Teaching America History Lesson Plan
Lori Lioy
Atherwood Elementary, SVUSD
Grade 5
Standard 5.6.3
Identify different roles women played during the Revolution (e.g. Abigail Adams, Martha
Washington, Molly Pitcher, Phillis Wheatley, Mercy Otis Warren.)
Understanding the contributions of Women during the American Revolution
Objective
Students will be able to identify significant women in history and explain the importance
of their contributions before, during, and after the war. Students will have a greater
appreciation for the roles that women had at that time in history.
Lesson
Basic background information will be given about the following women Patriots using
the Scott Foresman Socials Studies text for 5th grade: Mercy Otis Warren, Phillis
Wheatley, Martha Washington, Molly Pitcher, Deborah Sampson, Abigail Adams, Sybil
Ludington.
Students will read the text and through classroom discussion make a chart using graphic
organizers that outline important contributions of each woman.
Additional information and perspective will be introduced through the following
Children’s literature. Teacher will read excerpts that relate more of the personal back
stories and consequences of their actions during the revolution.
Outrageous Women of Coloinial America by Mary Furbee
Independent Dames by Laurie Halse Anderson
Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak by Kay Winters
Students will add notes to their charts as they listen and discuss the selections.
Discussion questions will include:
How did the contributions of women during the revolution differ from the men?
What kinds of daily jobs or chores did women have then?
How do women support wars today?
How did women affect the economy during the war?
How did women protest and oppose British taxes and actions?
All discussion questions will be discussed in partners and then shared out to the larger
group. Student will be asked to restate the conclusions and comments of others to clarify
he points being made by others.
Methods/strategies
Students will be actively participating in the lesson throughout. They will read, take
notes, share with their partners and comment on other student comments.
Students will then choose the Patriot they would like to know more about and present a
readers theater piece from the book Whose Tale is True by Nancy Polette Each student
group will work together to rehearse the Reader’s Theater piece and each group will
present to the class. At the end of each presentation students can add details to the
graphic organizers begun during the first half of the lesson..
Techniques for Checking Understanding
Students will pair up for oral “10,000 pyramid’ game. Each student will have a chance to
be clue giver and receiver as they guess the name of each mystery woman. Students can
use their notes and charts during clue giving role.
Student comprehension
Following the lesson there will be a short quiz requiring students to match the names of
individual women with their most significant contribution.
Students will create riddles using information from their notes about each woman.
Riddles will be written on index cards and students will have the opportunity to cruise the
room and ask one another to guess the Patriot.
Example_ This patriot was only 16 years old. She was very brave.
She could ride a horse really well. She is sometimes called the f
female Paul Revere.
Activities
Students will complete one of the written activities below to express their understanding
of the motivations and struggles faced by these women.
Activity 1
Create a brief introduction about themselves as one of the women discussed. They will
give information about a their lives with a focus on their actions during the Revolutionary
War. They will also be asked to comment on the feelings they had during this difficult
time. Students will then visit primary classrooms to present their writings orally as part
of Women in History month.
Activity 2
Choose one of the women in our unit and write a journal entry as if you are that
individual. You will need to include actual facts including names dates, places and
events from our reading. You must also analyze and decide what the possible feelings of
each woman might have been.
Differentiation
GATE
Students will be given extension choices and will be expected to complete one of the
following:
Write their own riddles about male heroes of the revolution using the models that were
introduced for the women in this lesson.
Create a political cartoon that highlights an action taken or view expressed by one of the
women studied in the lesson.
Compare and Contrast the contributions of one male Patriot to one female Patriot in a two
column chart or Venn Diagram.
Research a woman in history during the Revolution that was no discussed and write a
brief biographical report about them.