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The Immediate and Long Term Causes of the American Revolution_LP1
Melba Moon
American Revolution: Issues that forged a Nation
The focus of this lesson is to examine the causes of the American Revolution and help students identify social, economic, and political aspects of the long term and immediate causes of the Revolution. Students will discover how these issues led to rebellion and how each was a determining factor leading to the Revolution.
The students will have read the portion of their textbook related to the causes of the American Revolution prior to this class period. This assignment will help them delve into these issues and classify them in the categories of immediate or long term causes, and as a social, economic or political factor.
Teacher will lead a discussion of why teenagers rebel against parental control. These issues will then be divided into social, political/control, or economic reasons, and a correlation drawn between these and the reasons for the colonist rebellion. This will lead students into the lesson and create interest as they try to connect the issues.
Handouts of selected documents. or website of these selections
Thomas Paine:
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/singlehtml.htm
www.plato.stanford.edu/entries.locke
http://www.usahistory.info/American-Revolution/
http://www.usahistory.info/American-Revolution/
Paine, Thomas. Collected Writings. New York: Library of America, 1995.
Text book: Georgia Studies or American Nation/Prentice Hall
Worksheet for long term/immediate causes
Worksheet for social, political, economic aspects of causes
Worksheet list of causes
Half sheets of white paper
Bulletin board headers: Rebellion, Economic=allowance, Social=peer pressure, Political=Control
Chart with definition of causes of Revolution (This will help students identify which area the cause should be listed.)
Board where causes can be organized
one class period of 55 minutes
1
What was the impact of the social, political and economic characteristics of the long term and immediate causes of the American Revolution on the course of the rebellion?
Question:
Why do teenagers rebel against their parents?
List as many reasons as you can think of for rebellion.
Have a stack of half-sheets of paper and pass out several sheets to each student. Tell them to write one cause on each sheet. Give them a few minutes to come up with their reasons. Have a bulletin board set up with three columns titled: economic, social and control .(Or use the white board) The main title should be Rebellion. Ask students to attach their papers to the board under appropriate categories, or write out the list as students suggest causes.
Use more of the half sheets of paper and ask students to list what they know about the causes of the American Revolution. (at least 2)
Ask students to list what they would like to know about the causes of the American Revolution. (at least 1)
Give out the handout, Causes of the American Revolution
Go over the lists that the students have made and compare these with the list given of the long term and immediate causes of the American Revolution.
Continue with the chart of causes of rebellion from bell ringer--add to the heading of economic, social and control the categories of social/political-control/economic which are the focus of this lesson--of the reasons why teens rebel. Have students discover which causes go under which heading and how the reason for the rebellion in the colonies and teenage rebellion are alike. This will give the lesson a sense of connection to their own life experiences and ground the lesson in prior knowledge.
Step 1 On the board have three columns with headers from above. Start out with the words: allowance, peer pressure and control. From the bell ringer activity. Students staple or write their reasons under the appropriate column. This may require some discussion. The first student to come up with the reason, gets to put it up. Duplicates are not allowed on the board.
Step 2 Give out Declaration of Independence, Paine quote, and sheet of causes of Revolution with definitions. Use transparencies to show how Paine's writings and the Declaration of Independence express the ideas of John Locke. Use the website for Locke listed in the essay bibliography. www.plato.stanford.edu/entries.locke
Thomas Paine websites for quotes
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/singlehtml.htm
Step 3 Next, divide students into groups to complete this part of the exercise. Have students discuss which category each cause falls under and arrange on the board. Remove the headings on the bell ringer columns and replace with economic, social and political. Choose one group to begin organizing the first half of the causes on the board. They should take turns completing the sorting. Let the other groups check if they agree with where the causes are listed. With teacher guidance, some may be moved to another category. Ex. teen rebel due to strict parental control/colonist rebel due to crown's tightening control over colonies.
Step 4 Students will have a worksheet to organize these facts for their notes. They can copy or cut and paste as time and abilities permit.
Step 5 Give out the immediate and long term worksheet and organize the facts from the board in appropriate category using 1 for long term and 2 for immediate causes.
Review selected readings related to causes of the American Revolution which identify social, economic and political interests pertaining to the causes which will help students to identify these interests. Class discussion of the basis of these interests.
Websites for selected readings:
http://www.usahistory.info/American-Revolution/
http://www.usahistory.info/American-Revolution/
Students will discuss these causes by social, political or economic influences using a teacher guided model.(The teacher will guide the students to analyze what category each item would fall under. Discussion of such items will help discover if they are economic/social or political in nature) In doing this exercise the students should collapse the causes back into each other until they are left with an understanding that it was the overall issues of economics, politics and societal issues that brought about the struggle for independence and founding of a new nation.
A transparency which has been highlighted to help students find the important portions of the selected readings will help them to focus on the social, political and economic interests of the causes of the American Revolution.
Another strategy is to have the students cut and paste the causes into the appropriate columns. This is helpful when writing is an issue or if a more hands on style is required.
A good resource to reinforce this lesson is found at www.unitedstream.com "Count down to independence"
Use of the board chart will help to organize the information into manageable parts.
None
Thomas Paine_LP1 Moon
The Unanimous Declaration of Independence_LP1 Moon
Causes of the American Revolution_LP1 Moon
Causes Flash Cards_LP1 Moon