Live from the American Revolution

Submitted by: Ryan Stein
Collaborators: EPrincipal: Kirk Eggleston, Music Teacher: Erin Franklin, Librarian: Jane Ruffa, ITRT: David Clough,
4th Grade Teachers: Kelly Becker, Jayne Bluford, & Ryan Hirtz
School: Pinchbeck Elementary School

Summary

Live from the American Revolution is an innovative play fully written and developed by 4th grade students. This unique performance provided an ample opportunity for enriched learning at a deeper, more meaningful level, motivating students to use critical thinking skills to assess the important people, events, and battles from the American Revolution. Students created a play bill, a commercial, and marketing materials for Live from the American Revolution. Through independent work centers, students produced animated historical pictures, online scrapbooks, kerpoof pictures, comic strips, and online quizzes and games. Furthermore, students watched movies from unitedstreaming.com, memorized songs, and traveled on the weekend with their teacher to see a reenactment of Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the American Revolution. All these projects, as well as the live performance of the play, which Channel 99 filmed and posted on School Matters, were posted on Mr. Stein’s interactive blog and inserted on an American Revolution GLOG for students, parents, and other teachers throughout Virginia to access.

TIPC Ratings

Ideal/Target – After students were given direct instruction, each group used multiple resources (web-base research sites and research books) to draw conclusions based on patterns of evidence to produce new understandings, the scripts and actions for the characters in their scene. Students used their researched information to create animated historical pictures, online scrapbooks, kerpoof pictures, comic strips, and online quizzes and games. Students researched their own questions as well as assignment-driven questions, and they evaluated the resources for authority and accuracy.

Ideal/Target – This lesson offered extensive communication and collaboration. Each student took on a specific role within their work groups as they contributed to the final product. Their project was shared with a live audience, on TV, as well as on the Internet.

Ideal/Target – Students used multiple resources to plan and design the American Revolution from their own eyes and perspectives. They worked on an authentic task (live performance) and solved their own problems.

Ideal/Target – This lesson allowed students to apply critical thinking and research methods to create original work. Their projects involved risk-taking and going beyond the assignment parameters.