This is an example of the critical components of a unit focusing on the Organizer, Essential Questions, Targeted Standards, Culminating Performance and Rubric and does not include the Knowledge, Skills & Abilities, Critical Resources or Instructional Activities.
The Road To Revolution
By Nancy Gilligan and Donna Shouse, Social Studies Content Specialists
School Level: Elementary School
Area(s) of Core Content: Reading, Writing, and Social Studies
Organizer
:Americans at times still find themselves called upon to fight for their beliefs. Have the beliefs stated in the Declaration of Independence affected your beliefs today?
Essential Questions
:1. What were the causes of the American Revolutionary War?
2. Why would some people have been Loyalists during the Revolutionary War?
3. Why would some people have been Patriots during the Revolutionary War?
4. What beliefs are included in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence? Do these beliefs still affect us today?
Targeted Standards
:Academic Expectation 1--Apply Communication and Math Skills:
1.2 Students make sense of the variety of materials they read.
1.11 Students write using appropriate forms, conventions, and styles to communicate ideas and information to different audiences for different purposes
- Use writing as a learning tool.
.Academic Expectation 2--Social Studies:
2.14 Students understand the democratic principles of justice, equality, responsibility, and freedom and apply them to real-life situations.
- Recognize and demonstrate respect for different viewpoints.
2.15 Students can accurately describe various forms of government and analyze issues that relate to the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy.
- Identify sources of authority.
- Explore the purposes and functions of local, state, and national governments.
2.20 Students understand, analyze, and interpret historical events, conditions, trends, and issues to develop historical perspective.
- Recognize continuity and change.
- Examine cause-and-effect and multiple causation.
- Explore temporal relationships of historical events.
Academic Expectation 5--Thinking and Problem Solving:
5.4 Students use a decision-making process to make informed decisions among options.
- Analyze alternatives; make a decision
Academic Expectation 6--Integration of Knowledge:
6.2 Students use what they already know to acquire new knowledge, develop new skills, or interpret new experiences.
- Make predictions based on information.
Elementary Core Content--Reading
:-RD-E-1.0.6 Explain the meaning of a passage taken from texts appropriate for elementary school students.
-RD-E-1.0.10 Connect literature to students' lives and real world issues.
-RD-E-2.0.9 Make predictions and draw conclusions based on what is read.
-RD-E-2.0.10 Connect the content of a passage to students' lives and/or real world issues.
Elementary Core Content--Writing:
-WR-E-1 Idea Development--The writer develops and supports main ideas and deepens the audience's understanding by using: logical, justified, and suitable explanation; relevant elaboration; related connections and reflections; idea development strategies appropriate for the form
Elementary Core Content--Social Studies:
-SS-E-1.1.2 The purpose of a government's rules and laws (e.g., U.S. Constitution, school rules) is to establish and maintain order.
-SS-E-1.3.1 Rights and responsibilities of the individual are determined by specific roles within various groups, including family, peer group, class, school, community, state, and country.
-SS-E-5.1.3 Historical events have multiple causes.
-SS-E-5.2.4 The study of U.S. history is categorized into broad historical periods and eras (Land and People before Columbus, Age of Exploration, Colonization, War for Independence, the Young Republic, Westward Expansion, Industrialism, the Twentieth Century).
Culminating Performance
:1. Town Meeting in 1776
- Students assume the roles of loyalists, patriots, and neutrals in a town meeting. The issue being discussed is whether to declare independence from England or not. The loyalists and the patriots are going to try to persuade the neutrals to accept their viewpoint.
- Following the town meeting simulation the students will individually write a dialogue between 1) a patriot and a loyalist, 2) a patriot and a neutral, or 3) a loyalist and a neutral. The dialogue should include 3 major ideas of either the patriots or the loyalists. The dialogue should also include an explanation for each idea.
2. Open Response Question: Select two beliefs included in the Declaration of Independence. Do these beliefs still affect us today? Defend your position with one reason for each belief explaining why it does or doesn’t affect us today.
Scoring Guide for Assessment 1
Level 4
:The student identifies three patriot or loyalist’s beliefs.
The student explains each idea using extensive detail.
The student communicates information in an organized manner so that others can understand/
Level 3:
The student identifies three patriot or loyalist’s beliefs.
The student explains each idea using broad detail
The student communicates information with some lapses in organization
Level 2:
The student identifies two patriot or loyalist’s beliefs.
The student explains each idea using basic detail
The student communicates reasonably, but demonstrates poor organization and includes some inaccurate information.
Level 1:
The student identifies only one belief of a patriot or a loyalist
The student explains the ides using minimal detail
The student demonstrates poor organization and includes inaccurate information.
Scoring Guide for Assessment 2
Level 4
:The student identifies two beliefs included in the Declaration of Independence.
The student defends his/her position with at least one reason using extensive detail in the explanation.
The student communicates information in an organized manner so that others can understand/
Level 3:
The student identifies two beliefs included in the Declaration of Independence.
The student defends his/her position with one reason using broad detail in the explanation
The student communicates information with some lapses in organization
Level 2:
The student identifies one belief included in the Declaration of Independence.
The student defends his or her position with one reason using basic detail in the explanation.
The student communicates reasonably, but demonstrates poor organization and includes some inaccurate information.
Level 1:
The student identifies only one belief in the Declaration of Independence.
The student defends his/her position with one reason using minimal detail or no detail at all
The student demonstrates poor organization and includes inaccurate information.
Knowledge
:Skills/Abilities
:Instructional/Assessment Activities:
Critical Resources
:
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