Mt. Washington Valley School To Career Partnership

Project-Based Unit

Title of Unit The American Revolution

Subject Area	Grade Level	Time to Complete
Mathematics, Social Studies, Reading, Language Arts, Life Science	Seventh	April 2000

Author’s Name	School Address	Phone, E-mail
Team 2, Grade 7 Darrell E. Keene, Jr. Jessica Sherman John Hancock Robert Moore Cindy Shuff	Kennett Junior High School 176 Main Street Conway, NH 03818	(603) 447-6364 (603) 447-1827 x 1180

Framing Question

How did the concept of "Live Free or Die" that you find on all New Hampshire License plates come to be?

Workplace or Community Contacts

Conway Historical Society, David Emerson, 447-5551
Green Mtn. Rifle Barrel Company, Martha Tobin, 447-1095
The Freedom Trail Foundation, 3 School Street, Boston MA 02108
PHONE: 617-227-8800, FAX: 617-227-2498
Mr. Kanzler, Gun Collector

The Project

Overview

The students will produce:

Alignment with New Hampshire Curriculum Frameworks

[In the table below, list frameworks and describe which component of your project addresses each framework.]

Framework	How it is addressed in your project
4c. K-12 Broad Goal: Students will develop an understanding of measurement and system of measurement through experiences which enable them to use a variety of techniques, tools, and units of measurement to describe and analyze quantifiable phenomena. MATH	Students will develop a model of a revolutionary era house. They will have to make it exactly to scale by using proportions.
3a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize patterns and products of evolution, including genetic variation, specialization, adaptation, and natural selection. SCIENCE	Students will examine the diseases of the time and the life spans of the people of the time.
Demonstrate the ability to examine, adjust, and extend their level of comprehension by combining what they already know with what is new in what they read and their knowledge of both language and the context in which language is used. READING	Students will be reading and discussing one of three novels: My Brother Sam is Dead Johnny Tremain April Morning Students will also be exposed to books via the teacher by Jean Fritz.
Curriculum Standard 2. Students will demonstrate the interest and ability to write effectively for a variety of purposes and audiences. LANGUAGE ARTS	Students will be writing a biography on one of the famous Americans of the time in a first person account. Students will then have to orally give the information to the class as their person of choice.
Curriculum Standard 16. Students will demonstrate the ability to employ historical analysis, interpretation, and comprehension to make reasoned judgements and to gain an understanding, perspective, and appreciation of history and its uses in contemporary situations. Curriculum Standard 17. Students will demonstrate a knowledge of the chronology and significance of the unfolding story of America Including the history of their community, New Hampshire, and the United States. SOCIAL STUDIES	Students will be writing a paper from one of two points. They will either be responding from the British point of view or the underground (soon to be American) point of view. Research of building and times.

Timeline

[In the table below, break your project down into achievable steps or milestones and describe each. Also, in sequence, list and describe classroom and workplace activities that support your project.]

Project Step or Supporting Activity	Description
Start Researching Housing Environments in Social Studies.	Week of February 28th, 2000
Start Proportions and Ratios Unit in Mathematics	Week of February 28th, 2000
Reading April Morning in Language Arts	March, 2000
How to do Pie Graphs in Mathematics	Starting March 6th, 2000
A walking excursion to the Lord House to view architectural design for mathematics and historical information for Social Studies.	Week of March 13th, 2000
Six students go to Portsmouth, NH to research architecture of the era with Social Studies and then present it to their classmates.	Week of March 13th, 2000
Organization for Science Activity.	March 15th, 2000 - Several usable web sites will be located and library materials will be reserved that deal with Health Issues/Living Issues of the time. Data will also be collected to present in the form of a Pie Graph.
Students will start drawing a scale model of their house for Mathematics.	Week of March 20th,1999
Students will start drawing a scale model of their house for Mathematics.	Week of March 20th, 1999
Students will start constructing their scale models of their Revolutionary Era Houses.	Week of March 28th, 2000
Students will start reading Johnny Tremain in reading	Week of April 3rd, 2000
Science Final Activity Completed	Week of APril 3rd, 2000 -- Science Open Ended Writing Assignment dealing with the health issues and living issues of the era.
Newspaper for Social Studies athat contains the colonial current events (SOCIAL STUDIES), an obituary of their historical figure (LANGUAGE ARTS), an article on the health concerns of the era different historical figure or group (READING), and a classified section containing for sale ads for houses of the era (MATH)	Week of April 3rd, 2000
Presentation of Biography in Language Arts	April 3rd, 2000 - April 11th, 2000
Students will pass in their Model Houses to Math	April 6th, 2000
Students will evaluate their own models of the houses of the revolutionary era in Math.	April 6th, 2000 - April 11th, 2000
Travel to Boston and take the Freedom Trail Tour	April 12th, 2000 - Go on the Freedom Trail Tour

Project Resources

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness by G. Casey
Boston in Early America - The Freedom Trail Web Site
Firth of March, Ann Rinaldi
Kennett School Library (603) 447-6364
Conway Public Library
Connect Social Studies: Literature Teacher Resource for Johnny Tremain, Littleton, MA: Sundance, 1991.
Conway Historical Society
Read, April Morning, (pages 19-29) James Lee Barrett
Johnny Tremain Esther Forbes
Lord House, David Emerson
What STYLE is it?: A Guide to American Architecture, Historic American Buildings Survey
Perspective 76: Old TIme Vermont and New Hampshire, Del Goodwin & Dorcas Chaffee, ed., 1976

Assessment

A portfolio for everyone that will contain all of the written work done in classes. The protfolio will be evaluated as a whole unit and the individual pieces of the portfolio will also be evaluated. The portfolio will be evaluated by a rubric that has been developed by the team.

The portfolio will contain the following individual pieces by the following disciplines:

LANGUAGE ARTS

April Morning

A Writting biography of a historical figure assessed using the NH Educational and Assessment Rubric.

A video tape of the biographical oral presentation assessed using a student design rubric.

A Polaroid or digital picture of the student.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Colonial Current Events presented from both view points and evaluated by a student designed rubric.

A video tape from Portsmouth, NH that will be presented to classmates for a select number of Students that will be evaluated by the Ms. Sherman VIdeo Tape Rubric.

Architectural Notes will be used in Math Class.

SCIENCE

An open ended writing assignment that deals with the health issues of the era that contains data presented in the form of a pie graph. The writing assignment will be evaluated using the NH Educational Assessment Rubric. The Pie Graph will be evaluated using a Mr. Keene Pie Graph Rubric.

MATHEMATICS

An actual scale model of a colonial house evaluated by a peer and a teacher using a student designed rubric.

READING

The Fifth of March and Johnny Tremaine

A book project for The Fifth of March and Johnny Tremaine assessed by a student/teacher designed rubric.

Implementation Plan
1. When do you plan to implement your project-based unit?We plan to kick in the unit starting on February 28th, 2000. The project will be condluded on April 12th, 2000.

2. List the steps you need to take to implement your project-based unit. Include approximate meeting dates with your peers and your project-based learning consultant.

Contact the Lord House
Contact the Freedom Hall
Create a Scavenger Hunt of the Trail
Research Health Issues of time.
Research Architecture of the time.
Create the team Rubric for the Portfolio.
Teacher trip to Portsmouth for pre-visit inspection.
Fundraiser Dance for February for our Field Trip.
Bus Forms filled out for Field Trip.
Permission Slips for Field Trip.

Mt. Washington Valley School-to-Career Coordinator
PO Box 1066 Conway, NH 03818 Phone/Fax: 603-447-2350