Unit 2: American Independence

Essential Questions

Enduring Understandings

Students understand that...

When is asserting your independence justifiable?

• • Governments act in their own self-interest.

  • The government should be responsive to its citizen’s needs, interests, and individual rights.

  • Individual views and actions can encourage/discourage change in government policies.

  • Change is accomplished through the effective management of one’s resources.

Knowledge

Students know....

Skills

Students will be able to...

• • vocabulary connected to the American Revolution

  • how to read and analyze bar graphs

  • how mercantilism affected the development of the colonies

  • the short-term and long-term effects of the French and Indian War

  • the actions taken by British government (i.e. taxing the colonies)

  • the relationship between governments and its citizens

  • the commonly held beliefs of both Patriots and Loyalists

  • the events that led to the American War for Independence

  • the role of propaganda during the American Revolution

  • the reasoning behind the Declaration of Independence

  • the effects of the Battle of Saratoga

  • the role resources in achieving victory

  • the role of groups and individuals in shaping the course of our history

  • the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1783)

  • the geographic boundaries of the new nation

Key Vocabulary

• boycott

• petition

• writ of assistance

• repeal

• blockade

• patriot

• loyalist

• traitor

• alliance

• treaty

Key People/Terms/Events

• French and Indian War

• Stamp Act

• Boston Tea Party

• Continental Congress

• Declaration of Independence

• Lexington and Concord

• Battle of Saratoga

• Battles of Trenton and Princeton

• Battle of Yorktown

• George Washington

• John Adams

• Sam Adams

• Benjamin Franklin

• Thomas Jefferson

• Marquis de Lafayette

• Benedict Arnold

• • create a bar graph

  • create a multimedia presentation

  • compare and contrast multiple perspectives

  • put events in chronological order

  • identify the relationship between historical events

  • compare and contrast two documents

  • complete a graphic organizer

  • analyze and draw conclusions from images

  • participate in a Socratic Seminar

  • integrate information from several sources

  • state a claim and support it with textual evidence

  • write argumentative paragraphs

  • present their project to their peers

Performance Task

Other Evidence

These lessons are aligned with the unit goals. They are intended for center work, whole group and/or small group instruction. Lessons that meet the same objectives can be used in place of the ones below.

Technology and Resources

• The American Revolution ("I Think")

• Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre (Gilder Lehrman)

• Battle of Lexington and Concord (Gilder Lehrman)

• A Plan for a New Government - Letter from J. Adams to Richard Henry Lee (Gilder Lehrman)