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.