Technology lesson 4

Focus Question: How did America win its independence from Great Britain?
Lesson Objective /Teaching Point: Student will examine the events that led to America winning
its independence
Common Core Learning Standards for ELA and Social Studies:
Standard 1: History of the United States
Key idea 1.1: The study of NY state and United states history requires an analysis of the
development of American culture, its diversity and multicultural context, and the ways people
are unified by many values, practices, and traditions

ELA/ Key Ideas and Details:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.3
Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or
steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and
cause/effect.

Resources / Materials:
- http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/estherbarney/502/virtualtour/yorktown.html
-journal entry
Introduce the Lesson / Motivate Students: I will start the lesson by giving students a virtual
tour online, of events that led to America winning its independence against Great Britain. The
website shows the events (in chronological order) from Boston to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to
Valley Forge, and Valley Forge to Yorktown. The website provides images of primary sources,
historical figures, and drawings/art with a description of events that occurred in each state. As I
move state to state and from image to image, the children will be able to see what occurred and
how in conclusion the American colonists won against the British.
Model / Demonstrate / Teach: After the tour, I will pair students up and assign each pair a
battle or event in the American Revolutionary War. One person will be looking at the event as a
colonist/American and the other student will be looking at it as a loyalist/British. Each pair will
then reflect on how each side must have felt during that specific event. I will be leaving the
virtual tour on the smart board, for students to use as a reference for their event or battle.
Group / Independent Work: Each pair will be looking at a different battle or event (Lexington
and Concord, Fort Ticonderoga, New York battles, Trenton, Saratoga, Valley Forge, Monmouth
courthouse, Camden, Cowpens, Guilford courthouse, and Yorktown). That eventually led to
America winning their independence from Great Britain. They will write a journal entry as a
colonist or loyalist, writing how they feel about the event and how they feel about their
rivals/opponents. I will write the prompt on the board.
Assessment / Wrap- Up:
-After the student is done writing their journal entry from their assigned perspective/narrative I
will have them share with their partner so that the student can reflect on the each side. I will tell
them as you can see even though its the same event, each side had a different view or
perspective on it. A lot of times in history we forget to look at the different perspectives of
events.
-As formative assessment I will ask students to write their opinion on who they agree with, do
they think the Americans were being rebellious or were the British being oppressors? I will have
them answer this prompt in their notebook and collect it.