Previously in this series: Introduction. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6.
This is a rich topic and I plan to spend five weeks on it. The section is focused on short, engaging biographies of some of the key players, plus a couple of primary sources.
- Seton, Chapter 11, "Liberty and Justice for All"
- Foster, George Washington's World: III. "When George Washington Was A Farmer"
- Fritz, Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?
- Schanzer, George vs. George
- Fradin, The Boston Tea Party
- Fritz, And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?
- Fritz, Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
- Patrick Henry, speech: "The War Inevitable"
- Fritz, Why Don't You Get A Horse, Sam Adams?
- Thomas Jefferson, "A Summary of the View of the Rights of British America"
We continue with George Washington's World to get a global picture as well as a close-up view of George Washington's life.
The two books George vs George and Can't You Make Them Behave, King George? are really fun to use because they both tell the story of the threat of American revolution from George III's point of view. I think this can just begin to give an idea of history as not a simple story but a very complex one -- not a single story but rather a collection of stories. Schanzer's book is a newer one jam-packed with pictures and captions and sidebars and Fun Fact-type information; readers know I dislike that style of children's nonfiction, as they tend to read more like a Denny's placemat than like a book. However, this sort of book can be used in moderation for browsing and discussion, and there's a lot of good material in Schanzer's. Fritz's biography of George III is interesting and human, and makes the king's position understandable even if she is not totally sympathetic to it.
Fradin's Boston Tea Party is kind of pedagogical but is concise, clear, and suitable for a child to read on his or her own. I am trying to throw a few not-too-difficult-readers into the mix; a more literary version of the story to be read aloud would be a fine substitute.
The other Fritz biographies are, as I expect from Jean Fritz, excellent. I want to point out in particular the book about Sam Adams. The illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman are fantastic portraits. I think it's the best of all the Fritz biographies. She uses humanizing, accurate details to show that historical people are real people and also to show that those small things change history. Sam Adams' refusal to ride a horse is a perfect example. My favorite illustration in the book depicts Adams contemplating a series of statues of his friends and countrymen, all grandly depicted on horseback, overshadowing a squat little statue of himself on foot.
Patrick Henry's bio is all about his eloquence as a speaker, and so it seemed a good idea to include at least one speech by Patrick Henry in the readings. I chose "The War Inevitable," but there are many that could be used, including speeches from December 1763; 1773 right after the tea tax was enforced; March 23, 1775; and several speeches at the Constitutional Convention.
I also add Thomas Jefferson's Summary, which is, well, a good summary of the Americans' complaints.
Besides all these, I plan to include a handful of facts to be memorized, mostly making up the narrative of events that escalated the tensions between Americans and English into full-scale revolution. First the French and Indian War ended, and then King George thought he'd raise some revenue by enforcing existing laws, and then.... This curriculum isn't heavy on memory work overall, but I use memory work here and there in my overall educational approach, and this series of events seems as good a series as any to exercise memory skills.
Other notes:
I am planning to use Latham's Carry On Mr Bowditch this year as a literature selection; it doesn't appear here, but it is definitely chosen to complement the American history theme. Another decent choice would have been Lawson's Ben and Me or Mr. Revere and I.
I considered using Millender's biography Crispus Attucks, Boy of Valor, which is a fictionalized biography in the "Childhood of Famous Americans" series. (I read many of these in third or fourth grade; the whole collection was stored on a shelf behind my desk, and I used to sneak them into my desk and read them when the teacher wasn't looking. They were memorable, for better or worse.) It's pretty well written. One thing that sets it apart from other books that contain characters who are colonial-era African-Americans: the slaves all speak proper English (no "Yes massah!" here) and because of this they read like ordinary people instead of Aliens From Another Dialect. This has to be a conscious decision on the part of author or editor. Note, I'm not saying that depiction of dialect is inherently bad -- it can be used to great effect, cf. Huck Finn -- I'm just saying that it's a stylistic choice that has ramifications, and in the case of Millender's book, the effect is breathtaking when compared to other kids' books of the era. You get the sense that the slave boys and girls are "boys and girls just like you" in a very obvious way. Heavy dialect might be "truer" in one sense but if it shields children from the humanity of slaves, then it obscures, too. The book also contains lots of discussion about the wrongness of slavery. The "feel" was a little bit too civilized and polite, almost genteel, for me to choose it; and it is filled in with entirely made-up legendary stuff about Attucks's "fair" and "kind" master. It's a bit of a feel-good history. OTOH the discussion in the book is genuine, and a realistic, detailed depiction of slavery and its horrors would be inappropriate for an eight-year-old. I think this book could be well used, particularly the second half. And if my third-grade self is any measure, a child who likes biography might really be drawn in by the books in this series in general.
I looked at Falkner's John Adams: Reluctant Patriot of the Revolution and liked it very much, but it's novel length and written at a 5th or 6th grade level. There are some nice details about childhood and about college life. This book is too long for me to use, but it got me thinking that I might want to let my child choose one of the founding fathers and read a lengthier biography about him. This book struck me as a decent example of the sort of book that would do for that kind of thing.
Next: The Revolutionary War of course...
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