Pearson Learning Group in New Jersey II
The use of various texts increases the possibility that students will engage in rich conceptual information that promotes critical thinking. Luke has written about the importance of the Internet as a means to enable knowledge. It becomes contestable and open to criticism, and teachers play an important role in ensuring this possibility. Rich knowledge bases maintain students’ interests, as also reported by Walker, Bean, and Dillard (2005), in relation to the teaching Cartier Replica Watches of high school economics. The overall environment of the classroom can bring the content and students together.
In October, Erika’s class approached the American Revolution, and their historical engagements continued. Several of the students became agitated during this unit of study, as the following dramatization shows. Stopping at each bar (table of students)—as colonial leaders had done—she persuaded the drinkers to take courage against the British, “They have no right to control us!” “Yeah! Yeah!” the colonists/students yelled, with hands raised as if holding mugs of ale.
The Sugar Act (1764) and Stamp Act (1765) were two of the acts of control that upset these colonists. Britain had stepped in too close. The Sugar Act imposed new charges on the colonists’ imports of wines, coffee, textiles, and indigo, so they started to smuggle. Then the British Navy started to patrol the coast, on the lookout for smugglers, who, if caught, would be tried without a jury. The Stamp Act forced the colonists to pay part of the cost of stationing British troops here. It also required them to pay a tax on newspapers, playing cards, diplomas, and legal documents. Plus, suspected violators of the Stamp Act also would be tried without a jury.
The colonists reacted to these Acts with riots and boycotts of British goods. Groups called the Sons or Daughters of Liberty formed to promote the manufacture of cloth in the colonies and to circulate protest petitions. The Cartier Replica colonists/students were becoming united. Some (in response to an option provided by Erika for an in-class assignment) wrote speeches to deliver at an upcoming town meeting. With drama, Zharlaine read the text of Figure 1.
The town meeting voted to stand together, but little did the students know what some of them would do with the British tea in a few years. Their tempers had only begun to flare. U.S. history was coming alive. They were living it. The colonial period was not a calm period (and certainly not boring); this unit of study could not be, and was not, a calm, boring, flat experience.
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