How Did Tea and Taxes Spark a Revolution?

This book is a part of the Six Questions of American History series.

How did tea and taxes spark a revolution?: 
and other questions about the Boston Tea Party

Written by Linda Gondosch

Published by Lerner Publications, 2011

Nonfiction, Historical, Revolutionary war, covers women's and men's issues, kid-friendly  

 Awards:

• 2011 Award Winner -"Honor Book" in the Social Studies--Grades
  K-6 category of the Society of School Librarians International 2011 Book Awards
• SSLI Book Award

Summary:  

On a cold evening in December 1773, a group of men climbed aboard three ships docked in Boston Harbor. Armed with hatchets, the men began breaking into the ships' valuable cargo--342 crates of tea. They dumped the tea into the black water of the harbor and then marched back home through the city streets. This "Boston Tea Party" was a bold act of protest by American colonists against British rule. It pushed the colonies and Great Britain a step closer to war. But who were these protestors? Why would they risk angering the powerful British government? And how did the British respond? Discover the facts about the Boston Tea Party and the colonists' struggle for independent rule. - Amazon.com

Reading Level: Lexile Framework 850L, Grade 4.6

Suggested Delivery: Independent research, text book supplement

Description: Nonfiction

Key Vocabulary: colonies (6), representation (8), taxation (8), boycott (10), smuggling (14), monopoly (22)

Teaching Suggestions:

1. Students would benefit from
2. Students could relate the phenomenon of Superman during the Great Depression to our obsession with Iron Man and the Avengers today. Why do students think this is? What are our superheroes fighting today? Discuss.
3. Who do students find to be an "superhero" in their own lives? Students could write thiank you notes to "every day superheroes."

Comprehension Strategies

Pre-Reading- Before reading, students should be given time to do a picture walk of the book. Discussion time should be set aside to discuss the many text features that are prominent in this book, such as the table of contents, index, timeline, and the places where key vocabulary words are highlighted. This way, students will be prepared to read the text as smart readers.

During Reading- As they read, students should work in pairs on vocabulary, as the historical words such as "taxation" "representation" and "boycott" are necessary to understand to get the concept of the Boston Tea Party. A great way to help students really get the vocabulary is to have them fill out Frayer models. See below for an example Frayer model.

Post-Reading- Six questions chunk the book into sections, such as "What incident in Boston cost the lives of five people and pushed the colonists closer to rebellion?" and "who was given the title the father of the American Revolution?" Students should work in groups to create posters that answer these questions, using images and facts that they research on the internet to answer the question, as well as quotes from the text.

Writing Activity: There are several primary sources provided in the book. Students should write their own "primary documents" from the Boston Tea Party. For example, students could write letters to family members about what they saw during the Boston Tea Party, what it was like to raid the ship, or how surprised they were as a British soldier to see the tea tossed.

Electronic Resources:

Frayer Model 
This link brings you to a Frayer model worksheet creator. Frayer models help students to understand because they have to provide the definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples of the words that they look up. A good differentiation to use with Frayer models is to have struggling students draw pictures of the vocabulary words rather than non-examples.

Lerner Resources
The publisher of this book provides several resources on their website that go along with this book, such as CCSS that go along with the book, crossword puzzles to give students, and even a teacher's guide! All resources can be downloaded as a PDF if you sign up as a member of the publisher's website.

Gondosch, L. (2011). How did tea and taxes spark a revolution?: and other questions about the Boston Tea Party. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications.