Dispatches from the Past

 Dispatches from the Past

 

Level:  Advanced: Day 4 – Follow-up activity

Time:  3 class periods

Materials:
          The Massachusetts Spy
          Printing in Isaiah Thomas’s Time Essay, especially the section on newspapers, books on the American Revolution.
 
Objectives:
     Students will:
1)     identify the format and style of newspapers of the Revolutionary era;
2)     understand the uses of propaganda; and
3)     understand the difficulties of printing a newspaper in the late 18th century.
 
Overview:

Students will become an American newspaper publisher/editor/columnist/ printer/cartoonist during the Revolutionary War.

Activities:
1)     Have each student read Isaiah Thomas’s The Massachusetts Spy, paying close attention to the format of a newspaper of this time period and also to the writing style.
2)     Randomly break the class into group of 4 – 5 students.
3)     Have each group choose one major event during the Revolution – Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, the battles of Lexington and Concord, etc. 
4)     Each group researches their chosen event.
5)     Each group divides up the different tasks of publishing a newspaper – headline writer, writer/writers, editorialist, caption maker, etc. 
NOTE:  students should be factual and creative in their writing.
6)     Each student in each group completes his part of the newspaper and then the newspaper is brought together and printed.