During the month of December, eighth grade teachers
collaborated on an interdisciplinary unit on the American Revolution. In
civics class, students researched the life of a real or fictional person from
the Revolutionary era and the perspective that individual might have had in the
debate over independence. Students then played the role of this character
in a “Revolutionary Town Hall” that allowed students to experience the
difficult task of forming a consensus for or against declaring our
independence.
In reading class, students continued to practice
their close reading skills by grappling with two complex texts, The Declaration
of Independence and “A Loyalist’s Rebuttal
to the Declaration” by Thomas Hutchinson.
In addition, eighth grade Book Clubs read a historical fiction text that took place during the Revolutionary Era. Some students portrayed characters from these
books during the Town Hall in civics. In English, eighth graders wrote an
argumentative paper that asked them to analyze whether the Founding Fathers
should be considered patriots or traitors. Using evidence from primary
source documents, students were asked to build an argument that would depict
their own interpretation of historical events.
Finally, Book Clubs generated a background information resource for
their historical fiction novel. Each
student researched an American Revolution topic referenced in their Book Club novel. Then, they collaboratively developed a
multi-media presentation using web-based Prezi as a tool to teach their topics
to their classmates.
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American Revolution Historical Fiction Book Clubs
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