We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

These provocative and powerful words are familiar to most 21st-century Americans. But to truly appreciate their radical and revolutionary meaning, we must understand what political and social ideas were commonly held during the Colonial era.

These semiquincentennial lessons and activities provide a broad range of pathways through which educators can teach the founding of our country, its remarkable exceptionalism, and equally remarkable divergence between ideals and practice.

A note about the word semiquincentennial: As the semiquincentennial approaches, you may be feeling nostalgic for the days of the bicentennial, which was easier to pronounce and spell. But the word is actually quite logical in both. Based on Latin roots, semiquincentennial deconstructs as follows: semi meaning half; quin meaning five and centennial meaning hundredth. It’s pronounced sem-ee-kwin-sen-TEN-ee-uhl. Happy 4th of July!

Best Lessons and Activities for the Semiquincentennial

National Constitution Center: The Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights
What’s the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? And what about the Bill of Rights – how does that fit? Although the U.S.Constitution and Bill of Rights didn’t exist in 1776, it’s best to understand these documents as part of the same striving toward democracy and freedom. This in-depth article, written by constitutional experts Jeffrey Rosen and David Rubenstein, explores and clarifies the similarities and differences among these three crucial founding documents. An ideal place to start for students in grades 6-12.

American Battlefield Trust: Declaration of Independence Lesson Plan
A detailed, standards-aligned lesson plan for use in middle and high school classrooms. Students will learn about the process of creating and adopting the Declaration of Independence as well as its importance in history. Includes a teaching guide, PowerPoint presentation, student worksheets, and digital versions of primary source documents.

PBS: The American Revolution Learning Resources
Based on video excerpts from Ken Burns’ The American Revolution, these standards-aligned lessons explore topics such as: demographics and economy of the colonies; causes of the American revolution, key events and figures; and consequences and legacies of the era. Lessons are classified by grade and include teacher guides, discussion questions, vocabulary, and handouts. Shareable to Google Classroom with a free PBS account.

DocsTeach America 250 Activities and Documents
From the National Archives, a selection of downloadable digital versions of the key primary source documents related to America’s founding and early years. Each document is accompanied by explanatory text as well as a complete transcript so readers don’t have to try to decipher faded old- fashioned handwriting. Activities for selected documents serve as grade-leveled lesson plans and formative assessments, and include suggested teaching instructions. Sharable to Google Classroom.

Bill of Rights Institute: Declaration of Independence Lesson
What were the philosophical bases and practical implications of the Declaration of Independence? This complete, scaffolded lesson plan takes a deep dive into these questions about our country’s founding document. Includes all required readings, activities, educator answer key, lesson extensions, student handouts, and graphic organizers. A free account is required to download the full lesson plan in a single PDF.

Museum of the American Revolution Mini Lesson Plans
Ten American Revolution lesson plans that while concise, nonetheless include everything needed to cover topics including historical object analysis, dissecting the Declaration, Alexander Hamilton, the people of colonial America, and George vs. George–a comparison between King George III and George Washington.

Museum of the American Revolution: Season of Independence
To Americans of our modern era, it may seem “self-evident” that all colonial Americans would have supported their states’ efforts toward independence. While the majority did support independence, this was not universal. Explore how the demographics of Revolution supporters vs. Loyalists changes over the first six months of 1776. Map-based interactive with links to further inquiry about people and places.

Beyond the Battlefield: A Virtual Field Trip to the Museum of the American Revolution
An enthusiastic and engaging virtual visit to the Museum of the American Revolution, hosted by Lauren Tarshis, author of the bestselling I Survived children’s book series. The video appears to be aimed at younger learners but the classroom kit that accompanies the video contains readings for students in grades 2-8. Downloadable PDFs include vocabulary, discussion questions, and answers. An excerpt from Tarshis’ I Survived the American Revolution 1776 is also provided. This would be a great place to start with younger learners or any students who respond well to a people-centered approach to history.

iCIVICS Education Investigation Declaration Game
Oh no! A criminal enterprise, known as Baddies Against Rights and Freedom (B.A.R.F.) has hacked into the Bureau of Ideas with the intent to destroy files related to freedom, democracy, and rights. Enlisted as Special Agents, players will collect clues from 1776 to restore the ideas and damaged files of the Declaration of Independence. This absorbing game is intricate enough to keep older kids involved, while also providing a glossary for younger learners. Available in English and Spanish. A free account is not required, but does allow users to save in-game progress and compete with others.

National Humanities Center: The American Revolution as Civil War
We think of the conflict that led to American independence as a revolution—and we commonly refer to it as the “American Revolution.” But at its heart, wasn’t it actually a civil war? In this lesson for grades 10-12, students will read and analyze a travel journal from 1775, written by a Scottish woman who visited her brother in North Carolina and observed patriot and loyalist activities. Provided are a teacher’s guide, close-reading questions, and a fillable PDF assignment for students. An excellent lesson for advanced students.

Gilder Lehrman Institute: The Declaration of Independence at 250
A wealth of activities devoted to the Declaration’s 250th anniversary. All activities are grade-leveled and include formative quizzes, teacher’s guide, and interactive elements. Explore topics such as whether the revolution was justified, how and why Congress changed Thomas Jefferson’s initial draft, and the reaction of British people to their colony’s assertion of rights.

iCivics: Why Do We Have So Many Governments?
In this inquiry-based, standards-aligned lesson plan, students will learn about the three levels of government, the principle and practice of federalism, and how life in the colonies and the Articles of Confederation affected the founders’ decision making. Includes Google Slideshow, PDFs, and student handouts. With a free account, educators can create a class and assign this lesson.

Abigail Adams and “Remember the Ladies”
Abigail Adams is famous for appealing to her husband John Adams during the months prior to the signing of the Declaration. Students will read her letters and analyze their words in response to close-reading questions. A teacher’s guide, fillable PDF, vocabulary, interactive exercises, and follow-up assignment are all included.

Discovery Education: Free Classroom Resources to Commemorate the U.S.'s 250th Anniversary
Organized by grade level and theme, this downloadable guide offers selected K-12 social studies resources relevant to the semiquincentennial. Topics covered include the Declaration of Independence, origins of the U.S. Constitution, equal protection under the law and more. Video, slideshow and interactive text materials are included.

With more than $3 billion spent on ed tech products last year and more than 2,500 programs on the market, educators across the country need to know which products are likely to make a difference in teaching and learning. In a research study into this issue, Dr. Ryan S. Baker, Director of the Penn Center for Learning Analytics focused on what aggregate data can tell us about the programs we use and how effective the apps we use for math, ELA and science are.

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He used aggregate data from BrightBytes Learning Outcomes module to learn what programs students are using, how much they’re using them, and how the investment in programs correlates to improved student learning.

After looking across 48 school districts with 392,603 learners using 258 apps, he found that there was sufficient test data to analyze student improvement for 177 of these apps. He focused only on 150 apps used by learners that were used for a total of 1.48 million hours.

These districts were varied in type: large cities (3), medium cities (6), small cities (7), suburbs (24), rural/ small town (12) and student population: more than 30,000 students (5), 10,000-30,000 (9), 5,000-10,000 (13), 1,000-5,000 (19), fewer than 1,000 students (4).

The team focused their efforts in three areas: adoption, engagement, and impact. Each plays a role in understanding the overall effectiveness and financial sustainability of apps that students are using.

Adoption tracks how many licenses were purchased, the cost of licenses, how many active users there are, and who at the school is using it. Engagement measures student usage (how often students are using a particular app and to what degree) and student perceptions (how much do students like/dislike a particular app.) Impact tracks the link between student usage on a particular app and how that may or may not influence their performance on assessments.

Student Improvement was measured by standardized test score improvement between one test (fall, winter) to another test (winter, spring). Scores were collected from standardized tests in math, science, and ELA.

They defined student usage in two ways: the total number of minutes that students used the system and the total number of distinct days that students used the software. They determined the average cost of an app in terms of the cost per license, the cost per user, or the cost per intensive user.

Results of the Study

Use

1.8 million licenses were purchased. The average number of licenses per student was 5.02. When a district purchases licenses, it is typically with the expectation (or at least hope) that they will be widely used.

However, the study showed that not all licenses are used. License use varies by app, and there is a range of unused licenses. The study also looked at licenses that were employed in classrooms but not used intensively. There was a wide range in the degree of adoption of different apps and limited overlap between the apps with the largest number of licenses purchased and the largest number of intensive users.

Costs

There is a wide range of costs, even when not including free apps. Cost per license varies from $0.14 per license to $367.00. There is an even larger range of costs when looking at the cost per user, which varies from under $0.1 per user to $1000.00. The largest range of costs is cost per intensive user, which varies from $0.2 per user to $5000.00. 

Impact on Math and ELA Learning

Perhaps the most important question to discern from the data is what apps had the most impact on learning. The study examined use of apps in math, English Language Arts and science. The data on time indicated what one would expect -- the more minutes students used certain apps, the more their test performance improved between assessments. The data on the number of days of use is also logical -- the more days students used certain apps, the more their test performance improved between assessments. 

Impact on Science Learning

While there were fewer apps and fewer assessments available for the study in science, correlations existed between the time and number of days certain apps were used and test improvement. Apps also had geographic variation for where they were most effective.

General data on use is valuable but even more relevant is an analysis of what apps were most widely adopted, used, used intensively, and were successful in promoting student learning in math, ELA, and science. 

Read the previous entries in this blog series:

How Effective for learning are the Ed Tech Apps we Use?

As the costs for devices and applications decrease, technology use is increasing In classrooms across the country. Growth is particularly high in web-based devices. Read more.

How Good is our Return on Learning for Classroom Apps?

School districts across the country spent more than $3 billion on ed tech products last year and chose from an assortment of 2,500 apps on the market. With so much money at stake and so many choices, educators need to know which products have a positive impact on student outcomes and the conditions under which impact is the greatest. Read more.

OAKLAND, Calif. - November 15, 2017 - New historical analysis writing prompts for Turnitin Revision Assistant—a digital teaching tool giving students immediate, actionable feedback while they write—support writing instruction in content areas beyond English/Language Arts. Students, educators say, need direct writing instruction in all curriculum areas in order to write effectively and analyze domain-specific texts. Revision Assistant is one way to give students more meaningful practice across disciplines without adding stacks of essays to a teacher’s grading pile. Click to Tweet.

By the middle school years, writing assignments in subject areas outside of English/Language Arts tend to be only a paragraph in length says Arizona State University professor and researcher Steve Graham. He adds that writing is more important now than ever before due to digital communications. Students need to learn how to write clearly and purposefully in either short or long formats because our society spends so much time expressing themselves electronically. Dr. Graham expands on this topic in a podcast The Written Word, sponsored by Turnitin.

Social studies teachers who are tasked with teaching history and civics rarely have time to give direct writing instruction. This may be a reason why their writing assignments tend to be shorter. However, Revision Assistant is one tool teachers can use to give meaningful writing instruction and relevant feedback without adding to their workload. With Revision Assistant, students write to a prompt, such as an argumentative essay on the Modern Revolution. At any time while writing, students can request a Signal Check and Revision Assistant will immediately give four points of feedback specific to their essay.

“We know we need to be teaching writing but we can’t do that in a meaningful way when we need to teach social studies standards at the same time,” said Caren Ray, the social studies department chair at Santa Maria High School in California. “I used to do abbreviated writing exercises because of time challenges but with Revision Assistant, I was able to assign a poetry analysis to my students, and the program gave students feedback in a manner they could intuitively understand.”

A new historical analysis genre and new historical analysis prompts will be available in December 2017 and more will be released in 2018. Historical analysis prompts in Revision Assistant align with disciplinary literacy state standards including the Common Core, as well as the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies.

About Turnitin

Turnitin is committed to building better writers, with integrity. Turnitin’s formative feedback and originality checking services promote critical thinking, ensure academic integrity, and help students improve their writing. Turnitin provides instructors with the tools to engage students in the writing process, provide personalized feedback, and assess student progress over time. Turnitin is used by more than 30 million students at 15,000 institutions in 140 countries. Backed by Insight Venture Partners, GIC, Norwest Venture Partners, Lead Edge Capital and Georgian Partners, Turnitin is headquartered in Oakland, Calif., with international offices in Newcastle, U.K., Utrecht, Netherlands, Melbourne, Australia, Seoul, Korea, Delhi, India, and throughout Latin America.@Turnitin