Life in the Colonies

Research ProjectBy:

Kristin Stanton, Emily Mackie, and Evon Carpenter

Lesson Objective

Research two realistic “characters” (jobs/roles) from the Revolutionary War period of American history through the lens of SPECS using a Live Binder.

Compare and contrast your characters’ SPECS research with a partner.

Write a research report using SPECS about the character of your choice.

Create a realistic dialogue between your two characters based on how they would react to an event that led up the American Revolution. Dialogue must clearly show different viewpoints/perspectives (Compare/Contrast).

Standards

Social Studies

5.4 Students understand the political, religious, social, and economic institutions that evolved in the colonial era.

5.5 Students explain the causes of the American Revolution.

1. Understand how political, religious, and economic ideas and interests brought about the Revolution (e.g., resistance to imperial policy, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, taxes on tea, Coercive Acts).

Language Arts

2.5 Compare and contrast information on the same topic after reading several passages or articles (4th grade review standard).

2.3 Write research reports about important ideas, issues, or events by using the following guidelines:

a. Frame questions that direct the investigation. b. Establish a controlling idea or topic. c. Develop the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations.

SPECSChoose your characters from the research report packet. Use

SPECs questions to research different aspects of your person’s life.

Click here for a PowerPoint Review of SPECs

SPECs Review Social

Having to do with people in groups, their living together, includes issues such as gender, economic status, and ethnicity.

Political Having to do with gaining, seeking, and organizing power,

events related to the function of government: making laws, enforcing laws, and interpreting laws.

Economic Having to do with how people meet their basic material

needs; the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services; includes such issues as domestic and international trade, monetary policies, and taxation.

Cultural Having to do with the technology, arts, and institutions of a

given group of people at a given time. It is a tangible representation of interactions.

Start your research!

Download this graphic organizer to take notes on while you research:

SPECS GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

Access research links on Mrs. Mackie’s Live Binder:

MRS. MACKIE’S LIVE BINDER

Compare and Contrast

Teach your partner about your character and learn about theirs by comparing and contrasting their life styles based on your SPECs research. Fill in the online Venn Diagram to compare the characters. (One Venn needed per partnership).

READ, WRITE, THINK VENN DIAGRAM

Events That Led up to the American Revolution

Watch the Brain Pop movies below to review the events that led up to the American Revolution.

French and Indian War

Causes of the American Revolution

Reread Ch. 10 from History Alive (pgs. 102-111)and review your metaphor Reading Notes (pgs. 40-41).

DialogueChoose an event that you have learned about that led up to the American Revolution to be the main focus of your dialogue between your character and your partner’s character.

French and Indian War

Proclamation of 1763

Quartering Act

Stamp Act

Boston Massacre

Boston Tea Party

Intolerable Acts

Write a dialogue

Think about what you have learned about your character and how a conversation might sound between these two individuals in history.

Type up a dialogue with your partner on Google Docs.

Use your SPECS notes and your Venn Diagram to write your dialogue.

Refer to your project rubric to revise and edit.

Share your dialogue with your teacher for feedback.

Resources

Anthony’s SPECs PowerPoint, Foundations of American History Presenter

Evon Carpenter’s Research Project, 5th Grade Teacher, Carmel Del Mar

http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/

http://www.readwritethink.org/

http://www.BrainPop.com

http://www.livebinders.com

Images Courtesy of:

Architect of the Capitol – http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/cox_corr/w_exp/boston.cfm

US History Images - http://ushistoryimages.com/french-and-indian-war.shtm