massacre as a class. This lesson should not only provide students with an opportunity to look at disparate representations of so-called historical facts surrounding a very famous event that preceded the American Revolution, but will also teach them to deliberate with their classmates in a cordial fashion.
Teaching Strategy: The Boston Massacre: Who Was to Blame? : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site
Another take on the "Boston Massacre" conflicting sources lesson, this presents short excepts in a highly structured format
5. Declaration of Independence | Stanford History Education Group
This lesson will introduce students to historiography, as they contrast Bernard Bailyn's interpretation of the Declaration of Independence to Howard Zinn's account.
Finding Aaron - HSI: Historical Scene Investigation
This is a lesson in which students "do history" on a small scale - they help someone find out more about their long lost relative. After analyzing a series of primary source documents, students have to come up with a plausible explanation of what happened to Aaron between December, 1767 and January, 1771. Most importantly, they have to establish how they came to that particular conclusion.
The Boston "Massacre" - HSI: Historical Scene Investigation
The Boston Massacre is one of those events that has been the subject of "doing history" lessons for some time. This is another take on the lesson, in which students review primary source documents at the request of the Daughters of the American Revolution - asking for a review of the case.
Battle of Lexington and Concord - HSI: Historical Scene Investigation
"Who started it?" - a question students have answered many times in many ways - but with this lesson they analyze a series of primary source documents to determine just what happened on the Lexington Green in 1775. This is a lesson that has students "doing history"
Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware: An ELA Lesson Plan
An article for teachers preparing a historical thinking lesson using the iconic painting - how are historical understandings built? Is Leutze as guilty of revisionism with Washington as Disney is with Pocahontas?
A British view of rebellious Boston, 1774 - Bostonians Paying the Excise Man - cartoon
This cartoon is often used by teachers, but there is a back story to it that may change our understanding. Although it shows British impression of the lawlessness of patriots, a student's view of it, without the backstory that is depicts an actual event, may lead them to believe that the British were unjustified in depicting the Patriots this way. How about a compare contract between this and Revere's Boston Massacre woodcut - which is more accurate?
The Declaration of Independence: Compare Versions
It's always a good idea to remind students that writing is never donw, you just rin out of drafts. This shows comparisons of different drafts of the Declaration of Independence. There are other versions of this available but this shows the phrasing of the slavery cause, and recognizes it's absence from the final version. This can be the base a longer exercise or simply a "do now" lesson introduction that puts the three instances of slavery up on the screen with the blank final version - what does this say about slavery in the colonies before the Revolution itself?
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere: Literature v. History | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Detailed lesson plan with links to resources that guide students in a comparison between the iconic poem and the historical record (as recorded in a letter by Paul Revere recounting the ride). Teachers can explore adding an extension piece that explores the context of the period in which it was written and the intentions of Longfellow in writing it, as much as they can be knowm.
The Declaration of Independence | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
American Revolution in the Newspapers - PBS Newshour Extra Lesson
How did a news editor’s or publisher’s point of view affect news reports during the American Revolution and early republic? Primary documents and historical explanation in this lesson
Season of Independence - Museum of the American Revolution
An excellent interactive teacher that allows users to survey public opinion across time and region in the form of individual quotes and comments from individuals as well as town, county, and state actions and resolutions. Perfectly accessible to students as part of a lesson that has them doing history, using this evidence as a way to make understandings of the past
Claims, Evidence and Reasoning example with Boston Massacre
Teaching "All Men are Created Equal" (Part I) | History News Network
Teachers working with Declaration of Independence lessons would be well served to take a quick peek at this veteran-teacher's approach. At the very least, you'll learn more about the document itself
A Virginian Responds to Dunmore's Proclamation
The time it takes teachers and students to unravel this article will be worth it. It is not beyond their reach, but with a little time and attention they will see how twisted the arguments are concerning slavery in Revolutionary America. This writer blames slavery on Great Britain (As does the Declaration of Independence) and further claims that Africans will be better off owned by Americans than by British. This one primary source deserves half a class period - or be at the center of a lesson
Can it then be supposed that the Negroes will be better used by the English, who have always encouraged and upheld this slavery, than by their present masters, who pity their condition, who wish, in general, to make is as easy and comfortable as possible, and who would willingly, were it in their power, or were they permitted, not only prevent any more Negroes from losing their freedom, but restore it to such as have already unhappily lost it.
Barbara Clark Smith on Colonial Newspaper Article
What can a short two paragraph article from a Rhode Island newspaper tell an historian about the American Revolution? Historian Barbara Clark Smith explains how to read a primary source. This site has the article and five short audio clips of her explaining how she reads the document, what questions it answers and what it does not tell us
Abigail Adams to John Adams, 30 July 1777
Why give students a primary document they can read and understand easily? This is a wife writing to her husband in July of 1777. Yes, they're a rather famous couple but this letter can be understood on a human level and illustrates aspects of the Revolution seldom addressed - food shortages and actions by women
I would not be so narrow minded as to suppose that there are not many Men of all Nations possessd of Honour, Virtue and Integrety; yet tis to be lamented that we have not Men among ourselves sufficently qualified for War to take upon them the most important command.
It was reported that he had a Spanking among them,<a class="ptr" id="AFC02d237n1-ptr" href="#AFC02d237n1" title="jump to note 1">1</a> but this I believe was not true. A large concourse of Men stood amazd silent Spectators of the whole transaction
Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 October 1774 (I wonder how Luther Broke the spell)
Excerpts from letters that could easily be understood by the high school student. Just a few minutes of reading can expose them to John's complaints about the others in Congress, and especially his complaints about Presbyterians, Episcopal and Catholic services. World History teachers will find this a concise illustration of complaints about the Catholic Church
confess I am not fond of the Presbyterian Meetings in this Town
his Afternoons Entertainment was to me, most <span title="awful">awfull</span> and affecting. The poor Wretches, fingering their Beads, chanting Latin, not a Word of which they understood, their Pater Nosters and Ave Maria's. Their holy Water-their Crossing themselves perpetually-their Bowing to the Name of Jesus, <span class="del">their</span> wherever they hear it-their Bowings, and Kneelings, and Genuflections before the Altar. The Dress of the Priest was rich with Lace-his Pulpit was Velvet and Gold. The Altar Piece was very rich-little Images and Crucifixes about-Wax Candles lighted up. But how shall I describe the Picture of our Saviour in a Frame of Marble over the Altar at full Length upon the Cross, in the Agonies, and the Blood dropping and streaming from his Wounds.
The Declaration of Independence: Compare Versions
It's always a good idea to remind students that writing is never done, you just run out of drafts. This shows comparisons of different drafts of the Declaration of Independence. There are other versions of this available but this shows the phrasing of the slavery cause, and recognizes it's absence from the final version. This can be the base a longer exercise or simply a "do now" lesson introduction that puts the three instances of slavery up on the screen with the blank final version - what does this say about slavery in the colonies before the Revolution itself? You will also notice that Jefferson only referred to God "and Nature's God" once in his copy - all of the other references to the divine and Providence come from Congress
The Founders & Patriots of America
Read the description of this organization and ask if students think there are any African Americans in the "Founders and Patriots of America"
1619 vs 1776 • New American History
This lesson deserves attention for two reasons the first of which is this is an -off-the-shelf lesson that any teacherUS History teacher can use at any time. There are several activities, structures readings, etc. - each of which is plugged into a thinking routine or protocol. That is the second reason to look at this - by looking at the way the readings are connected with routines, teachers can learn how to structure lessons in the same way