Compare Contrast Tories vs.Patriots

I am about half way done with the book My Brother Sam is Dead.  The book lends itself to a lot of discussion about the differences between the Regulars and the Militia which is the focus of my overall lesson.   Had a great discussion  last Thursday about the word underdog and how it correlates to the American Revolution.  We discussed how the Regulars were trained soldiers and that was their job as opposed to the Militia who had many other responsibilities along with being prepared to fight.  I used the correlation of sports and showed examples of how many teams on paper should have won but did not.  We also discussed the will of the Militia to win and also the conflicts sometimes between families.  When I first started reading the above book, I felt it was a little too long but am very glad that I did since it has provided a lot of great discussions in the classroom.  Next week, I plan to start to compare and contrast the Regulars and the Militia and have the students create their own Venn Diagram on what they know so far and what they will learn in the next couple of weeks.


 

October 14th, 2010

Today I did a KWL with my class to obtain what they know about the American Revolution.  They did know some things from 3rd grade and we had a general discussion about what we will be focusing on for this project.  The students were both engaged and interested.  I had planned on  reading more from My Brother Sam is Dead but we were spending a lot of time on the KWL and only had 10 minutes to read aloud.  I am feeling optimistic that these lessons will go well because the students are so interested. 


In addition, I did read the poem "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to the class and had some discussion about it. Some already knew there was more than 1 rider that day to warn the countryside that the regulars were coming. We discussed how Paul Revere is so well known for his historic ride but the others are not. It also led to the discussion that the poem has made him such an important figure in the AR but others also contributed to the successful outcome of the battle on that day.

Historical Fiction

I have just starting reading the book "My Brother Sam is Dead" to the class.  It provides a lot of background to the American Revolution and I am incorporating into my read-aloud time with my class...

October 13th, 2010

Attended the seminar at Heritage Museum today and received a lot of useful information.  I think I have finally nailed down what I want to do in the classroom with my students.  It will consist of comparing and contrasting the militia vs the regulars.  Jim and Roger provided a lot of useful information about them and I wrote a lot down for future reference with my students.

October 13

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