The American Revolution: A Chain Reaction

Evaluating the events surrounding the break with England

Grade Level: 6-12

Concept: Evaluate the cause and effect relationshipssurrounding the break with England

Estimated Duration: 40 minutes

Objectives

Students will be able to:

·  identify the major causes of the American Revolution

·  evaluate the significance of each event and its effects

Materials

White board, interactive white board or overhead projector

Colored paper

Pencils or pens

A Chain Reaction Chronology

Differentiation Strategies

These strategies are used to meet the varied needs of all learners:

·  Varying academic levels:uses heterogeneous grouping to allow students of differing abilities to support learning, uses small- and whole-group discussions to ensure all students participate

·  Visual learners:displays chronology of events visually

·  Auditory learners:uses small-group and whole-group discussion to engage students in ideas and to use content-specific vocabulary in their discussions

·  Kinesthetic learners:engages students in physically rearranging a chronology of events that led to the Revolutionary War

Key Vocabulary

customs duties

boycott

repeal

monopoly

Procedures

Warm Up

·  Ask the class to describe some cause and effect events in history. Explain that sometimes a chain of events begins with a small incident and develops into something that changes the world.

·  Tell the class that the American Revolution is such a development and that they are going to put the links in that chain together.

Direct Instruction

·  Divide the class into groups of four, pairing stronger students with more challenged students.

·  Give each set of four students 16 slips of colored paper. (Use a paper cutter to divide 8 sheets of pastel-colored paper into 64 equal slips).

·  On a white board or overhead, display the following events, underlining or writing key words in bold. A PDF download is available for easy copying.

·  (This is the order of events; rearrange them before presenting them to the students.)

1.  Parliament levies taxes on stamps to payfor the French and Indian War.

2.  The Virginia House of Burgesses votes on a resolution claiming Parliament is practicing "taxation without representation" because no Americans are not represented there.

3.  Stamp tax collectors arrive, but resistance is strong. Some Americans burn tax collectors’ houses.

4.  The British repeal the Stamp Act and Parliament passes customs duties on lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea.

5.  Colonists boycott British goodsand smuggle foreign goods.

6.  As imports decline ten thousand British troops arrive in America to help enforce tax laws and catch offenders.

7.  A crowd of men and boys throw sticks and snowballs at British soldiers outside the customs house in Boston.

8.  British troops kill five men, and colonists spread news of the"Boston Massacre."

9.  Angry colonists join the Sons of Liberty,the Daughters of Liberty, and Committees of Correspondence to create more active revolt.

10.  To break Americans’ resistance to taxes, Parliament gives the British East India Company a monopoly on tea that helps lower the price.

11.  Americans refuse to buy tea and colonists disguised as Indians throw 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor.

12.  Parliament removes Boston’s self-governmentby passing theIntolerable Acts.

13.  The colonies unite to aid the people of Massachusetts who are arming themselves, and the First Continental Congress meets.

14.  General Thomas Gage in sends British troops from Boston to Lexington and Concord to destroy colonial military supplies.

15.  Americans kill 250 British soldierson their march back to Boston and begin to gather on hills around the city.

16.  General Gage sends his men to capture Bunker (Breed’s) Hill. Forty percent of his men die. The war is on.

Practice

·  Have each group write the key words (in bold) from each of these events on the sixteen slips of paper. (Each student should write four.)

·  Tell students that the first event is when Parliament levies taxes on stamps. Each group should discuss and place the rest of the events in order, considering how causes and effects work together to make this a chain of events leading to the Revolution.

Assessment

·  Ask a person in the first group to explain the second event and how the group figured it out. Display the correct event on the chronology, uncovering each event on the overhead, so that students can see the correct order as it is revealed.

·  If group is correct, congratulate them and ask another person in a different group to name the third event, and so forth. If a person answers incorrectly and that group has an even out of order, discuss the reason that another event should precede it, then move on to the next event.

Closure

·  Ask students whether they believe that this chain of events could have been stopped from developing at any point.

·  Discuss: Was the Revolution inevitable?