Dispatches from the Past
Dispatches from the Past
Level: Advanced: Day 4 – Follow-up activity
Time: 3 class periods
Materials:
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.