“You say you want a revolution” How do you make connections?

I teach the 1750 course, so we are at this time period pretty quickly, after a bit of back fill from grade 6 and 7, the last time my students had a world history course.

My big dilemma was that I had to decide whether to start the Unit with the Beatles or Twisted Sister, but opted for the Beatles!  After I ask the students about the music they heard, I show a quick overview video from my adopted text, but follow it up with this OER video so that I can focus on the concepts of nation-states and sovereignty.  These two terms will take us into the 21st first century and help explain conflicts!  Next, I have the students read the OER article about sovereignty   The ticket out is putting "sovereignty" into their own words, so that I can quickly see who didn't understand.  They do the reading in their required text, but I use OER articles for more support, especially for the activity that follows

The activity is a gathering of revolutionary people, such as Bolivar, L'Overture, Napoleon, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, etc. The students make a chant and signs to represent the sentiments of their assigned revolutionary leader and then present information for the rest of the class. To wrap up, I have the students make a claim about who was most "revolutionary," and write a paragraph to support their claim.  Lastly, I have students come up with a change they would want to see in their own communities and have them  explain what it is and then follow a format to see the steps they would need to take and what decisions makers they would need to interact with to address their issue. We have a Civics Seal in my state and this is an opportunity to get them thinking about that opportunity.  I do like the Responsibilities and Compassion activity as well, I just have not used it yet!

I loved teaching about Revolutionary Women last year! I coincided with Women's History Month so it felt extra timely. Jeffrey Boles started a great post about the activity here.

ERIN CUNNINGHAM thanks for directing me to the older post and thanks to Jeffrey Boles for getting the ball rolling.  I will definitely we using a combination of the ideas with my on level classes!

Dear Erin Cunningham & Janet Mann 

Thank you both for your mentions. This is one of my most popular projects of the year. Students really do appreciate the research and learning about individuals they may not have heard of before. It creates conversation and students apply this and make further connections as it relates to the Atlantic Revolutions. I will post some student work once we arrive at this topic. 

Always a fun addition is adding Twisted Sister, We're Not Gonna Take It component.  I usually give this as an extra credit assignment later in the year but students typically seem to use revolutionary groups in their responses.  Basically, students are asked to decide which groups would appreciate the lyrics and explain: who they are, why they don't want to take it anymore, how are they being oppressed, by whom, what changes they want, and how they will bring about those changes.  Dee Snider is a Long Island native - something my students seem to not care about at all.