Title of Lesson: Why They Fought
Title of Lesson: Why They Fought
Standards
I. U.S. HISTORY
D. Political Unrest and the American Revolution 1763- mid-1791
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the causes and course of the American Revolution
NCSS Themes:
1. Culture
2. Global Connections
3. People, Places, and Environments
4. Time, Continuity, and Change
- Behavioral Learner Objectives
1. Cognitive Domain
Students will identify and comprehend feelings experienced by people during the American Revolution by reading the quotations and descriptions.
Students will analyze and document reasons for the Revolutionary War by making predictions while brainstorming possible reasons.
2. Affective Domain
Students will discuss some of the social, political and personal issues that Americans confronted during the American Revolution.
3. Psychomotor Domain
Students will make a Venn diagram of the reasons indicating which reasons overlap.
- Essential Question
When presented with difficult choices, how do you decide what to do?
C.Instructional Method:Cooperative Learning
Learner Styles: I will accommodate visual learners by providing an example of a completed Venn diagram if needed, interpersonal learners by pairing, and intrapersonal learners by allowing them to complete the activity on their own. For students who are ESL or ELL I will pair them with students who are able to communicate with them or have them do the lesson with help from a translator.
Grouping:Peer pairing – I will pair high achieving students with lower achieving students so that the high achieving students can help the low achieving students with understanding the materials and help them make predictions. This will ensure that the students are not overwhelmed by being solely responsible for their responses.
Instructional Strategies:Think-Pair-Share
Content Outline:
1.Havethe students partner read the descriptions of British loyalists and Rebels on from the resource page 1. One partner should read about the loyalists, the other about the rebels.
2.Have partners use Think – Pair- Share to answer these questions:
If you had to decide, would you be loyal to the British King or would you rebel? What was the common attitude about the war? Connect the discussion with My Brother Sam is Dead by asking the students: Why did Sam decided to rebel? Why was Life Meeker a loyalist? Have the students write their answers on a piece of paper
3.Ask partners to predict how the colonist’s attitudes and beliefs about the war will change over time. Have the students write their predictions on the piece of paper under their answers to the questions above. Collect the papers from the pairs.
4.Organize the students into two teams, British loyalists and Rebels and distribute Resource Page 2 (quotations from Revolutionary War).
5.Have the teams read the quotations from the resource page, one British read a quote from the British loyalists, then a rebel read a quote from the rebel soldiers and so on.
6.Have the teams draw a Venn Diagram on a piece of paper. On one side put reasons why the colonists remained loyal, on the opposite put reasons why the colonists rebelled, and in the middle put reasons that are the same for both.
7.Have each team share their diagram and indicate what reasons each side had and what reasons overlapped.
- Materials Needed and Preparationof them
1.Resource page 1 & 2
2.My Brother Sam is Dead
3.Paper
4.Pencil
5.Whiteboard
6.Expo Markers
- Assignment
Have the students imagine that they are soldiers who are serving in the Revolutionary War and have them write short letters home describing why they feel the need to fight and their opinion of what the rest of the war will be like. The students will also write a letter to a soldier currently serving overseas thanking them for their service.
- Student Assessment and Check for Understanding:
1.Students participated in group activities.
2.Students completion of their Venn diagrams
3.Students completion of their short letters.
4.Student contribution to the discussion.
- Lesson Evaluationand Reflection
1.What would I change or do differently next time?
2.Did the students need help determining reasons why the colonists choose the side they did?
3.Did the students understand the importance of knowing why the colonists choose the side they did?
- Classroom Management: Routines: Materials distribution, clean-up, Movement, Transitions
1.One student from each group hands in their Venn diagram.
2.One student from each pair hands in their predictions.
3.Students transition from small group into large group by moving from their desks into the open area in the classroom.
Resource Page1
This resource page was retrieved from
LOYALIST IDEAS
We want a strong, unified British Empire. Everyone benefits from that.
The national debt is due to the French and Indian War which was fought partly to protect English
colonists in North America. Now there is more English land in America to protect. We should
help pay.
We are British subjects, and we should obey British law. The King and Parliament have the
right to tax the colonies and to make laws for the colonies. We cannot pick and choose which
laws to obey. We must accept all the laws made by our government. That’s the only way a
government can work.
The American colonies would be weak and defenseless without Britain. We need Britain’s
protection on the seas to be able to trade. If we were without British protection, another country
might conquer us.
We all profit from trade with England. Parliament does not really need to tax us in order to make
money from the Colonies. Colonies and the mother country will prosper through peaceful trade.
However, if Parliament wants to tax us, it has the right to do so.
Many people are trying to make a living that depends on British trade. Economic boycotts are
not fair to hardworking merchants and shopkeepers. People are being bullied into obeying the
boycott. What kind of freedom is that?
We are too far away from England, and that is why it would not be practical for us to be
represented in Parliament. We are still British subjects.
The streets of Boston are out of control with riots and mob violence. Of course British troops
have come to protect people’s safety and keep peace.
PATRIOT IDEAS
All people have certain rights that the government cannot take away, including a right to hold on
to their own property. Taxation takes away some of our property. Our property (including
money and goods) can only be taken from us if we or our representatives agree to it. The
colonists do not have representation in Parliament, so Parliament cannot make laws to tax us. We
have not agreed to be taxed. No taxation without representation. If there is to be any taxation,
let our own colonial Assembly make that decision. Any money collected should be used here,
not sent to England.
There is no way we could ever be represented in Parliament. We are too far away, and our
representatives would be so outnumbered that their votes would barely matter.
We think we have done a good job of governing ourselves for many years, and we want to
continue.
England’s national debt is not our responsibility. We loaned money to Parliament for the war
effort, and we have not been repaid. Many colonists fought in the French and Indian War. We
have done our part. England’s land holdings in America have expanded, and England is
benefiting from fur and fish trading now that the French are gone.
British troops have been sent to Boston to threaten us. The troops are causing violence, not
controlling it. The unfair taxes and tax collectors are causing riots. We are being provoked.
Parliament is trying to suppress us. We have every right to protest and resist unfair laws. The
Stamp Act, for example, interfered with every aspect of our lives.
Innocent people died in the Boston Massacre. That event would not have happened if the troops
had not been here.
England is trying to use us and make money from us. Parliament is trying to control which
companies and countries do business with us. Customs officials and some merchants are getting
rich. John Hancock’s ship ,The Liberty, has been seized. American seamen have beenunlawfully pressed (captured) by British captains .
REFERENCES
Boston Historical Society.(2006). Retrieved March 26, 2010, from
Resource Page 2
This resource page was retrieved from library.thinkquest.org
General William Howe
Upon General Howe's arrival to New York in 1776, a loyalist wrote this about him:
"He comes, he comes, the Hero comes,
Sound, sound your trumpets, beat your drums.
From port to port let cannon roar
Howe's welcome to this Western shore."
Samuel Adams
“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”
John Adams
“Independence forever.”
“Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.”
Patrick Henry
"If this be treason, make the most of it."
"The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, New Englanders are no more. I AM NOT A VIRGINIAN, BUT AN AMERICAN!"
Mercy Otis Warren
"Our situation is truly delicate & critical. On the one hand we are in need of a strong federal government founded on principles that will support the prosperity & union of the colonies. on the other we have struggled for liberty & made costly sacrifices at her shrine and there are still many among us who revere her name to much to relinquish (beyond a certain medium) the rights of man for the dignity of government."
Thomas Jefferson
"Equal, and exact justice of all men, ...freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under the protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected,- these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us."
"The cement of this union is in the heart blood of every American."
George Washington
"Nothing short of independence, it appears to me, can possibly do. A peace on other terms would.....be a peace of war."
"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally stacked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."
George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789
"The injuries wehave received from the British nation were so unprovoked, and have been so great and so many, that they can never be forgotten."
George Washington, Letter to John Banister, 1778
Benjamin Franklin
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country."
Nathaneal Greene
"The war has actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!"
Nathanael Greene, In an anonymous letter, 1781
Thomas Paine
"These are the times that try men's' souls.The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; bur that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny.....is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
John Hancock
"There, I guess King George will be able to read that."
John Hancock, Remark, July 4, 1776
". . .Indefence of the freedom that is our birthright. . .we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the agressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before."
King George III
"I cannot conclude without mentioning how sensibly I feel the dismemberment of America from this empire, and that I should be miserable indeed if I did not feel that no blame on that account can be laid at my door, and I did not also know that knavery seems to be so much the striking feature of its inhabitants that it may not in the end be an evil that they will become aliens to this kingdom."
King George III, Letter to Shelburne, 1782
"The die is now cast; the colonies must either submit or triumph.... we must not retreat."
King George III, In a letter to Lord North, 1774
REFERENCES
Traitors, Seamstress and Generals: Voices of the American Revolution.Retrieved March 26, 2010, from