Women Following Washington's Army
Grade Levels: 5 - 10
Objectives
- Students will use facts to support and dispute hypotheses.
- Students will learn about the role of women in modern early warefare.
Procedures
- Discuss the following with your students.
American women contributed in many ways during the War of Independence. Some chose to stay home during the war; they organized boycotts of British goods, collected money for the Patriot cause, and took care of their husbands' farms and businesses. Other women decided not to stay home during the war; a few women actually disguised themselves as men and fought along with the men. Other women decided to follow the army.
- Distribute the Women hypothesis sheet.
- Individually or in groups, ask students to fill out the Women hypothesis sheet.
- Discuss their different ideas, and what facts they have to support their ideas.
- After they have finished, explain that George Washington felt very conflicted about having a large group of women follow the army.
- Armed with that information, ask students to fill out the Washington hypothesis sheet.
- List some of their hypotheses on the board. Make lists of supporting ideas and disputes students have with the various hypotheses.
- Distribute the fact sheet.
- Ask students to put aside the hypothesis sheets and read the fact sheet out loud, in groups, or individually.
- After they have read the facts, their hypotheses will probably change. Ask them to fill out the Post facts hypothesis sheet.
- Discuss any differences between their old hypotheses and their new hypotheses. What did they learn from the fact sheet?
- You may want your students to do additional research and write papers about this issue.
Excerpt from Ready-to-Use Multicultural Activities for the American History Classroom .
