Essential Questions Related to the Ohio Academic Content Standards
These essential questions represent topics analysis that challenge teachers and students in Ohio’s 8 th grade
classrooms. Please address as many as you feel you can do justice during your presentations.
Presentation
Topic
The Revolutionary
Era: Interpretive
Issues and Long-Term
Causes.
Presenter
Burke Miller
Essential Questions
Categorize events and factors:
 Contributing factors
 Underlying cuases
 Immediate causes
What was the majority opinion of each of the three groups (Patriots,
Loyalists, and neutral colonists) to the following events and legislation?
 The Proclamation of 1763,
 the Stamp Act,
 the Townshend Acts,
 the Tea Act and the Intolerable Acts;
 The Boston Tea Party,
 the boycotts,
 the Sons of Liberty and
 petitions and appeals to Parliament.
Are there significant minority opinions within each group over these
items?
What were other examples of colonists participating in civic life to attain
public goals? What were the loyalists and neutrals doing to push their
goals?
In what ways do the Sons of Liberty and Committees of Correspondence
illustrate the relationship of civic involvement and the attainment of public
goals?
Evaluate attempts at resolving the conflicts between colonists and Great
Britain.
Evaluate the impact of “Common Sense.”
Intellectual Origins of
the Declaration of
Independence
Bob Meckley
Are there common misconceptions, myths, or lies that you can help dispel
about this topic?
Trace the development of democratic processes in North America from
pre-1492 through colonial America and the Declaration of Independence.
Evaluate the purpose of the Declaration of Independence.
Trace the intellectual origins of key ideas in the Declaration of
Independence to Enlightenment ideas and historical documents such as the
Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, etc.
Are there common misconceptions, myths, or lies that you can help dispel
about this topic?
The Course of the
War
Burke Miller
Explain how the Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence
participated in civic actions to reach public goals.
What were other examples of colonists participating in civic life to attain
public goals? What were the loyalists and neutrals doing to push their
goals?
Describe the “character and significance” of the military struggle in the
North and the shift to the South after 1779. Please include specific
information on:
 Lexington and Concord
 New York Campaign
 Battle of Trenton
 Battle of Saratoga
 Southern Campaign
 Battle of Yorktown
Discuss the contributions of women and African-Americans during the
war.
Compare the American strategies and the British strategies during the
Revolutionary War with other wars. (Some authors liken strategies to
Vietnam with the reverse role for Americans. Is this a true assessment or a
stretch? Are there parallels to other wars?)
The Revolution and
American Identity
Bob Meckley
Are there common misconceptions, myths, or lies that you can help dispel
about this topic?
In what ways did geography and spatial considerations (i.e. distances)
impact the history of colonial America.
What is the historical evaluation of the impact on the American Revolution of

women,
 African-Americans and
 American Indians
To what extent was “religious freedom’ a motivating force through the
colonial period?
Did the American Revolution “end” with the Battle of Yorktown?
Are there common misconceptions, myths, or lies that you can help dispel
about this topic?
How did the diverse peoples of the United States (colonies in this case)
develop a common national identity?