Designed by Scott Deal

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The American Revolutionary War lasted from 1775 to 1783. The conflict was between the thirteen North American colonies and British. Both the American Colonists and British had different perspectives on the war. The follow documents are primary sources from both the American Colonists and British. As you analyze and examine the documents, take into account the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document. I want the students to use evidence to support their answers to the questions pertaining to each document and form an argument based on what they have learned and think.

Generative Question: Did the American Colonists have legitimate motivations for initiating war and separating from Britain?

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, 1851 Source

Thomas Paine published a pamphlet titled "Common Sense" in 1776. His ideas within the document challenged the authority of the British government and royal monarchy and he argued for independence from Great Britain.

Excerpts from Thomas Paine's "Common Sense"

Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of Great Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, "Come, come we shall be friends again for all this". But… Then tell me whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land?

… No man was a warmer wisher for a (peaceful settlement) than myself, before the fatal 19th of April 1775 (the battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, occurred on this day), but the moment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen-tempered (King of England) for ever.

Scaffolding Questions:• Why did Thomas Paine focus his audience toward the common people?• Why was Paine unwilling to be reconciled with Britain?

https://archive.org/details/commonsense00painrich

Thomas Whately, author of the Stamp Act, wrote a pamphlet labeled, "Considerations..." in 1766. Whately was an advisor to George Grenville, British Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1763 to 1765. Inside this document, Whately describes why the British were justified in imposing taxes on American colonists.

Excerpts from Thomas Whately's "Considerations..."

Scaffolding Questions:• Why did Whately feel that the American colonists should be willing to pay higher taxes to Parliament?

We are not yet recovered from a War undertaken solely for their (the Americans') protection… a War undertaken for their defense only… They should contribute to the preservation of the advantages they have received…

Source

Paul Revere engraved this picture of the Boston Massacre in 1770.

Scaffolding Questions:• Why would Paul Revere engrave this event?• What might the colonists think of the event and the British after seeing this picture?

Source

British Cartoon published by Sayer and Bennett in London in 1774.

Scaffolding Questions:• How would this cartoon influence British people?• How might colonists react to this photo?

Source

John Dickinson wrote "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" from 1767-1768. Dickinson was a Pennsylvania political leader who served in the Stamp Act Congress of 1765. Later in his career, he served in the Continental Congress and then the Constitutional Convention. In the following statement, Dickinson condemned some of the new taxes being imposed by Parliament.

Excerpts from John Dickinson's "Letter From A Farmer"

There is another late act of Parliament, which appears to me to be unconstitutional, and… Destructive to the liberty of these colonies… The parliament unquestionably possesses a legal authority to regulate the trade of Great Britain and all her colonies. I have looked over every statute (law) relating to these colonies, from their first settlement to this time; and I find every one of them founded on this principle, till the Stamp Act administration… All before, I calculated to regulate trade… The raising of revenue… Was never intended… Never did the British Parliament, (until the passage of the Stamp Act) think of imposing duties in America for the purpose of raising a revenue.

[The Townshend Acts claim the authority] to impose duties on these colonies, not the regulation of trade… But for the single purpose of levying money upon us.

Scaffolding Questions:• According to Dickinson, what taxes was Parliament justified in imposing on the colonies?• Why did he object to the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts?

Source

Nicholas Cresswell was an Englishman who wrote about his travels though the American Colonies in 1774-1777. The following excerpts are dated October 19, 1774 and tell of his visit to Alexandria, Virginia. (From The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774 – 1777, edited by Samuel Thornley. New York: The Dial Press, Inc., 1924)

Excerpts from Nicholas Cresswell's "The Journal of

Everything here is in the utmost confusion. Committees are appointed to inspect into the characters and conduct of every tradesman, to prevent them selling tea or buying British manufactures. Some of them have been tarred and feathered, others had their property burnt and destroyed by the populace…

The King Is openly cursed, and his authority set at defiance… Everything is ripe for rebellion. The New Englanders by their canting, whining, insinuating tricks have persuaded the rest of the colonies that the government is going to make absolute slaves of them.

Scaffolding Questions:• Who did Cresswell blame for the growing antagonism between the British and the American colonists?

Source

Designing a Document Based Question, or DBQ, has been a great experience. I learned the importance of creating a dynamic generative/essential question that serves as the framework of the assignment. Just as critical, are the five to eight related documents that will assist the students in answering the generative question. The documents can be sources including images, texts, videos, or audio. Each document will also include scaffolding questions to assist the student in examining the document.

The goal of the DBQ I created was to design and utilize a generative question, documents, and scaffolding questions that incorporated historical thinking skills. I wanted students to analyze the documents, gather evidence from the sources and create an argument, or side, about a topic. The topic of my DBQ is the American Revolutionary War. This DBQ could be used as a conclusion of a unit.

I think the DBQ assignment process has given me a great deal of value as a learning experience. Creating interesting and engaging questions and finding quality sources has helped me learn and work through the process of finding content for my classroom. The challenges I had were making sure the assignment incorporated proper historical thinking skills. I found a lot of success in discovering a variety of documents and sources. Some of the lessons I learned were the importance of peer review and advice from peers.

Next time, I would approach this assignment with the intent of finding more engaging documents such as video and audio. I thought this assignment was clear and intriguing. I look forward to creating a DBQ assignment in my future career. ~ Scott Deal LinkedIn

Reflection

Complete iBook available free at iTunes

FROM - EXPLORING HISTORY: VOL II

This eBook is a collaborative project of Peter Pappas and his Fall 2014 Social Studies Methods Class School of Education ~ University of Portland, Portland Ore.

Graduate and undergraduate level pre-service teachers were assigned the task of developing an engaging research question, researching supportive documents and curating them into a DBQ suitable for middle or high school students.

For more on this class, visit the course blog EdMethods For more on the assignment and work flow tap here.

Chapters in chronological order1. The American Revolution by Scott Deal

2. The Pig War by Andy Saxton

3. Cesspool of Savagery by Michelle Murphy

4. Chemical War by Erik Nelson

5. Americans’ Perceptions of Immigration in the 1920s by Ceci Brunning and Jenna Bunnell

6. The New Deal and the Art of Public Persuasion by Kari VanKommer

7. Combat Soldiers in Context by Kristi Anne McKenzie

8. The Marshall Plan: Altruism or Pragmatism? by Sam Kimerling

9. Little Rock Nine: Evaluating Historical Sources by Christy Thomas

10. First Ladies as a Political Tool by Emily Strocher

EXPLORING HISTORY: VOL II

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Engaging questions and historic documents empower students to be the historian in the classroom.

Cover image: Replica of old French globeDate:1 January 1, 2013Petar Milošević

Peter Pappas, editor School of Education ~ University of Portland

His popular blog, Copy/Paste features downloads of his instructional resources, projects and publications. Follow him at Twitter @edteck. His other multi-touch eBooks are available at here. For an example of one of his eBook design training workshops tap here.

CC BY-NC 3.0 Peter Pappas and his students, 2014

The authors take copyright infringement seriously. If any copyright holder has been inadvertently or unintentionally overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to remove the said material from this book at the very first opportunity.

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