What Was the American Revolution?

A WebQuest for 11th Grade (History) Designed by Adam Williamson adamswilliamson@gmail.com

Introduction
After the Great Technology Mess-Up of 2700, knowledge about history has been fuzzy at best. While there have been many documents recovered from before the time period, the impermanence of electronic documents and the deterioration of physical documents has left many confused about the nature of early history. Fortunately, time-travel can help solve the problem. Your teacher has sent you back from the year 2776, supposedly a thousand years after the founding of a country called Merica. Your assignment is simple find out as much about the founding of the country as possible, and report back. Any information you bring with you can help rebuild the knowledge of the past. Theres one problem your time machine shorted out in 2012. Youre now stuck with only the resources of the early 21st Century to find out what really happened! Fortunately, your on-board computer can help
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you gather the information that you need by accessing an ancient source reportedly called the Inter-Net. Now all you have to do is figure out as much as you can about the event that birthed a nation. Your target? The American Revolution

Your Mission
Your teacher wants you to bring back a few facts.

What caused the Revolution? Where was it fought? How was it fought? Who fought in it? What were the repercussions?

The Process
To accomplish the task, what steps should the learners go through? Use the numbered list format in your web editor to automatically number the steps in the procedure. Describing this section well will help other teachers to see how your lesson flows and how they might adapt it for their own use, so the more detail and care you put into this, the better. Remember that this whole document is addressed to the student, however, so describe the steps using the second person. 1. First, consider your character. Where are you from? What is the 28th Century like? Is it weird to use the internet? 2. Get ready to take notes. Your paper will have three sections Before, During, and After. 3. Once you have figured that out, it is time to do a bit of research. Lets start with an important document the Declaration of Independence. What does it tell you? What do you need to know to understand it? 4. Time to go further back. Use the internet to find out what caused the Declaration. You might want to check here, here, and here. Outside sources are fine, too. 5. Describe what you have learned about the causes of the Revolution. 6. Now it is time to learn a bit about what happened during the Revolution. This source, as well as this source, can give you a bit of background.
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7. Does it seem like the events are in line with the Declaration? What did people think about the Revolution? You might want to think about this document, or maybe even this document. 8. There were battles, too. Compare this battle with this battle. How did things change? 9. Describe the course of the Revolution and its battles. 10. Finally, it is time to figure out how the Revolution changed the country. You should start here, with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 11. Consider how the Revolution shaped the country to come. What did people think about the Constitution? Take a look at the controversy surrounding the document here and here. 12. Describe the years after the Revolution, and how the founding of the country was impacted. You might want to consider this source, but also consider what you know about American history in general. 13. Youve done your research, now come to a conclusion about the Revolution. What was it? How did it happen? What did it change?

Remember, your paper should take the following shape:

INTRODUCTION WHAT CAUSED THE REVOLUTION? DURING THE REVOLUTION AFTER THE REVOLUTION CONCLUSION

Your paper should be no less than four pages.

Evaluation
Beginning D/F Does not use provided Developing Accomplished B-/C+/C Uses few resources, or B/B+/AUses multiple resources in a Exemplary A/A+ Uses most resources, Score

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Resource Usage

resources or multiple uses resources out resources of context. completely out of context

logical manner.

gathers outside material and uses all information in context Writes from point of view of character and incorporates that view into conclusions made

Character

Fails to take note of character

Mentions character, but does make use of character in assignment

Writes from point of view of character

Presents an exemplary understanding Historical Displays a Identifies all of the Understanding Displays little basic events causation and or no understanding correctly. events of the understanding of the Displays an Revolutionary of Revolution, Revolution, understanding War. misidentifies identifies of the time Understands all or most most events period and nuances of events correctly. culture. the time period and political situation Presents information in Presents Presents Presents an unusual or information of relevant relevant especially little or no information in information in informative historical a basic an informative manner that value manner. manner. keeps to the spirit of the assignment. Comes to unique, Makes educated completely conclusions correct based on the conclusions or presented compelling subject arguments for matter. conclusions Presents based on conclusions in subject matter a reasoned and detailed manner .

Information Displayed

Conclusions

Includes no conclusion

Includes a basic conclusion/ Conclusions might be based on faulty logic

Conclusion
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By the time you are finished, you should know a bit more about the American Revolution than the average 28th Century citizen or the average 21st Century citizen, for that matter. You should understand that the Revolution not only had several causes, but that not everything about it was clear-cut. You should also understand that the nature of the Revolution led to consequences that would not be felt until many years had gone by.

Credits & References

The Declaration of Independence, at http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html Causes of the American Revolution http://americanhistory.about.com/od/revolutionarywar/a/amer_revolution.htm The Revolution: Opening Events and Causes http://www.usahistory.info/American-Revolution/ The American Revolution: Causes of Conflict http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/americanrevolution/a/amrevcauses.htm The American Revolution http://theamericanrevolution.org/timeline.aspx Liberty! The American Revolution http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle.html The American Crisis, by Thomas Paine http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Paine/Crisis/Crisis-TOC.html John Adams on the American Revolution http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116854 The Battle of Lexington and Concord http://www.theamericanrevolution.org/battledetail.aspx?battle=1 The Battle of Saratoga http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/maps/saratogamap/ Constitution of the United States http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html The Bill of Rights http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/BillOfRights.html Anti-Federalist Papers
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http://www.constitution.org/afp/afp.htm Federalist Papers http://www.crf-usa.org/foundations-of-our-constitution/the-federalist-papers.html

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