Unit of Study: American Heritage Adapted Version of Emanuel Leutze’s Washington
Crossing the Delaware, Lesson 1 (middle school extension - one 45 minute period)
Focus Question: Looking at the American Heritage adaptation as well as
accompanying biographies, can we calculate the percentages of ancestral
representation evident in the picture?
The Teaching Points:
 Students will review synopsis biographies of the original historical figures,
with ancestries
 Students will use math skills to create graphic representations of the
ancestries of the group of figures
 Students will create an ethnic representation of great iconic American figures
Why/Purpose/Connection:
 Students will use teamwork to create a graph
 Students will use teamwork to calculate percentages
 Students will use biographies to scan for information
 Students will discern and represent ancestries to compare with
contemporary demographics
Materials/Resources/Readings:
 American Heritage Magazine, 60th anniversary issue
 Poster of the reinterpreted Leutze painting of Washington Crossing the
Delaware
 Biographies of each historical figure, including ancestries
 Copies of the adaptation (1 for each group)
 Graph paper
 Compass and/or ruler
Model/Demonstration:
 Teacher displays the American heritage 60th anniversary edition adapted
painting of Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware
 Teacher reviews the historical figures depicted in the picture
 Teacher assigns groups to review biographies and create a graph depicting
the percentages of the ancestries of each figure. For example, 2 German, 2
Irish, 2 African-American, 1 Native American, etc.
 Graph representation decisions should be made by students but can include
pie chart, bar graph, or pictograph
 For this lesson, groups can be as few as two, but should be no larger than
four
 Teacher gathers class back together to compare chart representations
Differentiation:
 Lower functioning:
o Teacher assists students in gleaning information from article.

o Teacher provides a graphic organizer to help students organize
information from biographies
o Teacher assigns group(s) to only ten figures to expedite percentage
calculations
o Teacher assists in providing an example
Independent/high-functioning students:
o Teacher provides a copy of the original Leutze depiction as well as an
accompanying article describing the figures in the boat. Students create a
graph depicting those ancestries as well
o Students represent information with different graphs
Guided Practice:
 Teacher moves from table to table to monitor practice. As he/she moves
around, the following questions are posed:
o
What clues from the article gave you this ancestral information?
o
Why did you choose to represent your data with this type of graph?
o
Why do you think it is important to have a diverse representation in a
picture like this?
 Teacher reviews questions with the whole class at the end of the activity
 Teacher distributes, and then explains homework assignment involving
census record and choice of graphic representation
Independent Exploration/Practices:


Students are given a demographics record (census) of contemporary New
York City (examples can be obtained from the TAH official site:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/censusatlas/
Students must create a graph depicting the top 10 most populous ethnic
groups in New York City (To be brought to the next class)