“What’s your beef, colonies?”

Grievances of the American colonies

 

A Webquest for 11th Grade American History

 

Designed by

Ms. Kelley

kell8438@hotmaill.com

 

 

Introduction:  In the late 1700s, the American colonies started seeing its mother country, Great Britain as uptight, overbearing parents who took their money and their freedom.  Britain saw its American colonies as whiny, teenagers that wouldn’t live by reasonable laws.   So the Americans did what any teenager would do:                                                                        

REBEL.!!

            So, infringement of rights can lead to revolution.  But what exactly were the American grievances?  What was their beef with the British?  And once they got rid of those nasty British, how did they attempt to address these grievances with their new government? 

 

The Task:  In this project, we will use the Public Policy Analyst and our web research to learn more about this critical turning point in American History in a new and hopefully more interesting way.  The end result of this webquest will be a Regents style essay, (we still have to be ready for that test!) which addresses all of the following:

  1. What were the grievances of the American colonies? (Identify the problem)
  2. How did the new American government attempt to address these grievances with the Articles of Confederation?
  3. How successful were the new Articles of Confederation in addressing these grievances?

 

The Process: 

1. Find a partner to work with.  (Due to small number of computers, some groups will have to have 3 people).

2.  Go to TIPS Public Policy Analyst.  Once there, I want you to define Public Policy.  ( http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ppa/usppai1.html )

3. Use worksheet 1 to complete the list of grievances that the American colonists had against Britain.  You can use the following websites to help in your search: 

a. TIPS has a list of many of primary sources, including the British Acts and documents explaining why Americans found unacceptable and “intolerable.”  (http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ppa/usppares1.html )

b. For a journal of the 2nd Continental Congress, try this Library of Congress site.  (http://rs6.loc.gov/ )

c. PBS has a site which outlines a series they did on the American Revolution. (http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/ )

d. Academic Info has a great site with links to just about all the primary documents you’ll need. (http://www.academicinfo.net/usearlyrev.html )

e. If all else fails, try your own search on http://www.altavista.com or http://www.dogpile.com the two search engines where you’ll have the most luck. 

4. Find the public policy of the new American Articles of Confederation regarding the grievances that your group listed. (http://www.usconstitution.net/articles.html )

5. Now it is time to evaluate the American public policy.  How successful were the Articles in addressing the grievances of the people? (Here’s a hint:  Do we still have the Articles of Confederation as our “supreme law of the land”?)

This is the step where you will create your thesis for your essay.  All of the information that you have collected so far will aid you in your argument.  Use the following websites to help you in your search:

1. The Federalist Papers (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/fed/fedpapers.html )

2.  A Comparison of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. (http://www.usconstitution.net/constconart.html )

3. The TIPS site has a page relating to the Articles. (http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ppa/usppares2.html )

 

Evaluation:

How will your essay be graded?  Well, partly it will be graded according to the United States History Regents Rubric.  But since you have all done some extra research, and participated in this experiment, there will be some other factors that will determine how this webquest product will be graded.  Check out the following rubric to help you figure out your grade.

 

 

A

B

C

D

F

Regents

Criteria

 

·        Corresponds with a 5 on regents

·        Addresses all parts of task

·        Evaluates the success of the Articles of Confederation

·        Corresponds with a 4 on regents

·        May not address all parts of task evenly

·        Attempts to evaluate Articles

·        Corresponds with a 3 on regents

·        Addresses most of task

·        More descriptive in nature

·        May contain minor errors

·        Corresponds with a 2 on regents

·        Addresses part of task

·        Contains inaccuracies

·        Corresponds with a 1 on regents

·        Fails to address task

·        Major inaccuracies

Research

 

 

Lots of research, made use of suggested websites plus extra websites

Good research, made use of most suggested websites

Sufficient research, used some suggested websites

Research lacking, 1-2 websites used

No research

Style

 

·        Typed

·        Cover Page

·        Little or no grammatical errors

·        Typed

·        May contain a few grammatical errors

·        Not typed

·        May have some grammatical errors

·        Not typed

·        Many grammatical errors

·        Not typed

·        Illegible

·        Not coherent

 

In addition to the above, make sure that your webquest project is handed in on time.  For each day that your project is late, you will lose 3 points off the total grade!!!

 

Standards

This webquest focuses on the following Social Studies Performance Standards:

SS1: Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York

SS5: use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the U.S. and other nations; the U.S. Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

 

This webquest focuses on the following English Language Arts Performance Standards:

E1c: Read and comprehend informational materials.

E2a:  Produce a report of information.

E3a:  Participate in one-to-one conference with the teacher.

E3c:  Prepare and deliver a group presentation.

E4b:  Analyze and subsequently revise work to improve its clarity and effectiveness.

 

 

Conclusion:

At the end of this project, you should have accomplished the following:

  1. Written a Regents Essay. (Good practice for your test in June)
  2. Studied a worthwhile subject. (You live here don’t you?)
  3. Become one with technology. (Well, closer at least)
  4. Completed the TIPS Public Policy Analyst as it relates to our history (And how!)
  5. Last but certainly not least, made your teacher happy and proud. (Ah, my kids!)

As your understanding of history has probably grown with this, keep in mind for the future what issues the Constitution fixed that the Articles of Confederation couldn’t….pretty soon, it will be, “What ‘s your beef, states?”