Performing the Declaration of Independence

For the last two months of school our students have spent a great deal of time studying the events that lead up to the Revolutionary War.  

We played a game, created  by Mission US, called "For Crown, or Colony?"  Throughout this game our students had to take the role of the main character Nathaniel Wheeler, who is a teenage boy moving from his families farm outside of Boston, MA to Boston to become a printer's apprentice.  Throughout the six levels of the game students make choices which determine if they will become a patriot, a loyalist, or a neutralist.  

During the playing of this game our students kept a paper journal in which they had to respond to daily prompts.  We used this journal to practice 1st person and historical fiction writing.  By far, we received some of our best writing products all year with this project.

Once we finished our Nathaniel Wheeler journals we used our textbook for a couple more discussions on events between the Boston Tea Party and the Second Continental Congress.  At this meeting of delegates, the men declared that they must "Hope for Peace" but "Plan for War."  They also began having Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence.  

We watched a video featuring several well known actors and actresses recite the entire Declaration of Independence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYyttEu_NLU.  In this retelling, Morgan Freeman told our students that the declaration was origianlly written in a way that was meant to be performed.  Our students had asked for a play here and there throughout the year....now they wanted their chance with only 2.5 weeks of school left.  

They received their parts last week Monday (May 13).  We did set creation and recording this past Tuesday and Wednesday.  Immediately following the recording our school LMS took individual and groups of students to create the final product.  Keep in mind, this was all put together in less than two weeks by 25 passionate fifth graders.  We proudly present to you, our rendition of the Declaration of Independence:



On a final note, today our students reflected on what they learned this past month or two about the Declaration of Independence in their Google Drive.  Their prompt was "What does the Declaration of Independence mean to me?"  In what our students wrote, it seems clear they now have a much better, more real life, understanding of the importance of the Declaration of Independence and our upcoming summer holiday, July 4.