For Teachers
American Revolution Lesson two
How do you get people to join your cause
1. At the start of the revolution, most of the colonists wanted to remain part of Great Britain. How could the revolutionaries get them to support independence?
2. Have the class divide themselves into three groups. Group one likes basketball better than other sports. Group two likes football better than other sports. Group three likes something other than football or basketball (soccer, baseball, hockey, swimming, etc)
Move students around until the basketball and football groups are the same size. The third group should be the largest group.
Give the basketball and football groups written instructions. Each of them are to go to the other two groups and convince the members to join their own group. They may go as individuals, pairs, or teams to get others to join them. They may not use force, or coercion. Allow about 5 - 10 minutes for this activity to unfold. At the end of this time period see if any groups got larger or smaller. Inform the class that this is what the colonists did only they talked about independence and Great Britain not sports. This is propaganda.
3. Propaganda played a key role. You may insert a lesson on propaganda here or just have students get a definition that they can work with. Here's our lesson.
4. Introduce students to the music, arts, and poetry of the revolution including
"Yankee Doodle"
