Unit Plan
By Allana Zacaria
I was told by one of my professors that my generation is the generation of �who cares�. He said generations before people cared and fought for what decisions were changing their lives. Now we let people decide what happens to us and don�t put up much of fight, because we don�t have the time or it doesn�t affect us. Sadly I thought this was true, but through literature young adults can realize they will be able to make a difference by standing up for what they believe in. Young people for hundreds of years have made a difference in not only their lives but their country as well. Many of these differences have been made through war which are fought not only to defend one�s country but to defend one�s rights. Whether students agree with war or not, the point is that the people who fight in them are trying to make a difference. Even in one of the earliest wars, the Revolutionary War, young people fought for what they believed even if that meant fighting against family and friends.
It is important for young adults not to forget the past for if they are not aware of the past we are destined to repeat the same mistakes. When students read from a textbook they may be getting the basic facts about each battle but nothing relates the stories of the young adults who fought in these battles. Textbooks do not describe war time through the eyes of a sixteen year old in the trenches or the young girl who knows her brother and father are fighting each other on the battlefield.
A curriculum that involves the American Revolution will combine not only the details of war, but will also inspire students to stand up for what they believe in even if it is not the popular thing to do. They will see history not as a bunch of dates but as real situations that involved real decisions made by people not much older than them. Through poems, music and stories based on young adults, students will open themselves up to historical fiction and at the same time challenge the issues of morality.
The ideas suggested for this unit will apply best to eighth or ninth grades. Focusing on the genre of historical fiction or books about war can be tied to a related social studies unit since the foundation story My Brother Sam is Dead by James and Lincoln Collier provides not only the emotional aspects of war but also historical facts about battles and Revolutionary War figures.
�These two brothers specialize in historical fiction. Their best known book, My Brother Sam is Dead, comes from the time of the Revolutionary War and was a Newbery Honor book. The Bloody Country and The Winter Hero continue the story�(Literature for Today�s Young Adults 230)
The Colliers give a realistic look at not only war but the young adults that are involved in war. They are fighting for their country or at home supporting their families. Each character faces tough decisions that go against what their family or community believes. The Colliers also give a practical ending where not everything turns out okay. The themes of fallowing ones� own path is necessary not only during war time but many times each day students are faced with decisions and must choose between right/ wrong or cool/uncool. The Colliers show this has never been an easy decision for young adults of any time period.
Launching the Unit
� Play the popular song �Get Up Stand Up� by Bob Marley and have students analyze words and phrases used. What do these mean?
Get Up Stand Up by Bob Marley
Get Up, Stand Up,
stand up for your right (3 times)
Get Up, Stand Up,
don't give up the fight
Preacher man don't tell me heaven
is under the earth
I know you don't know what life is really worth
Is not all that glitters in gold and
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light, aay
Stand up for your right. Come on
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight
(Repeat)
Most people think great God will
come from the sky
Take away ev'rything, and make ev'rybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah!
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for
your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up. Life is your right
So we can't give up the fight
Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord
Get Up, Stand Up. Keep on struggling on
Don't give up the fight
We're sick and tired of your ism and skism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus' name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our right
So you'd better get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up
the fight
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight.
� Student and teachers participate in person/place/right activity. Have students write down what in each category if taken away would hurt the most. Share with class, and then pose certain questions � Would you fight for these items? Would you go to war to protect these? Would you go against the �in� crowd to protect what you cherish? Would you go against friends or family to defend what is important to you?
Reading the Book
� First go over the background information on the American Revolution.
� Go over major figures and battles. Discuss how the American Revolution fits the theme of standing up for what one believes even if others don�t agree.
� Before reading begins the teacher would put the names Sam, Ben, Betsy and Father in a hat and have each student pick one name, roughly dividing the class into fourths. The students write a diary entry from the point of the character they picked. They would describe what that character is going through and the difficulties they are having.
The reading could be done during class a few chapters each day. The teacher could read aloud and then students read a few pages or paragraphs as well. The text is relatively easy but the teacher should go over terms or difficult words in each chapter in advance.
Looking at Poems of
Revolution
Poems written during the American Revolution may be too difficult for Junior High students to read. Instead poems written about the idea of revolution itself would work. Two poems to consider are:
Untitled by Pastor Martin Niemollers
They came first for the Communist,
And I didn�t speak up because I wasn�t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
And I didn�t speak up because I wasn�t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade union,
And I didn�t speak up because I wasn�t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
And I didn�t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
And by that time no one was left to speak up.
And
�A Nations Strength� by Ralph Waldo Emerson
What makes a nation�s pillars high?
And its foundations strong?
What makes it might to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in the battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not an abiding rock.
Is it the sword? As the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.
And is it pride? Ah that bright crown
Has seemed to nation�s sweet;
But God has stuck its luster down
In ashes at his feet
Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly�
They build a nation�s pillar deep
And lift them to the sky.
Both of these poems could be read in class and then discuss words that might be hard to understand. What are these poems trying to say? Go back to Launching the Unit and have students write a poem about standing up for the three things they cherished the most. Have students draw pictures of their poem, showing the three things they find the most important, include both poem and picture in the diary students are writing during reading.
After the Reading
When students are done reading and have turned in their diaries, class discussion can revolve around each character they have written about. Some questions to ask: Who�s view on war is most like your own? How I the character Sam depicted from beginning to end? How does Ben change or grow older? Are there contemporary situations that young adults struggle with today that can be related?
The movie Liberty Kids � Give Me Liberty an animated movie rated TV-Y7 staring Walter Cronkite could be viewed in class. The movie shows the American Revolution through the eyes of young adults who are working for Ben Franklin and his newspaper. Another movie The Patriot rated R would require a permission slip signed by parents, although somewhat graphic it does depict young adults and men fighting for what they believe in.
Extending the Unit
Students would divide into groups of four and each group would read a different young adult historical fiction novel based on the American Revolution and told through the eyes of young adults. Each student would pick one of six character roles, Character Charter, Summarizer, Word Wizard, Critic, Visualizer, and Passage Master, do the assigned task for that role and then pick a new role every day.
The students then write a short essay comparing or contrasting a character in their own book to one of the characters in My Brother Sam is Dead. Are these characters similar in actions or thought? Which character is more realistic? Which character would do you relate to the most and why? Do these characters get themselves into the same type of situations? How does each story end and which is more believable? What choices do these characters have to make and who do they have to fight for their own beliefs? The book could then be presented by each group showing student�s new awareness or deeper understanding of the affects and morality of war. They must also find music or poems that can apply to their book and the theme of standing up for what one believes in despite what is popular.
Suggestions for Further
Reading
� The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson by Ann McGovern
A brief biography of the woman who disguised as a man joined the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
� Daughter of Liberty by Robert Quakenbush
A chance encounter with General George Washington in upstate New York during the Revolutionary War leads a young woman to volunteer for a dangerous mission involving the retrieval of valuable papers
� The Hollow Tree by Janet Lunn
Neither Patriot nor Tory, Phoebe finds herself caught between conflicting loyalties. After her father is killed fighting for freedom with the rebels, the 15-year-old lives with her loyalist relatives in the mountains along the Vermont/Hew Hampshire border.
� The Fighting Ground by Avi
The story of a tragically injured young silversmith who ends up hip-deep in the American Revolution is inspiring, exciting and sad.
� The Bloody Country by James Lincoln Collier
In the mid-eighteenth century a family moves from Connecticut to Pennsylvania and becomes involved in the property conflict between the two states.
� The Winter Hero by James Lincoln and Christopher Collier
Anxious to be a hero a young boy relates how he becomes involved in Shays Rebellion begun by farmers in western Massachusetts against unfair taxation levied on them by the Boston Government.
Work Cited
Avi. The Fighting Ground. Harper Trophy; reprint edition, 1987
Collier, Chris, James Lincoln. My Brother Sam is Dead. New York: Scholastic Inc, \
1974
--The Winter Hero. New York: Scholastic Inc, 1985
Collier, James Lincoln. The Bloody Country. New York: Scholastic Inc, 1980
Donelson, Kenneth L. and Nilsen, Alleen Pace. Literature for Todays Young Adults.
Boston: Pearson Education Inc. 2005
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. � A Nation�s Strength�
Lunn, Janet. The Hollow Tree. Puffin, 2002
Liberty Kids+ Give Me Liberty. Dir. Marsha Goodman, Judith Reilly. Perf. Walter
Cronkite, Kathleen Bar, and Reo James. Uav Corporation 2002
Marley, Bob. Get Up Stand Up.
McGovern, Ann. The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson. Scholastic
Paperbacks; reissue edition, 1990
The Patriot. Dir. Ronald Emmerich. Perf. Mell Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson,
Jason Isaacs and Chris Cooper. Sony Pictures 2000
Quakenbush, Robert. Daughter of Liberty. Hyperion, 1999