The launch activity will begin with by watching  selected parts of a  5 pack video called The Revolutionary War.   The purpose of watching this video is to get the students in the mind set of this time period.  It is also presented to activate studentís prior knowledge.

The students will be given a KWL activity to be done in class individually then, students will discuss their ideas within groups and in class.
 *making predictions
 *formulating questions
 *making connections with previous knowledge

After discussing the KWL, students will view more of the video and relate ideas from the video and classroom discussion  to what they have learned.

Part #2

Selected students will participate in a role play of characters that are in the books that they are to read in their literature circles.  The purpose of this presentation is to get the students involved in the different points of view of people during the Revolutionary war.  For example, in the book Sarah Bishop,  the characters Sarah and her father are discussing points of view.  So these characters would be excellent choices for a role playing activity.  Click here to see example role.