The Real Story of the American Revolution 

Grades 6-8

You are here: Home > Themes > Resources 6-9

Curricula and Lesson Plans | Audio, Items | Web Challenges and Games | Documents and Books Maps and Graphics | Projects and Presentations | Virtual and Real Tours | Self-Study

Grades 0-5 Grades 9-12

Latest Changes: 07Sep06 - merge-split from resources / 07Sep30 - "Common Sense" by Paine / 07Oct15 - split off curricula /

On-line Challenges and Games  The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) has produced a TV series on the American Revolution. Called Liberty!, it has several interactive sections of interest to youth and educators: --- Perspectives on Liberty --- The Road to Revolution Game -- Test your knowledge about the American Revolution, and see if you can navigate your way to independence. Every correct answer gets you closer to liberty! FREE -- Web Challenge: Test your understanding of what liberties are protected in the U.S. as you help rescue the Bill of Rights through this interactive video game       [from the U.S. Constitution Center] FREE -- The Education Arcade is a collaboration between the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT, and the University of Wisconsin. It develops games that engage players' intellects. Revolution is a multiplayer role-playing game set in 1770s Virginia. It teaches about life in Virginia just before the American Revolution. FREE -- Many annotated links [Yahoo.com] related to the American Revolution. These describe dozens of sites with information, quizzes, and games. NOTE: The Web site for Liberty Kids [developed for the Public Broadcasting System and then posted on Yahooligans as streaming video files] disappeared in 2005. This was a cartoon series of 40 episodes that followed the lives of several fictional young colonists as they become involved with the origins, major figures, and key events of the American Revolution. We hope it will re-appear at a later date.

Go to top

Classroom Resources - Items, Audio  COST -- eParks is the bookstore for the National Park system. Here you can find books, toys, pins, patches, and simulated artifacts related to the American Revolutionary. COST -- [SAR Merchandise] has posters, Continental dollars, parchment-like documents, desk set miniatures. FREE -- Colonial Williamsburg offers "podcasts" -- MP3 audio files -- for classroom use: Bill Barker, interpreting Thomas Jefferson, reads the Declaration of Independence Harvey Bakari notes that in the nation’s early days liberty was not guaranteed for African Americans Carolyn Wilson interprets Betty Randolph who, as Peyton Randolph's wife, was typical of the wifes who enabled their husbands to fight for freedom. wives enabled their husbands to fight for freedom FREE -- A half-hour of fife and drum music by the Nathan Hale Ancient Fifes & Drums, Inc., Coventry CT are available at this National Park Service site. You can hear many selections that were used to relieve the tedium of a long march, to give commands in camp or during battle, and to entertain townspeople or officials during a parade and review. The Nathan Hale Ancient Fifes & Drums sells a CD of their music through the Web site www.bobcastillo.org/nhrecord.htm FREE -- "Keyholes to History" are 52 public service announcements with Revolutionary War themes, written and recorded for every week of the year (52) by the Florida Society SAR. They are available free of copyright and may be used as announcements to start the school week or to supplement specific curriculum topics. Listing by date / Listing by topic You may search the Massachusetts Moments Web site for "American Revolution" and get printable and MP3 audio files for items such as The life of James Otis -- one of the first Americans to articulate the colonists' complaints against the tyranny of a distant government.

Books, CDs, DVDs, Other Documentary Resources  FREE -- The full text of many documents related to U.S. independence are posted at The American Revolution - a Documentary History [Avalon Project at Yale Law School] FREE -- The Library of Congress Link List is a source of sites that have useful educational content. COST -- Hundreds of books, videos, and CDs are available through Social Studies Schools Service Click on "U.S. History" and then click on "Revolutionary Era (1763-1789)". COST -- [SAR Merchandise] has " Where America Began, 1776" on DVD and other video and audio disks on the Revolution. COST -- Adventures of Young Heroes and Heroines in American History are featured in a series of books: The Young Patriots [Patria Press] COST -- The Elementary Common Sense of Thomas Paine (ISBN 978-1-932714-36-4; 6 x 9, 192 page), by Mark Wilensky (Savas Beatie, El Dorado Hills CA, 2008), is an illustrated adaptation -- designed for fifth-grade students -- of Common Sense, by Thomas Paine. The author's site provides sample pages and allows downloads of the entire original text by Thomas Paine. The book is now (2008 July) available from Savas Beatie for $18.95

Maps Online  Maps of the American Revolution (Levanthal Map Center, Boston Public Library) has several high-resolution military maps of the Boston area.

Student Projects and Presentations  National History Day provides an opportunity for students in grades 6-12 to explore many topics in history along a specified national theme and to learn both by doing researh and by seeing how other students did research and presented their topics. NHD home page Analyzing a Colonial Newspaper [History Matters]: Scholars In Action presents a case study of how a scholar interprets historical evidence. The base document is an article -- published in the Patriot press in 1775 -- which describes a political demonstration in Providence, Rhode Island, where protesters burned tea and Loyalist newspapers. Transcribing Documents continues as new documents are found and collections of paper documents with stains and bad handwriting are made more broadly accessible by transcribing them into printed format for distribution via paper or electronic form. One such projecty has been undertaken by the Friends of the Delaware Archives, currently processing 2,500 images of documents related to the Revolutionary War. Their work-in-progress guidelines and examples are shown on the Delaware Military Archives Page.

Go to top

Virtual Tours  Colonial Williamsburg offers Electronic Field Trips, which allow classes to interact with docents and living historians at Colonial Williamsburg. Schools must register for this and set aside class time for this during at the days of the presentations. The presentations are also broadcast (non-interactively) on many Public Television networks. Topics change each July. Some recent topics are "Soldier of Liberty", "Remember the Ladies", and "A Publick Education".       Description and a Sample Lighting Freedom's Flame is the National Park Service's (NPS) theme for the 225th anniversary commemoration of the American Revolution (over eight years, 1775-1783 = 2000-2008), with educational resources and descriptions of key events and people. See also RSARHeritage Tours area

Self-study  Are you polite? George Washington was highly respected and effective because he understood that being polite usually produces better results than being rude. At the age of sixteen he copied into his notebook Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation [Colonial Williamsburg] You may be polite and still present your views in a powerful manner. Washington had strong convictions, and he promoted them vigorously -- for example in the letters he wrote to the Continental Congress describing the needs of the Continental Army. In life-and-death situations (such as when American troops were being routed at the battles of White Plains and Monmouth) he acted forcefully to rally the officers and soldiers. What did he do in those two battles?

... --- ... \\\ !!! SPIES !!! / / / ...- ...- Information about enemy troop strength and placement, resources, and battle plans can be the key to victory, turning a hopeless position into a stunning victory. Intelligence may be gathered by agents who penetrate enemy lines (spies), from residents in enemy terrritory who are friendly to your cause, or from a careful analysis of information that is in the readily available (newspapers, observation of transportation routes, radio traffic, etc.) Intelligence in the War of Independence [U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Washington DC, 2005] provides a professional review of the U.S. intelligence structure during the American Revolution. The material is also available as an 45-page booklet with full-color illustrations. The outline of the material follows: Credits and Contacts Letter from G. Washington Organization of Intelligence: The Committee of Secret Correspondence; The Secret Committee; The Committee on Spies Intelligence Operations: Political Action; Covert Action; Foreign Intelligence; Wartime Special Operations; Counterintelligence; Deception Operations; Propaganda Intelligence Techniques: Secrecy and Protection; Cover; Disguise; Secret Writing; Codes and Ciphers; Intercepting Communications; Technology; Intelligence Analysis and Estimates Personalities: George Washington; Washington's Intelligence Officers; Paul Revere and the Mechanics; Martyrs and Heroes Suggested Readings Spy Letters of the American Revolution [Univ. of Michigan] tells many stories that the participants tried to keep secret.

Go to top