Unit Six:
The American Revolution
Week One: Book Club Introduction
For the next seven weeks, you will be reading the Young Readers Edition of "Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge," by Erica Armstrong Dunbar & Kathleen Van Cleve alongside your social studies assignments. This week will be devoted to getting to know the book, the authors, and the context of Ona's story.
A special thanks to Dr. Amanda Vickery and Dr. Dan Krutka for their work surrounding this book.
Monday:
Make a new column on your Padlet and title it "Ona Judge." This column will be where you keep track of all of your work for book club.
What do you know about George Washington? What do you know about Ona Judge? Take a few minutes to write down everything that you know, and the questions that you have. (You can either write directly on the Padlet, or write on paper and insert a picture of it.)
Preview the book-- read the back, flip through it. read the cover. what do you think you might learn from the book? what's the genre? what's it going to be about?
Watch this video clip of Erica Armstrong Dunbar: Translating History: Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Explore Dunbar's website
Watch History in Five: The Slave Who Escaped George Washington
Tuesday:
Read the New York Times article, "In Search of the Slave Who Defied George Washington"
Wednesday:
Explore the Mount Vernon website to learn more about the enslaved people at Mount Vernon.
Thursday: Time to start reading! Please have the first three chapters read in preparation for our discussion on Zoom.
Friday: Discussion, 1PM on Zoom.
Week Two: Class Conflict Leads to the American Revolution
Monday: Today is reserved for you to get started on your book club assignment. This week, please read chapters 4-7 of Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge. (You don't have to read it all today!)
Tuesday:
What do you know about the American Revolution? What do most people know about the American Revolution? Survey your family/neighbors/etc. (in person or on social media) to find out what most people know. This is important and we will come back to it later! Try to talk to as many people as you can.
After recording your findings, think and write-- what information do you think is missing from this story? whose stories are missing? what might be more of a myth than truth?
We will come back to this work next Friday.
Wednesday & Thursday:
Read Zinn chapter four, "Tyranny is Tyranny"
As you read, write down new understandings, shifts in your thinking. Particularly, pay attention to things you learn that can be connected to current events. Try to come up with 3-5 connections to current events/our country today.
Friday: Discussion, 1PM on Zoom.
Week Three: The American Revolution
Monday:
Ona Judge ch. 8-11
Tuesday:
Read Zinn chapter five, "Revolutions," pg. 71-83 (we will read the last four pages of this chapter another week). As you read, write down new understandings and shifts in your thinking.
Wednesday:
Add a new column to your Padlet, titled "perspectives on the American Revolution." Using your reading from yesterday, add one box for each of the following groups of people, and write down how this group of people was impacted by or responded to the American Revolution.
1. Indigenous peoples
2. Black people
3. Rich, powerful, elite white Americans
4. Poor white farmers
Can you find any additional resources about how these groups of people responded to or were impacted by the Revolution? If so, add them to your Padlet.
Thursday:
Last week, you researched what most people think about the American Revolution. You have now spent two weeks learning some stories that may stand in contrast to what most people know. Look back at what you found out that most people know about the American Revolution, and think about the information that you've learned that might challenge or add to this story. Come up with a way to teach people the new stories that you have learned about the Revolutionary time period. This could be a blog post, a poster, a video, a comic, etc. Spend 30 minutes today creating this resource, and be ready to share it tomorrow.
Friday: Discussion, 1PM on Zoom.