American Revolution 3-5 Week Unit: No Prep

Created by Don Jenkins.  Suggested Unit Outline of Activities: This is a no prep 3-5 week unit…of course you may want to modify, change, or eliminate assignments to meet your needs and you won’t want to use all the video questions.

The What Needs Revolution Today and Battle of the Battlefields can be done as research projects. I have been using these assignments for the past 16 years of teaching 8th Grade US History. I try to use a variety of activities to meet a variety of student learning styles and to keep class interesting.

Feel free to ask me any questions before you purchase or after you buy the unit.

1. Revolutionary War Bellringers Powerpoint….24 questions for students to answer at the beginning of class…3-4 minutes at the beginning of each class.

2. 15 Question Anticipation Guide Pre-Assessment: 15 minutes

3. Wordsplash: 10 minutes

4. Revolution Timeline: Students create a timeline using 10 events with dates and 4 questions to answer.

5. Ben Franklin Join or Die political cartoon and analysis questions. 30 minutes.

6. French and Indian War Primary Sources and questions: George Washington and General Wolfe Song. 30 minutes

7. War that made America DVD questions: Episode 4: Unintended Consequences. 1 hour

8. Revolution Vocabulary Story Assignment and Quiz/Key included. 50 minutes

9. America: Story of Us DVD, 10 questions. John Paul Jones primary source and questions. 90 minutes.

10. Boston Massacre analysis of Paul Revere engraving as propaganda. 11 questions to answer.

11. Guided Write for Boston Massacre: Creative Writing exercise. 30 minutes

12. PROJECT: Battle of the Battlefields. Students learn about a battle and try to persuade the class that it is the most important battle of the revolution, and then write a letter trying to convince a government official to build a museum at the battlefield. Everything included. No prep, but could do this as a research project. 3-5 days.

13. 13 April Morning questions and answer key. 90 minutes.

14. Lexington and Concord: Who Fired First? Students answer 20 total questions about 4 primary sources about the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Then they decide who fired first and why. 45 minutes.

15. Declaration of Independence and 10 analysis questions. 40 minutes.

16. The Crossing Movie Questions. 90 minutes.

17. 12 Benedict Arnold Movie Questions: A Question of Honor. Treason. Battle of Saratoga. 90 minutes.

18. American Revolution Documentary (1994) 6 episodes: 15 questions for each episode. 50 minutes each episode. 6 hours.

19. American Revolution primary source analysis: Ethan Allen and Jemima Condict

20. Who Was the Greatest Revolutionary? Students play the part of a Revolutionary and try to convince the audience they are the Greatest American Revolutionary. Everything included…NO PREP…just make copies. 2-3 days.

21. PROJECT: What Needs Revolution Today? Students research what they think needs revolution today and write a persuasive 5 paragraph essay. Rubric included. No Prep…just need research and writing time. 3-5 days.

22. American Revolution Review Game and teacher directions. 45 minutes.

23. Revolution Test and Answer Key and Review. 15 short answer questions which cover the important the important themes and topics for the American Revolution Unit. 30 minutes.