Lesson Plan Template: Colloquium III
"Creating a Nation"

Roblynn Curtis and Paige Harrington
North Forrest High School
Hattiesburg, Mississippi

UNIT IN WHICH THE LESSON WILL/COULD BE INCLUDED:
American Revolution

MISSISSIPPI CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK COMPETENCY, Eleventh Grade:

4. Demonstrate the ability to use social studies tools (timelines, maps, globes, resources, graphs, technology, etc.)

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Which battles were essential to the colonists’ winning their independence?
Who were key characters in the struggle to win independence?  

HISTORICAL CONTENT OF LESSON

People: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Paul Revere, Thomas Paine, Betsy Ross, John Paul Jones, Ethan Allen, Green Mountain Boys, Benedict Arnold, Richard Henry Lee, Nathan Hale, John Burgoyne, Marquis de Lafayette, Friedrich von Steuben, Thaddeus Kosciusko, George Rogers Clark, Bernardo de Galvez, Molly Pitcher, Peter Salem, Nathaniel Greene, Daniel Morgan, Francis Marion, Admiral de Grasse Comte de Rochambeau

Events: Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Long Island, Battle of Saratoga, Battle of King’s Mountain, Battle of Yorktown  

Key terms, dates, etc.: Olive Branch Petition, Patriots, Loyalists, Common Sense, Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Yorktown, Treaty of Paris      

HISTORICAL CONCEPTS AND THEMES:

values, beliefs, political ideas, and institutions
conflict and cooperation
civilization, cultural diffusion, and interaction
human interaction with the environment
comparative history of major developments in the past
patterns of social and political interaction

HISTORICAL SKILLS/PROCESS:

finding and analyzing primary sources
interpreting historical maps
understanding chronology
understanding the relationship between geography and history
framing useful questions about the past
analyzing visual sources such as photographs and artwork
evaluating primary sources from Internet sources

TEACHER RESOURCES

Web sites:

Liberty! The American Revolution
www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/index.html

Archiving Early America
http://www.earlyamerica.com/

The Library of Congress Learning Page http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/index.html

Colonial Williamsburg
http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/

National History Day
http://nationalhistoryday.org

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/htm

Edsitement
http://www.edsitement.neh.gov

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.archives.gov/

Eyewitness Home Page
http://www.ibiscom.com/mefrm.htm
STUDENT RESOURCES:

Web Sites:

The Library of Congress Learning Page http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/index.html

Colonial Williamsburg http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/

Africans in America http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/

National History Day http://nationalhistoryday.org

Liberty! The American Revolution www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/index.html

Our Documents www.ourdocuments.gov

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

1. The students will work in groups of four.
2. The students will research the people, places, and events listed above giving a brief description of each. They will then write a question to go with each description.
3. The students will find clip art that illustrate the American Revolution.
4. Using a poster board, the students will design a game board (similar to Trivial Pursuit) using the clip art and categories listed above (Key terms, people, and battles).
5. The students will make question cards out of index cards. For lower level students or visual learners, some cards may be illustrated for hints.
6. After the game board is designed and put together, the students will trade game boards, play the games, and evaluate each with a student generated rubric.
7. We recommend not setting many guidelines for the structure of the game as to allow creativity. However, the teacher must establish a number of terms, people, places, etc. for the students to research.