I will read the "found break-up note". This is a note I have written out, acting as a student, but am telling the students the janitor found this note last night while cleaning. This note will be a pretend break-up between two students, and will list reasons for it. This will grab the students' attention and get them engaged.
I will then reveal it was a fake note, and the students will then be asked to complete a quick admit slip asking what they know to be the Colonies' reasons for breaking up with Great Britain.
I will then show the parody video: "Too Late to Apologize" and instruct the students to take quick notes of things/phrases/terms that stand out to them.
This will give them visuals and set the tone for the atmosphere during this movement.
They will then use Pirate Pad (piratepad.net) to write their own "Declaration of Independence" from someone (parent, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc) stating grievances and publish them for each other to see and comment on.
We will then discuss this activity listing some of their reasons and compare them to the grievances of the colonists.
This entire activity will be done on computers in the classroom to have a discussion/debate solely online. This is intended to analyze the concepts of the Declaration of Independence, identify grievances of the colonists, and defend their own arguments as well as evaluating others'.
We will close the lesson with an exit slip where I will ask the students to give me a couple reasons they feel the colonists were justified in declaring independence. They will get this crossword puzzle as a vocab activity for homework:
http://www.whenwecrosswords.com/crossword/the_break-up/34297/crossword.jsp
I just embedded the crossword puzzle and answers onto my site and my kid showed me a whole list of youtube history spoof songs
ReplyDeleteOh my, you better share those! That's awesome!
DeleteI love your hook to grab the students attention. I think that will really get them into the the lesson. Bringing in real life relationships for students to give grievances about is pretty cool too. I also see you found a way to use your favorite video too, overall I think this lesson will be fun. I wish I had something like this taught to me on the Declaration rather, "here's a copy read it."
ReplyDeleteYou know I had to find a way! :) But thanks for the good review!
DeleteI love that you're giving kids a chance to be creative with writing their own "declaration," that sounds fun. Also, what's the story with that crossword puzzle, did you generate it yourself? I've never heard of that site, that's so awesome!
ReplyDeleteYep! I generated it myself, I just googled "crossword maker" and clicked around until I found one that was free. It was super easy to do too! Took me about 10 minutes! And there's another link for the answers:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.whenwecrosswords.com/crossword/the_break-up/34297/crossword_answer.jsp
(copy and paste that, I can't figure out how to hyperlink it)
Nevermind, apparently it hyperlinks itself, LOL
DeleteThank you!!
Deletethe video is cool and the letter gives you a primary source for information.
ReplyDeleteKaitlyn,
ReplyDeleteI found your video to be the most helpful on your page. It gives the viewer of your blog a great way of understanding what you are trying to get across.
I think your layout was to the point and easy to follow. I like the video you picked, I also think the crossword was a great idea and would keep the students involved.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of having the kids write their own version of the Declaration of Independence. I think it gives them some idea of how much thought and work our founding father went through in drafting the Declaration of Independence.
ReplyDelete