Steve Pasche, Hawley School District – Lesson
Plan #1
Concept/Topic To
Teach:
The American Revolution
Standards
Addressed:
Minnesota Standards in History and Social Studies
Specifically: Students will understand issues and
events that led to the American Revolution, and analyze how these events
affected the move toward independence from Britain.
General Goal: Students will read Chapter 3 of Jules
Archer’s book They Made A Revolution:
1776. Chapter 3 focuses on the
life of John Adams (The Cranky Yankee), and highlights his contributions to our
country as a public servant.
Required
materials:
1) Jules Archer’s book They
Made A Revolution: 1776, Scholastic 1973
2) Part One of the HBO Film John Adams, titled “Join or Die.”
3) Paul Revere’s
engraving of the Boston Massacre found at http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/enlargement.html
4) Optional reading: David McCullough’s book John Adams.
5) Time Magazine’s supplement John Adams
Anticipatory Set: I show the students a photo of John
Adams, and ask them to tell me what they know about the man who later became
the 2nd President of the United States.
Step-By-Step
Procedures:
Day #1:
Students will read Chapter 3 of Archer’s book and complete
the questions which support this reading.
These questions can be downloaded from the link titled “John Adams –
Background.”
This should take approximately 30 minutes. Teachers might even prefer to read this
information orally to their classes.
Once the students have completed reading the background
information on Adams, pass out a copy of the discussion questions for the HBO
Film John Adams. These can be downloaded from the
site under the link titled “John Adams – HBO Film.”
Day #2:
Students should continue viewing the HBO film John Adams (Part One – Join or Die). While viewing the film they should also
complete the discussion questions which go hand-in-hand with the
production. This will take about
40 minutes.
Upon completion of the film review the discussion question
and clarify for the students as is necessary.
Day #3
Visit http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/enlargement.html
This will provide you with an image of Paul Revere’s
engraving of the Boston Massacre.
Download the questions from the website that I have provided under the
heading Paul Revere’s engraving.
Ask the students to answer the questions provided and get their
feedback. This should take roughly
15 minutes.
After the students have pondered the information regarding
the engraving read the caption.
This should take just a couple of minutes.
Unhappy Boston! see thy Sons deplore,
Thy hallow’d Walks besmear’d with guiltless Gore:
While faithless P—n and his savage Bands,
With murd’rous Rancour stretch their bloody Hands;
Like fierce Barbarians grinning o’er their Prey,
Approve the Carnage and enjoy the Day.
If scalding drops from Rage from Anguish Wrung
If speechless Sorrows lab’ring for a Tongue.
Or if a weeping World can ought appease
The plaintive Ghosts of Victims such as these;
A glorious Tribute which embalms the Dead.
But know, FATE Summons to that awful Goal.
Where JUSTICE strips the Murd’rer of his Soul:
Should Venal C—ts the scandal fo the Land,
Snatch the relentless Villian from her Hand,
Keen Execrations on this Plate inscrib’d,
Shall reach a Judge who never can be brib’d.
The unhappy Sufferers were Messs. SAML. GRAY SAML MAVERICK,
JAMS CALDWELL, CRISPUS ATTUCKS &PATK CARR Killed. Six wounded; two of them
(CHRISTR MONK & JOHN CLARK) Mortally
Worksheet 1
John Adams was one of the key figures in the American
Revolution. To enhance student
understanding of Adam’s role in the American Revolution teachers should
purchase a copy of Jules Archer’s book They
Made A Revolution: 1776. Used
copies of this book can be purchased on sites such as Amazon.com for as little
as a penny, plus shipping.
Students should then read Chapter 3 of the book and answer the following
questions:
The Cranky Yankee
John Adams
Name:
1. What
observation did John Adams make about the popularity of the independence
movement in 1775?
2.
“______________________, statues, monuments will never be erected to
me,” Adams once sighed.
3. How did
Benjamin Franklin describe John Adams?
4. Where was
John Adams born?
5. On what date
was Adams born?
6. What were
some of John Adams’s hobbies?
7. Where did
Adams attend college?
8. What did
Adams do for work upon graduation from college?
9. Who was
older, John Adams or Sam Adams?
10. Who owned a
sloop named the Liberty?
11. Who was
Captain Preston?
12. Why was it
dangerous for John Adams to defend the British soldiers involved in the “Boston
Massacre?”
13. True or
false? John Adams was elected a
delegate to the First Continental Congress.
14. Who was the
President of the First Continental Congress?
15. When did
the Second Continental Congress open?
16. Who did
John Adams nominate to serve as the general of the Continental Army?
17. What did
Adams call the moderates in Congress?
18. Who did
Adams feel was the leader of the “conciliators?”
19. What region
of the Colonies most strongly resisted Adams’s desire for independence?
20. Who noted,
“Every member of Congress in 1776 acknowledged him (Adams) to be the first man
in the House.”?
Worksheet 2
One of the key events in John Adams’s legal career, involved
his defense of the British Redcoats, who were accused following the “Boston
Massacre.” Visit the site below
and encourage your students to engage in some critical thinking.
Paul Revere’s Engraving: http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/enlargement.html
Name:
1. In 25 words
or more, what do you see?
2. How does it
make you feel?
3. What could
have caused this confrontation?
4. What do you
think might happen next?
5. Define the
term massacre.
6. Are there
any inaccuracies in this engraving?
Worksheet 3
John Adams Name:
Part One – Join or Die
1.
Where does this film begin? In what year?
2.
Who
created the political cartoon “Join or Die?” What was its purpose?
3.
What did John Adams call the “Boston Massacre?”
4.
Who
was Jonathan Sewell?
5.
What was the first slaveholding colony in New England?
6.
What was the approximate population of Boston in 1775?
7.
Who
was allowed to serve on juries in colonial America?
8.
What would have happened to Captain Preston and his men had
they been found guilty?
9.
What
is porphyria? Who suffered from
it?
10. True or false? Not a single juror in the “Boston Massacre” case was from
Boston.
11. Who were some of the most famous members
of the Sons of Liberty?
12. True or false? Abigail Adams spoke fluent Latin.
13. What was the favored tactic of
intimidation which was used by the Sons of Liberty?
14. Who became the Governor of Massachusetts
in 1774?
15. How many casks of tea were dumped into
Boston Harbor during the Tea Party?
16. Under what pen name did Adams publish 12
essays in the Boston Gazette?
17. Where did John Adams attend college?
18. True or false? John Adams attended the First Continental Congress in
Philadelphia?
19. How far is Boston from Philadelphia?
20. What was the name of the daughter that
John and Abigail Adams lost during infancy?
Worksheet 4
John Adams Name:
Independence
1. Where was
the First Continental Congress called into session?
2. What was the
only colony which was not represented at the First Continental Congress?
3. In what year
is this segment of the film set?
4. What two men
were the British hoping to find when they attacked Concord Arsenal?
5. The
Minutemen were typically ______ years of age or younger.
6. How old was
Benjamin Franklin in 1775?
7. Who was
Edward Rutledge?
8. Whose idea
was the “Olive Branch Petition?
9. What advice
does Benjamin Franklin offer to John Adams regarding John Dickinson?
10. Thomas
Jefferson was said to be fluent in _________ languages and able to read two
others.
11. What event
did Abigail Adams and her children observe from Penn’s Hill on June 17, 1775?
12. Who did
John Adams nominate to command the Continental Army?
13. What
Amendment ratified on August 18, 1920 granted women the right to vote?
14. Why did
most Native Americans side with the British rather than the American colonists?
15. Why did
Abigail Adams scrub the floors of her house with vinegar?
16. Who
assisted Washington by bringing cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston?
17. Why did
Richard Henry Lee wrap his left hand in a black handkerchief?
18. Who were
the five members of the committee asked to draft a Declaration of Independence?
19. Why did
Adams tell Jefferson that he should draft the Declaration of Independence?
20. Why did
Washington order the inoculation of all colonial troops coming through
Philadelphia?
21. How many
slaves did Jefferson own in 1776?
22. Variolation
was another word for ______________________________. There was a 2% to 3% mortality rate for those variolated
with small pox.
23. What 1768
writings made John Dickinson one of the most famous Americans of his time?
24. In 1831,
who led the largest slave uprising in American history?
25. Thomas
Jefferson referred to John Adams as the “Colossus of
_________________________,” due to his unrelenting fight on and off the floor
of Congress.
26. What was a
“Tory?”
27. How old was
Dickinson at the time of his death?
28. On what
date did the actual vote for independence take place?
29. What were
the “Dunlap Broadsides?”
30. How many
known copies of the original Dunlap Broadsides survive today?
Worksheet 5
The Presidents (The History Channel) Name:
John Adams (1797-1801)
1. In what city
was John Adams sworn in as President?
2. How old was
Adams when he became the President?
3. Where did
Adams get his education?
4. True or
false? Adams spoke with a lisp.
5. What two
issues defined John Adams presidency?
I.
II.
6. In what year
did Adams sign the Alien and Sedition Acts?
7. Adams is
considered the “Father of the _______________________.”
8. Who defeated
Adams in the election of 1800?
9-10. What two
men, both signers of the Declaration of Independence, died on July 4, 1826?
I.
II.
Web Resource
John Adams Biography