What do Super Bowl ads and Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre have in common? This is the uncommon conversation in Kelsey Madonna’s seventh grade social studies class this week.
Comparing images in the media just prior to the Revolutionary War to those students consume today is one way that Madonna makes the choices the colonists faced real for the class. “Both the British and the Americans were trying to gain supporters—and soldiers,” she said, helping them see that engravings in the 1700s were the TV and social media ads of their time.
The seventh graders had already concluded that most advertisements try to make the viewer think a certain way. “The burgers never taste as good as they look on TV,” said one student.
Madonna dimmed the classroom lights and put Revere’s 1770 engraving on the class screen. Students took a closer look at the elements the patriot chose to include and talked about why.
They noted the cloud of smoke from the British muskets. Several colonists lie on the ground; some are bleeding. The attack looks unfair.
“There’s a dog with the colonists!” said one student.
“What does a dog symbolize?” asked Madonna.
“Loyalty!” said one student. “Man’s best friend,” said another.
“Exactly. And look, its tail is between its legs. It’s scared,” said the teacher. “Why did Revere include this element?”
The seventh graders agree that Revere wanted to create an image that made colonists feel that they were being bullied by England—and that the revolutionary effort needed their help.
After the discussion, the students begin writing analyses of the elements of persuasion Revere used in his engraving. Writing reflections is only one of the ways Madonna’s students show their understanding of concepts discussed in class. Last week, the students created videos that showed their understanding of economics in Colonial America.
In the next few weeks, the entire seventh grade will be working with social studies teachers Madonna, David Ley and William Mayr to analyze war strategies from the Revolution and use them to plan a hypothetical water balloon fight between teams in the school building.
“We created the lesson to deepen students’ understanding of the tactical strategies used in Revolutionary battles while also connecting to how strategy and planning are important skills in sports, school and everyday life!” said Madonna.
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Other stories in the Inside the Middle School Classroom series:
The Anatomy of a Paragraph
Active Learning in Algebra