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| Famous Faces of the American Revolution
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Famous Faces of the Revolution
| Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Teacher's Notes |
created by Jennifer Politano 2003- please see credits below
The United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing has asked for your help in chosing the person whose face will appear on the new $25 bill. It has already decided that it wants to put the portrait of a famous American patriot on the front, but hasn't decided who it should be. The Bureau needs you to vote on one of three finalists.
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Your job is to pick the best person for the new $25 bill by first learning about all three finalists. Then you will need to pick one and write an essay telling the reasons for your choice. You will send your essay by e-mail to the Money Committee Chairperson or your teacher will collect your essays for a class vote.
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| Getting Ready | 1. First, learn a little bit about other bills by visiting the American Currency Exhibit or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and filling out the worksheet you see when you click here. 2. The three finalists for the $25 bill are below. Print out the Gathering Information Worksheets and get ready to learn who these famous Americans were.
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| Gathering Information | 1. Click on the pictures above to gather information about each person. Write down the information on your Gathering Information Worksheets. You do not need to write complete sentences at this time. Just take notes and write information in your own words. Do not mark anything in the column labeled with a star (*). You will use this later. |
| Making a Decision | 1. Now you are ready to chose the person who should be on the $25 bill. Look for the column labeled with a star (*) on the Gathering Information Worksheets. There is one column under the "Important Facts" section and one column under the "Accomplishments" section. 2. Draw a star in this column next to the information that you think is most important. You can draw more than one star for each person. You can draw more than one star next to each piece of information too if it is very important in your opinion. 3. Now count how many stars each person has. Your choice for the bill is the person with the most stars. 4. Make sure you have at least two stars for the person you chose. You will need the information next to the stars for your essay. |
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Writing the Essay |
1. Now you are ready to write your essay. Go to the Essay Guidelines page for help in writing your essay. You can print out the Essay Example for more help. Your grade on this project will be based, in part, on how well you follow the Essay Guidelines. 2. Check your essay for spelling, grammar and content before going on to the next step. Have a partner check your work too and make any changes you need to. |
| Submitting your Choice | 1. Ask your teacher if you should e-mail your essay or print it out to turn in and follow your teacher's directions. 2. Congratulations! You have done a great job of researching and writing. Maybe you should be the one on the $25 bill! |
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You will be graded on the writing and content of your essay. If you and a partner worked together to write one essay then you will also both be graded on how well you worked together. Print out the Grade Sheet and begin to give yourself and your partner a grade. Your teacher will give you a final grade. Once again, congratulations on a job well done!!
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The tasks given in this webquest address many New York state standards in social studies, English language arts, and English as a second language. The content used in the Gathering Information phase was modified for use by Limited English Proficient English Language Learners (LEP-ELL's) in the ESL classroom. However, this webquest could also be used by mainstream classroom students who are learning about the American Revolution. The Money Committee Chairperson mentioned in the "Task" section is intended to mean the teacher of the class. Allowing students to submit their essays via e-mail may increase their motivation for completing the project and allows the teacher to provide written feedback.
Materials Needed
Successful completion of this webquest requires access to a computer with internet capabilities, Microsoft Word software, and either a black and white or color printer. The documents labeled Currency Worksheet, Gathering Information Worksheets, Essay Guidelines, Essay Example, and Grade Sheet were all saved in Microsoft Word 6.0/95. If your computer has at least this software or a newer version of Word, you should be able to view the documents.
Mini-Lessons
This webquest is not intended as a stand alone unit. Rather, it should accompany a unit on the Revolutionary War period of American history. The teacher may wish to provide mini-lessons on the following topics prior to or during the students involvement in the activities.
taking notes, writing essays
copying a picture from the internet and pasting it into a Microsoft Word document
copyrighted information and giving credit to authors, painters, websites, etc...
saving a document to disk or a student folder on a network
the writing process including peer editing, writing from notes, complete sentences, paragraph formation
the grade sheet included in this webquest
gathering information from biographies
The following websites and print material were used in the making of this webquest. They can also serve to provide further information on the topic of this webquest. For some excellent tips on using computers in the classroom go to Using the Computer Effectively in the 1 Computer Classroom.
For internet text and images about:
Money:
American
Currency Exhibit
Bureau of Engraving
and Printing
Abigail Adams:
The White
House
Thomas
and Gale
History
Central
Abigail Adams Historical
Society
Philip Livingston:
Philip
Livingston by Stefan Bielinski
Colonial
Hall: A Look at America’s Founders
Philip
Livingston by Cynthia A. Kierner
John Hancock:
Colonial Hall:
A Look at America’s Founders
Signers
of the Declaration of Independence
Virtual Museum
of History
For Print Sources of Information:
The Signers: the 56 Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence
By Dennis Brindell Fradin
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