Analyzing the American Revolution
Overview
Your project is an argument essay (500 words maximum) that answers this question: “How
revolutionary was the American Revolution?”
Requirements
PART ONE: Analyze the documents provided. Finish on Google Classroom by
____________________.
PART TWO: Write your draft. Finish by ____________________.
 Introduction:
i. Lead: Perhaps share a fact or tell a story related to the idea of revolution,
or to American history. There are many ways to start an essay creatively.
ii. Claim: Look at your document analysis work and decide on your central
idea. It might be “The American Revolution was not very revolutionary,”
or “The American Revolution represented a dramatic change.” You could
also take a stance more in the middle with a complex sentence starting
with “Although” or “While.”
 Body: Choose two to three areas of change to focus on, one for each paragraph.
Remember, the areas you choose (and the documents that go with them) should
support your claim. Do NOT attempt to use all the documents as evidence, for
they don’t all support the same claim! For each paragraph, include:
 A topic sentence: Introduce the area of change and how it supports your
claim.
 Evidence: In your sentences, specifically cite at least one of the ten
sources we examined. You can quote exact words from documents or
describe an image. (No bibliography necessary.)
 Analysis: Explain how the document(s) support your claim about how
revolutionary the American Revolution was.
 Conclusion (the “delightful jolt”): Why is it important to view the American
Revolution this way? How might our analysis of this time period in history
influence our views of other historical events, for example?
PART THREE: Finalize your work. PROJECT DUE ____________________.
 Edit your essay carefully, comparing it with the rubric and the scoring breakdown below.
Ask me questions AHEAD of the due date so you can feel confident that you have shown
your best work and understanding!
Accuracy (10 points)
Source Analysis (10 points)
Personal Analysis (5 points)
Overall Presentation (5 points)
Social Science Analysis Skills: Kid-Friendly Rubric
Accuracy
• I used correct information (places, dates, names, events, etc.)
• My ideas answered the questions/prompts
• I described what happened in the right order
• I used a lot of facts instead of just opinions
• The opinions I used matched with the facts
Source Analysis:
• My quotes match with my opinion and main ideas
• I used information from other authors that relates to the topic
• I showed how the facts in my quote connect to other facts
• I organized my writing so the quote has a lead-in and
analysis/doesn’t seem “random”
Personal Analysis:
• I gave my own ideas about the topic
• I didn’t just reword someone else’s article
• My opinion has facts and quotes to back it up
Overall Presentation:
• I followed all the directions
• My work looks neat, attractive, and uses color well
• I edited my work for sentence structure, grammar, punctuation,
capitalization, and spelling