Lesson Plan 4: Elementary School
The Boston Massacre
by Elizabeth Berlin Taylor
Introduction
In this lesson, students will be asked to learn the disputed and agreed
upon facts of the Boston Massacre in small groups and then discuss them
and propose a website definition of the Massacre as a class. This lesson
should not only provide students with an opportunity to look at disparate
representations of so-called history facts surrounding a very famous event
that preceded the American Revolution, but will also teach them to deliberate
with their classmates in a cordial fashion.
Background
On the night of March 5, 1770, American colonists attacked British soldiers
in Boston which resulted in the soldiers firing upon the crowd and killing
five of the colonists. This event became known as the Boston Massacre,
a rallying point for colonists against the stationing and quartering of
British troops throughout the colonies and against the Townshend Acts
which the British soldiers were deployed to enforce. Many different accounts
of this encounter are extant as John Adams successfully defended the British
soldiers in court and thus had to depose numerous witnesses.
Materials
“The Bloody Massacre,” by Paul Revere.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/treasures1.html
Deposition of Theodore Bliss
http://www.bostonmassacre.net/trial/d-bliss.htm
Captain Thomas Preston’s Account of the Boston Massacre
www.bostonmassacre.net/trial/acct-preston1.htm
(A shortened version is included in this lesson plan)
“The Soldiers Trial: October 24 to 30, 1770: Selected Testimony”
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/soldiersaccount.html
Summation of John Adams
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/adamssummation.html
(A shortened version is included in this lesson plan)
Anonymous Account of the Massacre
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/anonyaccount.html
(A shortened version is included in this lesson plan)
Secondary source
Library of Congress “America’s Library” site for kids
which gives a brief overview of the Boston Massacre.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/revolut/boston_1
Essential Question
What really transpired on the night of March 5, 1770?
Objectives
1. Students will be able to read and understand primary documents that
are key to the Boston Massacre and the ensuing trials of the British troops
and their captain.
2. Students will be able to identify similarities and differences between
primary source documents.
3. Students will be able to discuss the Boston Massacre as a class to
decide what they think actually occurred.
4. Students will be able to propose and vote on a definition for the Boston
Massacre for a history website for elementary school students.
Motivation
Give students five minutes to read over the information at the “America’s
Library” site. After that time, ask students to close their computers,
or, if using a print copy, collect that copy. Ask students to remember
as many details about the Massacre as they can from the site. The teacher
should record the facts as they are announced by the students on the board
so that they are visible to the entire class.
Procedure
After the motivation has provided a basic understanding of the events
of the Boston Massacre, inform the students that for the rest of the class
they are going to be history detectives and decide what they think really
happened in the Boston Massacre.
Project the famous Paul Revere engraving, “The Bloody Massacre,”
and ask students a variety of questions about what they see:
1. What do you see in this engraving?
2. How are the colonists portrayed?
3. How are the British soldiers portrayed?
4. According to this engraving, who is at fault in this Massacre? How
do you know?
As students identify that the engraving seems to put the British soldiers
at fault for the Boston Massacre, the teacher will inform them that they
are going to read a variety of other documents and decide if Paul Revere
was telling the truth about the circumstances of the event.
Put students into eight groups of four. The members of each group will
analyze the same document, as the primary sources are fairly challenging
reading. Give each group a packet that includes copies of one of the following:
the Deposition of Theodore Bliss, Captain Thomas Preston’s Account
of the Boston Massacre, the Summation of John Adams, and the Anonymous
Account of the Massacre. Students will read and analyze their group’s
document, noting at the bottom of the handout five of the described events.
Students will jigsaw so that they will be in a new group in which each
member read a separate article. The students will fill in the attached
worksheet that asks them to find events that were discussed in more than
one source. Also, students will write a summary of what they think took
place during the Boston Massacre. Each group will choose a spokesperson
who will read a brief explanation of what they think happened to the class.
The teacher will request the input of up to three of the groups and then
summarize the work that was done in that period.
Day Two (This can also be an optional extension of the prior
lesson)
Students will briefly review the facts that they think are true about
the Boston Massacre, referring to their previously read articles and the
worksheet they completed with their second group.
The teacher will then pose the question, “If we were going to make
a website for elementary school students about the Boston Massacre, what
should the site say?” The class will decide this question by having
a whole-class discussion.
Each student will get two popsicle sticks. When the student wishes to
speak, he or she will raise her stick and then turn it in as he or she
speaks. Thus, each student will have at most two opportunities to speak
during the discussion. The teacher will need to guide the discussion by
asking the following questions (and by recording the answers where they
can be seen by the entire class):
• Can we agree as a class upon what actually happened during the
Boston Massacre?
• What seems certainly to be true? Why?
• What might be true?
• What do you think is certainly untrue? Why?
• How should we write our definition for a website?
• What should we include and what should we omit?
The teacher can use the grading checklist
to assess student participation in the discussion, but he or she should
stress that the goal of the class is to come up with a well-written and
historically accurate definition of the Boston Massacre for a website.
Closure
Debrief the discussion. What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of
that method of decision making in a piece of writing? Was it hard to come
up with a definition? Are you pleased with the definition you wrote?
Extension
Students can create a podcast about the Boston Massacre that uses the
class’ definition. Another extension would be to have students create
a website on the American Revolution and use the class’ definition
as a page in the site.
BACK TO TEACHER'S DESK 
