This week was another shortened week. 4 days of class to cover the American Revolutionary War. For the longest time, Ohio’s standards included reasons that led to the Revolutionary War along with the Enlightenment’s influence on the Declaration of Independence. It also included how groups can form and create change. However, it never included anything about the Revolutionary War until 2019. The standards were changed and now include a standard devoted to the Revolutionary War – important battles and groups of people who influenced the outcome. Last year I was browsing through Twitter and found 2 really great files that paired nicely with Ohio’s American Revolutionary War standard. These 2 files were created by Mike Meehan (@mrmeehanhistory).
- American Revolutionary War – I altered this file to fit the learning needs of my classroom. It includes weaknesses and strengths of the Continental and British Armies, groups that contributed to the war, Number Mania EduProtocol, Hamilton the Musical, and an interactive map about the Battle of Yorktown.
- American Revolution Soldier Experience – this is set up as a game and students LOVE this. Students choose to learn about Continental soldiers or Minutemen. I paired this with an Empathy Map or Google Drawing for students to show me what they learned.
I love using these 2 lessons for the Revolutionary War. I rarely do the same lessons 2 years ina. row, but these are keepers.
Monday – no school
Tuesday – finish slides 1 through 7 for the American Revolutionary War.
Wednesday – Finish the Number Mania and slides 8 through 10.
Thursday – Complete the Revolution Soldier Experience.
Friday – Review with Nation Builder from EMC2Learning.
Tuesday
I began the American Revolutionary War by sharing the slide presentation linked above. I love these slides as they cover basic information related to the war. I have never been a big war guy, and never paid much attention to this war until the past 2 years. For the 48 minute class period, I had students complete slides 1 through 7. These slides covered some basics:
- The battles of Lexington and Concord – read and drag the arrows to the sentences that answer the questions.
- Visit a website and fill out the organizer of strengths and weaknesses of the Continental and British Armies.
- Dragging and dropping True/False tiles next to statements that pair up with an Infographic.
- Choosing between African Americans, Women, or the French and writing a letter from the perspective of George Washington about how that chosen group contributed to the war.
I finished the day by having students take a Quizizz over the information from the slides they completed. Next year, I’m going to approach this differently and use a Thin Slide or Graffiti Wall paired with a question – Who should have won the Revolutionary War?
Wednesday
Wednesday was a shortened day with 40 minute classes. Covering every important battle in the Revolution is kind of boring. I refuse to do it. As a result, the Number Mania saved the day! I found some awesome information from American Battlefield Trust and linked in 4 different battles that students could choose from:
- Battle of Bunker Hill
- Battle of Trenton
- Battle of Saratoga
- Battle of Yorktown
Students had 15 minutes to read the site, submit 2-3 facts through a Google Form, and determine what made their chosen battle important. After 15 minutes, I shared a Google Sheet of information with the students. Students then had the rest of time to create an infographic about their battle.
I love posting up the Google Sheet on the board as students are submitting information because it creates a good discussion over good information versus bad information. For example, a student submitted that the Battle of Yorktown lasted 6 years. We had a discussion about this question, “Does the information sound correct?” We went back and looked and the reading stated, “After 6 long years of war…..”
This was my 3rd rep of Number Mania for the year, and these were the results:
Thursday
We used this day to finish up Number Mania and the last 2 slides. When the Number Mania was completed, students listed to the song, Guns and Ships, from the musical Hamilton. They looked up some people mentioned in the song – Betsy Ross, Marquis de Lafayette, and Hamilton’s role in the Revolutionary War. The last slide was an interactive map where students read about the American strategy for Yorktown and moved pieces to a map. This was a good part of the lesson as students had to locate places and use a map key. These 2 slides took a total of 10 minutes combined.
The last part of the class period, students learned about the experience of an American soldier. THIS. IS. AWESOME!! Students love this lesson as they click through slides, and I hear this every year, “This reminds me of a video game, this is cool!”
This “soldier experience” lesson goes fairly quickly, so I paired it with a choice for students to show me what they learned. Last year, I only posted a blank Google Drawing and had students create something, anything to show me what they learned. This year, I used the same file, but I added an empathy map which worked out wonderfully with this lesson. Here are the results:
Friday
The final day of the week was used for 2 of my classes to catch up on work. We did a quick Gimkit, then students worked on finishing anything they needed to finish from the week. On the other hand, Three of my classes were far enough along that we were able to try a new lesson from EMC2Learning called Nation Builder. (sorry I cannot share this file)
I can’t give away all the details on Nation Builder, but students competed in groups of 6-8 to build the best nation. Now, they didn’t actually design a nation or civilization. Instead, they used content from our Revolution unit and made connections in different ‘sectors’. Students could not use the same concepts across sectors, thus creating great discussions and teamwork. Students did some awesome work with discussion, team building, reviewing concepts. I love ending the week with new, fun games with crazy scoring twists! Now I’m ready to move onto the Constitutional Convention.
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