Greg Silsby-Nate Arenson

Psy205

Mueller

5/2/08

Social Studies Lesson Plan

The lesson plan that we chose is on the subject of The Revolutionary War. We chose this subject because both of us are majoring in History and Social Sciences, and we wanted to analyze a lesson plan that we could possibly use in the future. We also liked the topic of The Revolutionary War because it has so much to do with America becoming its own independent nation and we feel that kids need to learn about it, and we want them to feel the same passion that we feel. It is supposed to familiarize the students of this class with the events that caused The Revolutionary War. After the lesson is completed the students should be able to identify what the intolerable acts were, as well as put in chronological order the list of events that were discussed in the lesson plan. The students will also need to know whether or not the war was avoidable, and be able to find specific spots on the map where the war started.

This lesson plan is very detailed so that the teacher has a very specific outline of what needs to be covered during the activities mentioned within. The lesson plan also gives a list of materials that the teacher, as well as the students, needs in to accurately complete the task. The items needed for the lesson are very simple and easy to use because the students will already have their textbooks, and the teachers can easily access the other materials needed. There are six very detailed activities, each complete with facts that help teach the lesson. There are also two alternative activities in case of time issues, and the lesson will still be taught accurately and still benefit the students.

In the lesson plan meaningful learning is used by telling the students to use their knowledge they learned from the reading the night before. The information that was read previously is put to use by having the students make their own assumptions on why The Revolutionary War started. We feel that this is a useful way for the students to learn as much as possible and to think critically about the Revolutionary War, and try to get the students to want to learn about this very historic war.

The lesson plan says to put students into small groups and have them discuss questions that the teacher asks about The Revolutionary War. This course concept is known as small-group discussion. This is helpful because students can work with each other as well as ask the teacher if needed and gain some insight on the topic at hand. It also helps students because they can collaborate with each other, which, in turn, will help them learn from each other. We feel because of all the benefits, it is a great teaching tool to use in the classroom because the students are able to ask each other for help and learn from each other.

One of the assignments for after class is to read the rest of the chapter, and be ready for the quiz on what they read the next day. This concept is independent practice because students are asked to do this assignment on their own. This quiz is used to help them demonstrate and rehearse the information that they learned from reading and from the notes in class. It is helpful because it is a good way to asses how much and how well the students learn from the information they had received. This also allows us to know how well the activities and homework worked for the students learning.

The plan says to hand out a list of words that need to be defined. After the students complete the worksheet, they are asked to volunteer to read their definitions aloud to the whole class. This is known as massed practice. This is good for the class to do because it gets the students to learn the definitions needed to understand The Revolutionary War. Definitions will help the students connect the different ideas they have learned. It also has the students listening to the other student’s responses.

One way metacognitive skills are used in this lesson plan is by having students get into groups which will help the students understand their potential, because they will be assessing and comparing themselves to everyone else. The teacher is supposed to hand out a worksheet with events boldfaced from the lecture. The students are then supposed to put the events in chronological order and read them aloud to the class. These are all different methods for learning, studying, or solving problems. We think that this is one of the most effective ways to get students involved and want to work to figure out the answers. If you get the students to learn the material in more than one way, it will most likely stick with them longer.

Note-taking is a valuable skill that is included in this lesson plan. The students have to take notes from the transparency on the overhead. This also used when the teacher is talking to the class and the students pick out the important information from the lecture. This helps them put the information into notes that are written in their own words. This helps them remember the information better because the students are using elaborative rehearsal. This is a common technique that teachers use to help student’s process and retain information that they need to know for the exams in the class.

Rehearsal is also used in this lesson plan because the students are asked to do various exercises that are supposed to help them learn the material more effectively. The more rehearsal the students are involved in, the better the understanding of the information they will have. We think that this is an effective way to teach and learn about the subject. The reason that we like this is because it makes the students look at and think about the information longer which is what the student needs this promotes mastery orientation.

When the teachers are giving notes, putting the students in groups, or having them write down definitions, they are having the students put this information into their long-term memory. This is known as semantic learning. The facts need to go into the long-term memory because the students will be tested on the information at a later date. They will have to have it in their memory in order to recall the information they will need for the exam. We like this type of learning because this helps the students remember the information potentially longer than just using it for the test. This is much more effective then teaching to the “test”.

This lesson plan is a good one for future history teachers to use if they can’t find one that they feel more comfortable with. It is very detailed and gives specific examples of what to do in case they hit a “roadblock” and can’t find another activity to use. It goes step by step with each activity and leads the teacher all the way to the end of class. It also gives alternative activities if you finish before the scheduled time. Overall, this lesson plan is a good resource when teaching about The Revolutionary War, and hopefully this plan will still be available when we are teaching about The Revolutionary War.

http://eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Social_Studies/US_History/USH0041.html

Revolutionary War

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Jonathan Rutledge

Email: acacia333@yahoo.com

Date: January 25, 2000

Grade Level(s): 12

Subject(s): Social Studies/US History

Duration: Time is indicated below for each activity

Description:

Goals: Upon completion of this lesson, the students will be able to understand the causes of the American Revolutionary War.

Objective(s): Students will be able to:

1. Determine the main causes of the American Revolutionary War. 
2. identify what the Intolerable Acts were. 
3. put in chronological order a list of events mentioned in the activity section of the lesson plan. 
4. discuss if the war was avoidable or not. 
5. find spots on a map where the conflict started using the World Wide Web.

Materials:

Text Books: America! America!

Transparency of notable dates

Transparency of the Intolerable Acts

15 vocabulary handouts

15 timeline handouts

Procedure:

Activity 1 (5-10 minutes)

- introduce the Revolutionary War in America 
- have students get into small groups 
- ask students to use previous knowledge and information from last night's assignment to come up with as many reasons as possible for the causes of the Revolutionary War 
- walk around and listen to discussions and help troubled groups 
- After discussion have groups tell what reasons they came up with and write them on the overhead 
- Make accommodations for any special needs students

Activity 2 (15-20 minutes)

- Have students move back to their seats 
- Lecture on the causes of the Revolutionary war 
- Put up transparency of notable dates with a sheet of paper covering them up and go over one at a time. 
- Introduce topic by saying things were tense between the Colonies and England. 
- Radicals, people with extreme views in the Colonies wanted to keep England from furthering control over Colony life 
- In London King George III and his ministers, or officials didn't understand how to deal with the Colonies and didn't take American complaints seriously 
- Reveal Stamp Act on the overhead 
- French and Indian War left England with many debts 
- To pay debts England taxed imported goods to the Colonies-called customs duties 
- Stamp act of 1765 forced colonists to buy stamps and put them on almost all printed materials, bills, legal papers, newspapers, leases, and magazines 
- Merchants boycotted, refused to buy or sell British goods and violent mobs roamed the streets in major cities attacking stamp sellers, burned stamps and destroyed homes of British officials. 
- Next year the act was repealed or done away with when Parliament realized it could not be enforced against united opposition 
- When news reached America colonists celebrated with speeches of loyalty to King George 
- Reveal Boston Massacre on the overhead 
- In 1768 British sent soldiers to Boston to protect the customs officials and help collect duties-angered colonists 
- Frequent clashes and on March 5, 1770 s group of Colonists gathered and threw stones and snowballs at British soldiers 
- The soldiers fired into the crowd and killed 5 Colonists and injured 6 more 
- British officials realized collecting taxes in America was costing more than it was worth 
- In March 1770 all duties were repealed except the tea tax 
- Reveal Boston Tea Party on overhead 
- Happened in 1775 
- Because British gave the East India Co. a monopoly to sell tea to the Colonies-monopoly has exclusive right to sell goods and can make prices very high 
- Colonists refused tea and ship sat in harbor for 20 days 
- Group of 150 colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the Ships and dumped 342 chests of tea 
- Reveal Intolerable acts on overhead 
- Was a response to punish the colonies for the Boston Tea party and other violence 
- Put up Intolerable Acts overhead 
- Reveal Boston Port Act 
- Closed port of Boston until tea was paid for from the Boston Tea Party 
- Reveal Administration of Justice Act 
- Allowed British officials accused of murder while enforcing British laws to be tried in Britain 
- Reveal Massachusetts Government Act 
- Required council members be appointed by governors rather than elected by Massachusetts General Assembly-Also no town meetings without permission and only business approved by the governor could be discussed 
- Reveal Quartering Act 
- Required colonists to provide British troops housing in occupied buildings 
- Reveal Quebec Act 
- Extended the boundaries of Quebec to include all the land between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and granted religious freedom to the Roman Catholics in Quebec 
- British thought these acts would quiet down colonists-instead the colonial leaders felt the Intolerable Acts were a threat to freedom in the colonies 
- Put up other transparency and Reveal 1st Continental Congress 
- Happened in 1774 
- Massachusetts and Virginia called for a meeting of colonies 
- 12 of 13 colonies sent delegates (representatives) to Philadelphia for a meeting called the Continental Congress 
- made three decisions 
- stop all trade with Britain 
- prepare a defense in case of an attack by Britain in Boston 
- Delegates meet again next spring 
- Shortly after, colonial militias began training 
- In Massachusetts 1/3 of the militia called minutemen were ready to fight at a moments notice 
- Colonists began to collect guns, ammo and other supplies 
- Biggest storehouse was in Concord 18 miles from Boston 
- All these factors helped lead to the Revolutionary war with the Battles of Lexington and Concord starting off the fighting 
- Make sure any special needs students are sitting at the front of the room and have a clear view of the overhead 
- While lecturing, at points stop to ask questions and discuss certain topics-let the students have time to ask you questions---answer them and make the lecture student oriented

Activity 3 (5-10 minutes)

- Tell the students to get into their groups again 
- After lecture ask the question "It seems that every action the British took to put down the colonial unrest had the opposite effect-it only increased the colonists' anger, do you think that calmer actions would not have angered the colonists as much?" 
- Have the students discuss this question then ask the question "Could this war have been avoided or was it inevitable, and why?"

Activity 4 (15-20 minutes)

- Have the students get in groups of four and go to the computers in the classroom. Have the students access the site:
http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/revamer.html 
- Have the students find a map of the beginning of the Revolutionary war and find the sites where the conflict began and have the students discuss why these locations were significant in the start of the war. Discuss as a class

Activity 5(5-10 minutes) 
- handout sheet with events boldfaced from the lecture on it 
- have students in the groups put the events in chronological order and write a sentence or 2 about the event 
- ask for volunteers to give the answers to the timeline and put the answers on the overhead 
- make sure special needs students get the proper attention during this process.

(5-10 minutes) Alternate Activity 1 
- handout the definition list with the terms radicals, ministers, boycott, custom duties, repeal, monopoly, Intolerable Acts, delegates, minutemen on it and have the students work alone to find the definitions in the book and copy them onto the list 
- walk around the room to check progress 
- timeline and definition list may be used as study guides for future quiz and test

(5-10 minutes) Alternate Activity 2 
- Go over the definitions the students looked up by asking for volunteers to read the definitions aloud 
- Make sure special needs students get a chance to participate

Activity 6(5-10 minutes) 
- wrap up the lesson by asking if anyone has questions about the material covered today 
- if needed reiterate any information asked about

Assignments

- For tomorrow read the part of the chapter on the Revolutionary War and be ready for a quiz at the end of the week on the whole chapter pertaining to the causes of the war, the war itself, and the after-effects of the war. Also note the web site where the maps were found, as they will come in handy in later lessons.