Tag: washington

American Revolution, Videos

Valley Forge Video

This a great video explaining the importance of Valley Forge! It not only talks about the hardships and disease, but it also the strategic reorganizing and training of the army during this time. It also gives a great summary of the events leading up to the winter at Valley Forge, so the students have some context as to what has been happening in the war. My one criticism is that the guy at the beginning says the war has been “waging” rather than “raging.” While you can “wage war,” I’m pretty sure that is not correct in this context. I’m sure it was probably just a slip of the tongue. You may or may not want to mention that to your students. Still it does not diminish the value of the information in the video. It’s really interesting and only about four minutes long.

 

Assignment Ideas, Miscellaneous, Teaching Tips

Biography Book Cover Assignment

If a book was written about your life what would it look like? What picture would be on the cover? What tag line would be used? What would the summary on the back say?

While working on my lesson for Benjamin Franklin, I decided to have my students create a book cover for a biography about him. This would be a great idea to use with any historical figure that you wanted your students to know a lot about.

 

You could use this book cover idea to reinforce the importance of people such as:
  • Christopher Columbus
  • George Washington
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • Andrew Jackson
  • Civil War generals
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Teddy Roosevelt
  • Franklin Roosevelt
  • Dwight Eisenhower
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
My students have to include the following things:
  • A catchy title that reflects the life of the person
  • A picture that represents that person’s life
  • A tag line under the title that gives a little more information (A phrase or one-line summary of this person)
  • A paragraph on the back of the book that gives a summary of the book, which includes some details of this person’s life/interests/importance.  (You may want to give a specific number of details required if you think your students might skimp on the information.)
  • You could also include an optional book endorsement quote by someone who would have known the person. (If the book was about Ben Franklin, you could have something like this… “A great book about a great man.” – Thomas Jefferson)
I whipped up a quick book cover template that I thought I’d share with you.  It would be a good idea to also show your students several copies of real book covers, so they get an idea of what you want.  (Just run down to the media center before class and grab a few.)