TRAR Survey for US History to 1865

The Real American Revolution

The purpose of this survey is to learn from classroom educators what would help them lay a strong, accurate, and lasting foundation of knowledge and interest in the founding history and civic principles of the nation while also helping students develop the skills, knowledge, and desire to become good citizens.(In VA, this subject may be taught in 5th or in a middle school grade.)

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School District

Are you currently teaching US History to 1865?
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In which grade are you teaching US History to 1865?

How many years have you taught US history to 1865 in VA?

How many teaching days can you devote to teach the period that begins after the French and Indian War (1763), goes through the Revolutionary War, the New Nation, Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, ending about 1812?

Assuming it does not slow you down, would it help you to teach your students about the American Revolution and founding periods if there were an overarching storyline that captures your students' imaginations and pulls them into the world-changing ideas, issues, people and events of the Revolutionary War so that they understood, retained, and identified with this national history?
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Yes No

Assuming it does not slow you down, would it help your students understand and relate to the period if the storyline included brief narrations about a fictional but historically accurate Virginia child who is just a bit younger than them when students first meet him at the end of the French and Indian War, and whose personal story as he grows up and participates in/is affected by events reappears intermittently through the study?
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Yes No

Would it help you teach your students about the American Revolution and the founding of the nation if you had grade-appropriate teaching materials that included:
Choose All That Apply

Primary sources that are age-appropriate and interesting to your students (ex: journals written by children of that period about events your students are studying) and that both fit into your lessons and meet your teaching objectives.
Online, effective, animated video overview of the American Revolution.
Online short videos about aspects of the American Revolution problems caused by the Articles of Confederation, or aspects of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Music of the 18th century to be used as background in class.
Use of an interactive online game that brings home the crushing difficulty of making dangerous decisions in wartime – "Being Washington" by Mount Vernon.
Quick, accurate, and fun lessons in 18th century language, deportment, and manners.
Annotated lists of historical fiction books and movies about the period that are age-appropriate for your students.
Active lessons teaching students how to discern character traits of individuals of historical significance during the American Revolution and Founding periods (ex. George Washington, Catherine Moore Barry, James Lafayette, Benedict Arnold, etc.).
A home conversation guide that parents could use at home if they wish to enhance student (and family) interest and knowledge.
A 40-minute interactive, dramatic, multi-media experience that makes clear to students how and why the big ideas about rights, scientific reasoning, and self-government swept through the colonies and inspired American colonists.
Audio-dramas that bring to life key events during the American Revolution.
Lessons and materials that would engage students in higher level thinking, not only dealing with issues as people from all walks of life in the midst of the Revolution, but relating those issues to their own lives today.
Lessons in which students actively use principle-based reasoning and principles of self-governance to make decisions, debate elements of the Constitution, and formulate their own laws.
Active learning methods that simultaneously build character traits, reasoning, and behavioral habits that are components of good citizenship.
Short online videos that either dramatize or explain aspects of the War, Constitution, or feature an interview with a character actor portraying a particular historical person incorporated into your teaching materials?
Classroom Small Trunk: a permanent classroom collection of teaching objects that you could use year after year when you need them and that are keyed to specific lessons for maximum teaching impact.
Traveling Large Trunk: a trunk that could be reserved on certain date, subject to availability, and sent to your class for a defined period. The trunk contains pictures, maps, reproduction documents, and artifacts that will enable students to view, touch, feel, and analyze the purpose and use of historic objects.
Washington Rochambeau Trail Resource and Activity Book: featuring Words of History match game; geography activities, comics, secret codes, word search activities; Connect the Historic Dots; crossword puzzle; etc.
Online videos of history reenactors representing people from various walks of life who bring out various relevant topics (see possible characters and selections below).
Live visits from history reenactors representing people from various walks of life who discuss impact of the War or aspects of the Constitution from their points of view.

If you had short online videos, would it help you to have an introduction and/or post video discussion questions provided to you.
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Yes No

If you had online videos of history reenactors, what is the ideal maximum length of each program?

If you had online videos of history reenactors, would it help to have introductory and after-event materials for each?
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Yes No

If you had live visits from history reenactors, what is the ideal length of live visits?

In such a live or video visit from a character actor, which of the following would be valuable to your teaching objectives?
Choose All That Apply

Impact of British behavior 1763-1775
Secret meetings with Bonvouloir and others to obtain French Aid
Impact of Patriot furor on Loyalists
Why Lafayette and France helped and what they gave
Lafayette's reaction to American slavery
Impact of Black soldiers on American opinions
Patriot attitudes about Arnold before and after betrayal
French soldiers' opinions of America and American soldiers
American soldiers' opinions of French soldiers
French "virus of liberty" soldiers took back to France
Native American involvement in the American Revolution
Orientation Overview of the American Revolution 1763-1789
African American soldiers in the Revolutionary War
James Lafayette's contributions and friendship with Lafayette
Washington's choices that led to generalship
Washington's spy-craft and counterintelligence
George Washington's giving up command
Importance of lawful, peaceful transfer of office to next President
Banastre Tarleton's cavalry, attitude, and acts
Rochambeau's challenges, leadership, trek to VA, and Yorktown
Admiral Comte de Grasse's Naval role Yorktown and World War
John Graves Simcoe's Queen's Rangers
Cornwallis's reasons for and actions in Virginia
British military and political take on Yorktown
Causes and Reasons for Revolution
Life of a wife of a soldier; why women were part of the army
Sources of ideas expressed in Declaration
George Mason's contributions
British offers to, use of, and treatment of Blacks
Why 5,000 Blacks fought for Patriot side
Patriot women in the war
Spain's contributions to the American Revolution
French artillery and siege warfare at Yorktown
Rights and responsibilities covered in the Bill of Rights
Problems caused by Articles of Confederation
Need for a central banking system
Amendments 1-10 Rights and Responsibilities
Supreme Court role
Federalist versus Anti-Federalist issues
Fair representation issues from perspective of states with large population versus states with small populations
Martha Washington: From New Kent to Mount Vernon

In a live or video visit with a historical figure played by a character actor discussing and/or demonstrating a specific topic such as the topics listed above, which historical figures would be helpful?
Choose All That Apply

Loyalist woman
Loyalist man
Militiaman
White Continental
Black Continental
Enslaved person owned by Loyalist
Enslaved person owned by Patriot
Patriot woman soldier
Patriot camp follower
Continental field doctor
Member of spy network
Hessian soldier
British soldier
Native American Patriot Ally
Native American British Ally
Frontier settler
John Adams
Paul Revere
General Washington
Past President Washington
Martha Washington
Abigail Adams
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
George Mason
General Lafayette
General Rochambeau
Admiral de Grasse
General Galvez
Lord Cornwallis
General Nathanael Greene
General Henry Knox
General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox"
James Lafayette

Since there is limited time to cover this period in your class, would it help if there were many choices of teaching materials in both STEM subjects (Math, Science, Language Arts, and Technology) and in Art, Music, Dramatics, and P. E. that would apply the exact skills and knowledge being taught in those subjects as fast and as well or better than currently used materials, while enhancing student understanding of or illuminating important facets of the American Revolution or founding that you don't have time to teach?
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Yes No

Would it help you to have available for your use a fully integrated curriculum covering this period that includes detailed lesson plans and teaching materials in social studies and all other subjects (Teachers would choose those lessons and activities that best serve their students' needs.)?
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Yes No

Have you and the other 6th grade teachers ever used integrated teaching materials before?
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Yes No

Which of the following types of training would you use, if it were available?
Choose All That Apply

Live half-day or full-day symposiums conducted by The Real American Revolution and/or the American Revolution Consortium for Civic Education featuring various aspects of the revolution.
Zoom live training and Q&A series, held during the last hour of the workday over several days.
On-demand, online, segmented by topic, educator training series on aspects of the historic period and about how to implement or create lessons that are integrated across several subjects. These lessons could be accessed at the viewer's convenience as many times as desired.

If you had online, segmented topics, what would the ideal maximum length of each segment be?

Examples of historic period presentations for teachers that you could access follow. These could be viewed online, taking advantage of all the visual material Power Point makes possible, or simply listened to, accessible as a podcast. Select those that you would be interested in viewing or listening to.
Choose All That Apply

Orientation Overview of all 26 years of the American Revolution through Constitution era, 1763-1789
African American Soldiers in the Revolutionary War
Alexander Hamilton
Artillery during the Revolutionary War
Banastre Tarleton, British Cavalry Leader
Comte de Rochambeau, Commander of French forces in America
Comte de Grasse, French Admiral
French Aid during the American Revolution
General George Washington, Commander of American Continental forces
General Henry Knox, Commander of Continental Artillery
John Graves Simcoe, British Commander of Queen's Rangers
Lord Cornwallis, British Commander in the Southern Campaigns
General Lafayette, French General who assisted the American cause
Native American Involvement in the American Revolution
Patrick Henry, Voice of the Revolution
Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution
Spanish Involvement in the Revolutionary War
Thomas Jefferson, Primary Author of Declaration of Independence
Virginia's Role in the American Revolution
Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail
Women Leaders and Heroines of the Revolution
Yorktown and French Aid
Constitutional Convention

Would you be more likely to use an online training series if you were to receive continuing education credits for doing so?
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Yes No

How many field trips do your students take per year?

What would an ideal field trip about the American Revolution or founding period include?

If a field trip relates to the American Revolution or Founding Period, would you be more likely to select it from all the possible field trips if it also relates to important teaching objectives in additional subjects such as Science, Art, Technology, and Language Arts?
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Yes No

If you were able to take your students on a field trip relating to this unit of study, assuming both the program and guides at each site are outstanding, which of the following sites would be most desirable?
Choose All That Apply

American Revolution Museum in Yorktown (state museum, Virginia)
Colonial National Historic Park (Yorktown Battlefield)
Gunston Hall, Home of George Mason
Monticello, Home of Thomas Jefferson
Montpelier, Home of James Madison
Mount Vernon, Home of George Washington
Museum of the American Revolution (national museum, Philadelphia)
Scotchtown, Home of Patrick Henry
St. John's Church, Richmond, Site of Patrick Henry's famous speech
Colonial Williamsburg
Hampton Roads Naval Museum for the Battle of the Capes games
Berkeley Plantation, Home of Harrison Family
Highland, Home of James Monroe
John Marshall House
Kenmore, Home of Mary Washington
Mariners' Museum
National Museum of the Marine Corps
National Museum of the U.S. Army
Red Hill, Last Home of Patrick Henry
Stratford Hall, Home of the Lee Family
Virginia Museum of History & Culture
Virginia War Museum
Watermens Museum
Westmoreland, George Washington's Birthplace

If you were to learn that teachers in high school say they cannot teach students as well as they should about the big ideas, events, and issues of the American Revolution, the civic/government principles of the Constitution, or civic skills in the time available with the materials they have unless the students arrive with more retained knowledge and interest about these topics from their study of US History to 1865 than they do now, would you be surprised?
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Yes No

If you have already taught this period of US history at least one year, do most students begin in your class with a strong foundation of knowledge about:
Choose All That Apply

Basic issues, events, and leaders of this period?
Basic governmental organization set out in the Constitution?
Rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights?
Skills and duties of citizenship?

Would it help you teach what you are expected to cover if students did have this foundation?
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Yes No

Do you currently give an ungraded, standardized pre-unit assessment of what they know?
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Yes No

Would you use an assessment if it were available, very brief, easy to use, and helpful?
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Yes No

If you have already taught these periods of history at least one year, do you believe that enhanced teaching methods, materials, and training support would help achieve the goal of laying a strong, lasting foundation of knowledge and ownership of the civic principles and early history of the nation?
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Yes No

Do you find your local school division pacing guide for US History adequate with time allotments for dedicated teaching? Why or why not?

Type anything you would like to add.