My New Unit Creation

Today I found myself at school around 6:45 AM despite a two hour delay. In about 40 minutes, the tweet came out that school was closed. I decided to make the most out of the situation. This was the perfect time to reflect on my past unit titled, A New Republic. This unit involves the classic Hamilton/Jefferson battle, Washington/whiskey, Adams/alien, Jefferson/embargo, Madison/war, Monroe/doctrine, blah, blah, blah. Looking back on my past lessons, and researching other lessons from around the web, it’s the same standard delivery of information. I needed a spark.

clark-freaks-out-o Staring at my computer, 3 coffees deep, it hit me! I was going to create a quest! A quest for fun! I’m going to have fun, and your going to have fun, we’re all going to have so much…………..sorry, I love that movie. I created a quest (linked at the bottom of this post) where students will design a character who would be a merchant, banker, lawyer, or farmer from a northern or southern state. They would research the views of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and choose to be a Federalist or Democratic-Republican. Finally, the student will blog from the perspective of that character. They will blog about how Hamilton’s financial plan will affect their life, and why they agree with their chosen political party.

So students don’t feel lost in their quest, I built in 2 direct teaching lessons. One lesson involves a chef hook simulation to learn how Hamilton’s financial plan affected people. The second lesson is a creative hyperdoc guiding the students through the views of Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Quest 1 will be followed by 5 other quests (not designed yet) where the students will continue to be their characters and reflect on the policies of our first 5 presidents. For example, how would a northern merchant, who is a Federalist, view the Whiskey Rebellion? Or, how would a Democratic Republican from the South view John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Act.