Breaking up is not hard for 7th Grade students at the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School.
In fact, they revealed that breaking up was “creative,” “fun,” and “productive.”
Erin Casey, the Social Studies Teacher at the Middle School, devised a clever way for her students to learn more insight on the American Revolution.
So Ms. Casey instructed her students to write letters that maybe the Colonists would have penned when they sought independence from England’s rule in the 1770s.
“Students in my classes have been studying the American Revolution. Having studied the causes of the Revolution before winter break, we were now looking at the war itself and how we became an independent nation,” Ms Casey explained. “We analyzed the Declaration of Independence, breaking it down into its four parts - the preamble, the explanation of natural rights, the grievances and the separation. To demonstrate our understanding of the main ideas in the Declaration, we wrote breakup letters to England from America.”
The start of the letter was to be:
Dear England,
We are never, ever, ever getting back together!
And ending with
XOXO, America
This popular project was launched when the students returned from Winter Break.
“ To help us write our letters we completed some prewriting activities while listening to breakup music. Our personal favorite being, We are Never Ever Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift and NSync's Bye, Bye Bye,” Ms. Casey revealed.
“When our letters were complete, we stained them with coffee so that they would look like they were written in the 1700's,” she reported. “My kids love doing this and are so excited to see their letters hanging up in the building. “
The finished letters are hung in her Room N-5 and on the team bulletin board in the lower D wing at the Middle School
Her students were quite receptive and were passionate at expressing their feelings of breaking away from England.
“It was a fun way of learning about the American Revolution,” said Zach Schocklin.
“I used information that I read from our books and I was creative in my breakup letter,” Zayaan Liannan shared.
Zach Weinblatt added:
“It was a good way to learn and we put a lot of effort into it,” said Zach Weinblatt.
Their teacher believed that she got the point across by the points her students wrote on paper.
‘It was very productive and the kids got into it,’ Ms Casey said. “It was fun and creative.”
She launched this innovative means of educational learning 12 years ago.
“This is one of my favorite writing assignments every year, as my students enjoy being creative while demonstrating that they understand what they have learned,” Ms. Casey concluded.