Lesson Plan Template
Name: Lisa Taff, Melissa Sheppard, Jessica Mojica, Ashley Swink
Lesson Title: __George Washington and the Culper Ring
Rationale for Instruction
A rationale is an essential part of
thoughtful planning of classroom
instruction. This is a brief written
statement of the purpose for instruction
and the connection of the purpose to
instruction that has come before and will
follow.
CCSS (LAFS/MAFS)/Next
Generation Sunshine State
Standards
List each standard that will be
addressed during the lesson.
Cutting and pasting from the
website is allowed. You must have
a minimum of 3 standards that
represent multiple content areas
identified in this portion of the
lesson plan.
These can be downloaded from
the Florida Dept. of Education
www.cpalms.org/homepage/index.
aspx.
Grade Level: 5th Grade
Lesson Length: 90 min.
George Washington's role as the first American intelligence chief has received far less attention than his numerous
exploits as a military and political leader. Yet, without his skillful management of American intelligence activities,
the course of the Revolutionary War could have been quite different.
NCSS Theme: Time, Continuity, and Change
Human beings seek to understand their historical roots and to locate themselves in time. Knowing how to read
and reconstruct the past allows one to develop a historical perspective and to answer questions such as: Who am
I? What happened in the past? How am I connected to those in the past? How has the world changed and how
might it change in the future? Why does our personal sense of relatedness to the past change? This theme
typically appears in courses in history and others that draw upon historical knowledge and habits.
Compare and contrast different stories or accounts about past events, people, places, or situations,
identifying how they contribute to our understanding of the past.
Identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps,
textbooks, photos, and others f. use knowledge of facts and concepts drawn from history, along with
methods of historical inquiry, to inform decision-making about action-taking on public issues.
State of Florida Standards:
SS.5.A.5.1
Identify and explain significant events leading up to the American Revolution.
SS.5.A.5.10
Examine the significance of the Constitution including its key political concepts, origins of those concepts, and
their role in American democracy.
SS.5.A.5.2
Identify significant individuals and groups who played a role in the American Revolution.
LAFS.5.L.3.4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading
and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
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Learning Objectives
What will students know and be
able to do at the end of this
lesson? Be sure to set significant
(related to CCSS/LAFS/MAFS,
and NGSSS), challenging,
measurable and appropriate
learning goals!
Student Activities & Procedures
Design for Instruction
What best practice strategies
will be implemented?
How will you communicate
student expectation?
What products will be
developed and created by
students?
Consider Contextual Factors
(learning differences/learning
environment) that may be in
place in your classroom.
Lesson Plan Template
a. Use context (e.g., cause/effect relationships and comparisons in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or
phrase.
b. Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the
pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.
The student will research espionage techniques used during the American Revolution.
The student will reenact colonial spy ring activities.
The students will develop an understanding of various spy methods used during the American
Revolution.
Students will write a newspaper report describing a specific spy activity the colonist participated in
during the American Revolutionary War
Introduction to lesson: We are going to begin by watching a video about George Washington and the American
Revolution. As you are watching the video, pay attention to the different methods that the spies used to pass
messages under the nose of the loyalists. We will be discussing the video after viewing.
ELL/ESE:
Use closed-captioning.
Graphic organizers prefilled with key terms and concepts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ50mvc2C4U - 33:30
As you saw in the video that the American Revolution was a war that on paper was impossible to win.
The redcoats had 4 times as much military experience than the continental army who were mostly poor
farmers. General George Washington had to find a way to overcome the odds stacked against him.
Hook: Tell the students you are going to write something really important on this paper. What I am about
to write cannot get into the wrong hands. It is a secret, no one can know. (Write on the edible paper.) In
fact, it is very important. I dont want to take any chances. Eat the paper. (I got the edible paper at the spy
museum but if you dont have any you can purchase it online.) Tell students that during the Revolutionary
War very important information couldnt get in the wrong hands, because of this there were many
methods used to secure the information. Just a little side note: They didnt ever eat paper but they used
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 Lesson Plan Template
many exciting and dangerous ways. Today we are going to learn those methods. Now lets get to know
one of the members of the Culper spy ring.
Divide the classroom into groups of 4 and hand out A visit with agent 355 readers theatre.

Assign students parts by counting them 1-4.

1. 2nd audience question
2. Agent 355
3. 3Ms. Bie Ografee
4. 1st Audience questions

Students will sit together in their groups and read the readers theatre.

After readers theatre students will remain in their groups and rotate to the different spy or reading
stations every 15 minutes, they will rotate to the next table.

ELL/ESE:
Provide copy of the readers theatre.
Pair with English L1 peer.
Discuss the key terms and concepts in the readers theatre.

Explanation of stations:
Students will be rotating through 5 different activities to develop a deeper understanding of the different
methods that the Revolutionary Spies used.

http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/spying-and-espionage/spy-techniques-of-
the-revolutionary-war/

Station 1 Mask Letters

http://clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/spies/methods-mask.html

Students will be making mask letters. A "Mask Letter" is the name given to a method that the British
used during the Revolutionary War to conceal a secret message. This method allowed the secret message
to be hidden in plain sight. The sender would write a regular looking letter. Anyone reading the letter
would not suspect that there was a message hidden within. To discover the hidden message, the reader
would place a "mask" on top of the letter to reveal the secret message.
The mask letter was one type of British coded message that the Americans likely never discovered. This
type of code was used by General Henry Clinton to send both coded messages and misinformation.
General Clinton created the mask by cutting shapes out of a piece of paper. The mask would be placed
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 Lesson Plan Template
over another piece of paper and the secret message would be written. Once the mask was removed,
General Clinton could then add words to the beginning and end of the lines that he had already written.
This letter could be written to provide misinformation that would throw off the Patriots if it was
intercepted.
Students can view examples of a masked letter on the ipad.

http://continentalspies.weebly.com/mask-letters.html

ELL/ESE:
Show example.
Model lesson.

Students will create a mask letter by using the provided template to write a secret message. Students will
use the provided template to create their own mask letter.
Student will begin by placing the template on the provided sheet of paper and begin writing within the
template. They will then remove the template and complete writing the letter. The letter cannot be
decoded unless the recipient has the template.

Station 2- Design a Code Letter.

http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/spying-and-espionage/the-culper-code-
book/
British and American spies used secret codes and ciphers to disguise their communications. A cipher is
when letters, symbols, or numbers are used in the place of real words. In order to decode a cipher, the
recipient of the letter must have a key to know what the coded letters, symbols, or words really mean.
Students will be provided with a code to use to create their own coded letter.

ELL/ESE:
Show example.
Model lesson.

Station 3- Invisible ink letter

One form of secret writing used by both the British and American armies was invisible ink. Invisible ink,
at the time of the Revolutionary War, usually consisted of a mixture of ferrous sulfate and water. The
secret writing was placed between the lines of an innocent letter, in case they were intercepted by the
enemy army, and could be discerned by treating the letter with heat by placing the paper over the flame of
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 Lesson Plan Template
a candle or by treating it with a chemical reagent such as sodium carbonate.

ELL/ESE:
Show example.
Model lesson.

Station 4- Culper spy ring foldable.

The Culper Spy Ring was established in 1778 by Benjamin Tallmadge under the orders of General
George Washington. The ring was tasked with the mission of spying on the British Army and reporting on
troop movements, positions, fortifications and plans in the New York area. The ring continued to operate
until the end of the war in 1783.
Students will follow the directions to create their own foldable.

ELL/ESE:
Show example.
Model lesson.

Station 5- Reading comprehension table.

Students will fill out a graphic organizer with information about the Culper group.

ELL/ESE:
Show example.
Model lesson.
Graphic organizer with word bank.

Closing
After the final rotation the teacher will read:
A Spy Called James: The True Story of James Lafayette, Revolutionary War Double Agent

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Assessment
How will student learning be assessed?
Authentic/Alternative assessments?
Does your assessment align with your
objectives, standards and procedures?
Informal assessment (multiple modes):
participation rubrics, journal entries,
collaborative planning/presentation
notes
Resources/Materials
Lesson Plan Template
Daily Lesson Plan Assessment:
Students will act as reporters from the American Revolution and write an article describing an alleged spy activity
the colonist used during the American Revolution. They may choose the specifics of the article based on their
reading of the book and their research. Have students consider the following for the article:
a) What were the difficulties of fighting a war in America for the British?
b) What difficulties did the Continental Army face?
c) In what way did General Washington display effective leadership?
d) What was General Washingtons role as Spymaster?
e) Describe a specific example of when spy techniques were used by the colonists during the war.
Smartboard
iPad
White copy paper
Pencils
Lemon juice
Toothpicks
Led lamp
Notebook paper
Mask letter template
http://spymuseum.com/major-events/spy-rings/the-culper-spy-ring/
http://clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/spies/index-methods.html

Exceptionalities ESOL:
What accommodations or Model task
modifications do you make for Gestures with speech
ESOL, Gifted/Talented students, Dramatization
Learning/Reading disabilities, etc.
Hands on activities
These accommodations and/or Graphic organizer
modifications should be listed visuals
within the procedures section of
the lesson plan as well as in this Students with Learning Differences:
section of the document. Model task
Gestures with speech
Dramatization
Hands on activities
Graphic organizer
visuals

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 Lesson Plan Template

Gifted/Talented:
Lesson Extensions Resources for Revolutionary Spies:
George Washington, Spymaster by Thomas B. Allen

http://www.surveillance-video.com/revolution-march-2009.html

http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/history/spies.html http://www2.si.umich.edu/spies/index-gallery.html
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/summer04/spies.cfm

External Media (podcasts, videos, interviews, etc)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juXDboNihgQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnU8RW_2gLo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrPOUrdSrbk&feature=related

(Example of a digital story about a spy from the American Revolution. Could be shown to students as an example

of what a biographical digital story looks like.)

Bibliography

Bazzitt, J. (n.d.). Spying in the American Revolution Activity Pack: Grades 5-8.

Clements Library. (n.d.). Spy letters of the American Revolution. Retrieved from http://clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/spies/index-methods.html

Hennessey, G. (n.d.). Revolutionary War Spies. A Visit with Female Agent 355(Culper Spy Ring).

Johnson, H. (n.d.). Driven to Teach. Retrieved from http://www.driven2teach.org/public/lessons/2014/boston-philadelphia/Lesson-Plan-Spying-during-the-

Revolutionary-War--Heather-Johnson.pdf

McCormick, T. M. (2007). Espionage and the American Revolution Lesson Plan. Retrieved from Social Studies Research and Practice:
http://www.socstrpr.org/files/Vol%202/Issue%201%20-%20Spring%202007/Practice/2.1.8.pdf

Rockwell, A. (2016). A Spy Called James: The True Story of James Lafayette, Revolutionary War Double Agent . New York: Millbrook Press.

Yarborough, P. (n.d.). George Washington Spy Kit.

Modified 1/16 Van De Mark from document created by L. Spaulding