On day two of the lesson, we examined primary source accounts of the events on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775.  We studied Captain John Parker's account together.  As a class we created a list of events that occurred as John Parker described them.  We then discussed what reasons he may have had to say what he said.  


Students then broke up into three round robin groups to examine other account.  Students were given time at each account to list the events described.  They were then asked to discuss the possible reasons that the person giving the account   may have had to say what they did.  The students did a really nice job doing this.  I was impressed at how insightful some of their comments were.  


One group decided that Lt. John Barker was not telling the truth because he said that there were 200-300 colonists on the Common, when we had read that their were only 77 colonists there.  They decided that if he was exaggerating that, then it was likely that he was not telling the truth when it came to more important aspects, like who fired first.


On day three, students were asked to draw what they believe happened on Lexington Green.  They were told that they must give the reasons for their choice, using the first hand accounts as evidence.  Students began a sketch.  


Halfway through the class, we paused and I showed students the Amos Doolittle plate that shows the Battle on Lexington Green. We discussed what point of view the print shows.  I did this halfway through because I wanted to let students form their own opinion before seeing the print.  Students then completed their own drawings and wrote a short statement telling what their drawing shows and why they made their choice.  The drawings and statements were put on the animoto video shown above.

Teaching the Lesson: Day One

I spent day one of the lesson building student's background knowledge.  We talked about the events leading up to April 19th.  The students remembered a lot of what they learned in the third grade and were engaged in the conversation.  I helped clear up some misconceptions.  Several of the students were quoting "facts" that they learned from the movie The Patriot. 

When we began our discussion, it became clear that the students did not have much knowledge of the events of April 18th and 19th.  I began by reading and summarizing parts from The Lexington - Concord Battle Road: Hour-by Hour Accounts of Events Preceding and on the History-Making Day: April 19,1775. This gave the students some background on what the colonists knew and how they reacted to events on April 19th.  I then added information from Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer.  This added information about the British Regular's experiences on April 19th.  

Though this background building exercise took longer than I had originally thought, I felt that when I concluded the day's lesson, students were ready for the core activities that began on the next day.

Choosing Primary Resources

Though I found citations of primary resources in several of the lessons that I looked at throughout my planning, I wanted students to see an image of the actual documents.  I felt that this would add to the lesson.  It was suggested that I try the National Archives in Waltham website.  Though helpful, this was a little overwhelming for me.  They do have research tips and many search engines.  Once I figured things out, I was able to find the Digital Vaults page.

At first the Digital Vaults was so confusing to me that I almost gave up on it.  After some time and frustration, I began to feel comfortable with the system and was able to find what I needed.  I thought that this was such a cool tool.  You by picking a document to view.  It then shows you all of the other documents with some of the same tags.  You narrow things down by choosing tags that best fit what you are looking for.  The Digital Vaults ends up showing you documents that you didn't even know that you were looking for.  In my case, I got exactly what I needed, John Parker's account and John Robbins account of the events on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775. 

I intend to use this site for lessons in the future.

Reviewing Lessons

Once choosing a topic, finding appropriate lessons was fairly easy.  I started with the Honored Places binder that we received from the National Parks Service.  This contained a unit on the American Revolution. This can also be found at: National Parks Service Teacher's Guide to the American Revolution.  Though it did not completely fit my purpose, I took many ideas from Lesson One, Activity Four.  This had students examining first hand accounts of events and comparing them to the Amos Doolittle Prints.  I knew that I wanted to work with Doolittle Print, Plate 1 which shows the Battle on Lexington Green.

I was also considering using some of the first had accounts found in this lesson.  I eventually ended up with too many accounts and decided not to use those found in this lesson.

My lesson ended up as a combination of my own ideas, pieces from the Honored Places binder, and Lexington and Concord: A Legacy-of-Conflict.  I decided to use the "Order Given to Lt. Colonel Francis Smith From Thomas Gage" on page seven as students first exposure to a primary source in this lesson.  It will be used on day 1, while students are building their background knowledge in preparation for the core activities. I also modified the worksheets found on pages 8-11 of this document.

Deciding on a Lesson

I had a very difficult time choosing a topic for my lesson.  Fourth Grade does not cover the American Revolution, as it is in the third and fifth grade curriculum frameworks.  In addition, our fourth grade team splits up the science and social studies units.  I teach the midwest and the west.  For this reason, I decided to teach my lesson as part of my English Language Arts curriculum. 


I chose the piece of the course that most interested me, the Battle on Lexington Green, and decided to focus on point of view.  I went back and forth many times on how exactly to do this.  My original plan was to compare the 1776 depositions to those given in 1824.  When I looked at the 1824 depositions again, I decided that they may confuse students instead of helping them create an informed opinion of what happened on Lexington Green on April 19, 1776.  As the person who reviewed my proposal pointed out, by 1824 there was a rivalry between Lexington and Concord over where the first battle of the Revolutionary War took place.  I believe that this added piece to the 1824 accounts would make the lesson too confusing for students.


My final decision was to have students focus on four primary resources.  These were to be the accounts of two British Regulars and two Lexington Militiamen.  The next task was to find these accounts.