Intervention/STAAR Review: 8.4C
Explaining Issues Surrounding Important Events of the American Revolution
Estimated timeframe: 50 minutes
Lesson Components
Lesson Objectives: explain the issues surrounding important events of the American Revolution, including
declaring independence; writing the Articles of Confederation; fighting the battles of
Lexington, Concord, Saratoga, and Yorktown; enduring the winter at Valley Forge; signing the Treaty of
Paris of 1783
Language Objectives: Students will write to reflect their understanding of the issues surrounding
important events of the American Revolution
Prior Learning: The American Revolution was the American colonists’ fight for independence from Great
Britain.
Standards(Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills):
8.4.C explain the issues surrounding important events of the American Revolution, including declaring
independence; writing the Articles of Confederation; fighting the battles of
Lexington, Concord, Saratoga, and Yorktown; enduring the winter at Valley Forge; signing the Treaty of
Paris of 1783 Readiness/RC 1
College and Career Readiness:
Periodization and chronological reasoning : Analyze causes and effects of major political, economic, and
social changes in U.S. and world history
Intervention Targeted/Topical Essential Questions:
What were the major events and their outcomes during the American Revolution?
Why was____________________considered an important event of the American Revolution?
These include:
Declaring Independence
Writing the Articles of Confederation
Fighting the battles of Lexington, Concord, Saratoga, and Yorktown
Enduring the winter at Valley Forge
Signing the Treaty of Paris of 1783
Vocabulary/
Terms or
Concepts
included in
targeted
standard 8.4A
Lesson
Austin ISD
Essential: The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, The Battles
of Lexington and Concord, The Battle of Saratoga, The Battle of Yorktown, Valley
Forge, The Crisis, The Treaty of Paris of 1783.
Supporting: endure, articles, declare, treaty, asset, territory, tyranny
Ensure your connection to BrainPop, copies of handouts, copies of assessment
Updated January, 2014
Preparation
Anchors of
Support
Differentiation
strategies
21st Century
Skills
Posted illustrated vocabulary, timelines, past student projects
Special Education: Mixed-ability grouping, one on one instruction
English Language Learners: Cognates, illustrated vocabulary, sentence stems
Make Judgments and Decisions: Synthesize and make connections between
information and arguments
English Language Proficiency Standards:
(5B) write using newly acquired basic vocabulary and content-based grade-level vocabulary
Engage
Lesson Cycle
Teacher shares main, overarching ideas with class:

The American desire to gain rights and liberties led them to
fight for independence from Britain.

Today those same rights and liberties are protected by the U.S.
Constitution.

For more than two centuries, the American Revolution has
inspired other people to fight tyranny.
Vocabulary note: ensure all students understand century, tyranny,
liberty/liberties
As a whole group, begin with a KWL chart about the important events
of the American Revolution. Ask students what they know, then what
they want or need to know about the events of the American
Revolution. Play the Brain Pop: The American Revolution (The Shot
Heard ‘Round the World) with closed captioning.
Lesson stages
Activity: Action-Reaction Timeline
Skills addressed in this activity include cause and effect, inferencing
and sequencing.
In this task, students work with a partner to match historic actions,
events, or document excerpts with the correct reaction which they
provoked, and then place them in chronological order.
Task Flow:
1. Place students into pairs. Provide each pair with a jumbled
collection of actions and reactions (included in Student Documents)
2. Challenge the students to find logical pairs by matching actions with
Austin ISD
Updated January, 2014
their reactions.
3. Perform a quality check, and then have students create an
illustrated timeline in their notebooks.
Closure Activity
Students add pieces of information they have learned within the L of
the KWL that was begun during the Engage portion of the lesson.
Students complete the assessment, which includes open ended and
multiple choice questions.
Check for understanding
(evaluation)
Formative: Accurate connections between actions and reactions,
creating a timeline (writing the events and their descriptions) in their
notebooks (or other student-created anchor of support if this is taught
outside of their regular class)
Summative: 8.4C assessment questions included in portfolio
Additional Brainpop videos that address 8.4C include:
Causes of the American Revolution
George Washington
Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Franklin
James Madison
Thomas Jefferson
John Adams
Austin ISD
Updated January, 2014