Revolutionary War project assignment sheet (PDF, 169 kb)

For this assignment, you will choose one military operation from the American Revolutionary War.

You’ll become an expert on this battle of the war.  Using the classroom laptops, you will spend the better part of three class periods researching and creating your project.

For the BHS portal to library databases, click here. Believe it or not, for projects in my class, it beats Google.

For more links to research sites, see below.

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John Adams’ diary (PDF, 28 kb)

Distributed December 10, due December 11.  Eighteen points.

“Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

-John Adams

This is the familiar visualize/predict/etc. worksheet, paired with an excerpt from the diary of John Adams.

Adams, our second president and first vice president, was already a leading patriot voice when he agreed to defend the British soldiers accused of murder.

He knew that every other accomplished lawyer in Boston had already passed on the case, fearing career suicide.  Why defend the occupying army, if you ever intended to practice law (or run for public office) again?

What drove Adams to defend these men?  How could “the most under-appreciated great man in American history” argue so passionately — and so successfully — in favor of these reviled lobsterbacks?

Read Adams’ diary, and find out for yourself.

Supplemental research:
If you’re interested in the trial itself, visit this link, which is one of my favorite sites on the web.  It’s a tremendous resource for legal history, created by Professor Douglas Linder at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Battle of McGovern’s Crossing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_McGoverns_Crossing

Chapters 5 and 6 vocabulary puzzle (PDF, 38 kb)

Above find the crossword puzzle distributed on December 3.

It’s due Monday, December 7.

The online version includes a word bank that was not given out in class.

Tuesday, December 1:
Sons of Liberty reading activity (PDF, 7 kb)

Wednesday, December 2:
Sons of Liberty activity (link)
Sons of Liberty worksheet (PDF, 8 kb)

For this assignment, you’ll need to complete the Sons of Liberty activity and the worksheet.  Click here to begin the activity.

When you’re finished with the activity – finished is defined as exploring at least three different outcomes – answer one of the three essay questions for next Wednesday.

Kennedy inaugural address worksheet (PDF, 1.7 mb)

Above find the worksheet distributed in class today.  It includes:

• the sections of the speech you were to read
• the series of questions to guide your reading
• prompts for your own reflection, encouraging you to tie the rhetoric of 1960 to that of our own era.

Below are links to video of the inauguration (in two parts), which we watched in class today.