Day 2 Morning - Colonialism and Revolution

[Stephanie Campbell]

Please write your reflection of Wednesday morning here.

[Susan Joling]

I think I'm going to use the Civil War as the topic for my final project. Since I'm a "whole to part" kind of person, I really would like to have at least a scaffold of a unit plan before I gather things in an ARS.

I enjoyed hearing about the first American National Anthem by William Billings. I loved the vocabulary in "Chester" and I think kids would like it too. The actual tune of the song was kind of boring, only saved by the very patriotic and strident drumming. I will definitely use this with my students to do a close read and talk about the affects of music and how it was used as propaganda in the war effort.

I was curious about the story of the Benjamin West painting where he left it 2/3 of the way completed because the British refused to show up. I tried searching a bit for additional information, but it would be helpful to know th ename of the painting. I was also interested in the horn books, dance cards, and Revolutionary era money. What might be interesting is to expose students to primary sources like these and then have them create artifacts in a table tableau, maybe "artifacts that tell a story" or something like that.

 

[Michelle Bowzer]

I could really see myself using the idea of looking at "Chester."  I think that students could get a lot out of looking at the lyrics of the song and determine what message was being presented.  Then listening to the music and trying to determine why it might have been presented like that.  I think that it would be a really neat activity to have the students then compare it to the modern national anthem.  

I think it also might be fun to have the students do the waltz.  It would be a fun way to tie students in with the time period we are studying.  The Jefferson and Liberty would also be neat to do with a class and then doing a comparison of the two types of dances.

I also could see myself using the money activity.  It would be an interesting lesson for my students to do and I think that they could have a conversation about the problem raised by this and give a glimpse as to the complexities of life in the newly formed America.

[Matt Anderson]

I really enjoyed dancing the waltz.  It is much easier than the minuet and it is something I think my kids would enjoy.  We listen to a lot of songs that are in 3/4 time and I could use this to get them moving.  I have done some dances with my students before and they love to learn new dances.