Hello, all!  It’s been a wild ride from the Stamp Act to the Boston Tea Party to the First Continental Congress to the Declaration of Independence (and everything in between!). This is a content-heavy day. The rest of the week will be much more project-oriented. I’m 100% certain that their brains are full!

In terms of putting all of this together in our Design Thinking Process, we are trying to look back and empathize with the colonists by analyzing the major events that propelled them towards declaring their intention to break with Great Britain. Being rising 3rd and 4^th graders, we spent time filling in some background knowledge and vocabulary, and working with very difficult texts like The Stamp Act and The Declaration of Independence. The students should also have a clear idea of what a primary source vs secondary source document or artifact is, so quiz them!  (I’d love it.) They did a great job analyzing multiple acts handed down to the colonists by King George III and were able to articulate why the colonists were increasingly distrustful of Great Britain.

After lunch, we discussed the Boston Massacre and analyzed political cartoons of the era from the point of view of the colonists and Great Britain. I like to use images, art, and various primary sources to provide students with a wide array of perspectives. Technically, the political cartoons were a brain break, but they asked incredible questions, and it became a highlight of the day!

After the break, I wanted to give them a literature lesson focused on the question: “What is Freedom?”  I have done this with multiple classes in the past, and we use William Stafford’s poem, “Freedom”. We used a Harvard Project Zero Thinking Routine called “See/Think/Me/We” to analyze the poem. I was so impressed. I have previously only taught this lesson to 5th and 6th grade students, and this SAVY group did just as well and had new insights!

I’ve attached the poem we used, as well as some images from today. Enjoy!

Michele