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You are here Home Resources Literature Connections Johnny Tremain
Literature Connections
5-8 Core Literature Themes and
Connections
Johnny Tremain
by Esther Forbes
This novel is filled with danger and excitement as it tells of the turbulent
times in Boston just before the Revolutionary War. As a young apprentice
silversmith, Johnny becomes a spy for the Sons of Liberty, takes part
in the Boston Tea Party, and struggles with loss at the battles of Lexington
and Concord.
5th
& 8th grade Core Literature
Key Concepts
and Vocabulary Words
Revolutionary War, Boston Tea Party, democracy, consitution
Themes
IWar, freedom, patriotism
English/Language
Arts
Theme Questions
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Websites |
Extensions/
Activities
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How did Esther
Forbes' book compare with actual historical events during the
Revolutionary War?
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Score
CyberGuide on Johnny Tremain
In this unit, students, working with partners or small groups,
will use various Web sites to investigate the people and times
of the American Revolutionary War in and around Boston, Massachusetts.
Created by Susan Murphy
WebQuest
on Johnny Tremain
Students will work as a team of researchers taking on different
roles to compare how accurate the literature is to what actually
happened.
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Write a pamphlet
as a research report using effective search strategies on the
Internet. Create a newsletter based on the times. Write a literature
response on how accurate the book was written to what actually
happened. Keep a Colonial diary.
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5th Grade
Language Arts Standards (California)
Reading Comprehension 2.3 Discern main ideas and concepts
presented in texts, identifying and assessing evidence that supports
those ideas.
Reading Comprehension 2.4 Draw inferences, conclusions
or generalizations about text and support them with textual evidence
and prior knowledge.
Writing Application 2.2 Write responses to literature:
a. Demonstrate an understanding of a literary work.
b. Support judgments through references to the text and to prior
knowledge.
c. Develop interpretations that exhibit careful reading and understanding.
Writing Application 2.3 Write research reports about important
ideas, issues, or events by using the following guidelines:
a. Frame questions that direct the investigation.
b. Establish a controlling idea or topic.
c. Develop the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and
explanations.
8th Grade
Language Arts Standards (California)
Writing Strategy Standard 1.4 Plan and conduct multiple-step
information searches by using computer networks and modems.
Writing Application Standard 2.2 Write responses to literature:
a. Exhibit careful reading and insight in their interpretations.
b. Connect the student's own responses to the writer's techniques
and to specific textual references.
c. Draw supported inferences about the effects of a literary work
on its audience.
d. Support judgments through references to the text, other works,
other authors, or to personal knowledge.
Writing Applications Standard 2.3 Write research reports:
a. Define a thesis.
b. Record important ideas, concepts, and direct quotations from
significant information sources and paraphrase and summarize all
perspectives on the topic, as appropriate.
c. Use a variety of primary and secondary sources and distinguish
the nature and value of each.
d. Organize and display information on charts, maps, and graphs.
Listening and Speaking Strategies Standard 2.3 Deliver
research presentations:
a. Define a thesis.
b. Record important ideas, concepts, and direct quotations from
significant information sources and paraphrase and summarize all
relevant perspectives on the topic, as appropriate.
c. Use a variety of primary and secondary sources and distinguish
the nature and value of each.
d. Organize and record information on charts, maps, and graphs.
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Top
History/Social
Science
Theme Questions
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Websites |
Extensions/
Activities
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What were
the causes and effects of the Revolutionary War?
When is war
justified?
What was life
like during colonial times?
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WebQuest
on Johnny Tremain
This site gives background information of the Revolutionary War
where students take on different roles in the quest.
WebQuest
Resources
A list of links to resources on daily life during colonial times
including food, clothing, schooling, and more.
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Create
a newsletter taking on either the American or British position.
Invite students with artistic ability to draw battle scenes at
Lexington and Concord, using in part the descriptions in the novel
as a guide. Create a diorama, skit, or drawing around daily life
during colonial times in Boston.
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5th Grade
History/Social Science
5.5 Students explain the causes of the American Revolution.
1. Understand how political, religious, and economic ideas and
interests brought about the Revolution (e.g., resistance to imperial
policy, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, taxes on tea, Coercive
Acts).
3. Understand the people and events associated with the drafting
and signing of the Declaration of Independence and the document's
significance, including the key political concepts it embodies,
the origins of those concepts, and its role in severing ties with
Great Britain.
5.6 Students understand the course and consequences of the American
Revolution.
8th grade
History/Social Science
8.1 Students understand the major events preceding the founding
of the nation and relate their significance to the development
of American constitutional democracy.
1. Describe the relationship between the moral and political ideas
of the Great Awakening and the development of revolutionary fervor.
2. Analyze the philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration
of Independence, with an emphasis on government as a means of
securing individual rights (e.g., key phrases such as "all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights").
3. Analyze how the American Revolution affected other nations,
especially France.
4. Describe the nation's blend of civic republicanism, classical
liberal principles, and English parliamentary traditions.
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