ELA  /  4th Grade  /  Alternate Unit 5: Examining Our History: American Revolution

Examining Our History: American Revolution

Students examine the ideas and values behind the American Revolution, and what drove the colonists to seek independence, through nonfiction texts including Liberty! How the Revolutionary War Began.

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ELA

Alternate Unit 5

4th Grade

Unit Summary

In this unit, students explore factors that influence change by examining the events that led up to the American Revolution. Over the course of the unit, students will build a deeper understanding of the significant ideas and values at the heart of the American Revolution, what drove the colonists to seek independence, and how the conflict between England and the colonists ultimately influenced change in our country. Students will see the American Revolution from multiple perspectives, starting with analyzing the difference in perspectives between the British and the colonists and how each side’s actions often instigated the other. Students will also explore how class structure influenced colonists' perspectives. Later in the unit, students will think about the perspectives of Black people, women, and Native Americans who were forced to choose a side and why they may have had a different point of view of the events of the revolution. 

An important part of this unit is pushing students to focus on seeing history from multiple different perspectives. The core text Liberty! How the Revolutionary War Began offers one perspective on events, however, the perspective is limited to that held by white elite colonists. Therefore, students also read excerpts from A Young People's History of the United States to build a deeper understanding of all sides of the Revolution.  By reading multiple accounts, students will be challenged to notice how an author’s point of view or perspective on events shapes the information they give. Additionally, in order to fully understand the historical events in the text, students will notice the author’s use of cause and effect, sequence, and chronology. Students will also work on summarizing a text, noticing which ideas from the text are important. 

When discussing the text, students continue to work on elaborating and supporting their own ideas, using examples and evidence to justify their own thinking. Doing so sets students up for success with discourse in later units when students are pushed to engage with the thinking of others. Students continue to build their fluency by writing daily in response to the text and crafting sentences that show a nuanced understanding of the content. In the second half of the unit, students write both informational and opinion paragraphs and essays, focusing on stating a topic, providing evidence, and elaborating on that evidence to support a point or teach about a topic.

Please Note: As of July 2025, we have streamlined the recommended sequence of 4th Grade ELA to include only 5 units. This unit is now part of our alternate unit list.

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Texts and Materials

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Core Materials

Supporting Materials

Text Selection Rationale
All Course Materials

Assessment

The following assessments accompany Unit 5.

Content Assessment

The Content Assessment pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.

Cold Read Assessment

The Cold Read Assessment tests students' ability to comprehend a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer standards-based questions. The Cold Read Assessment can be given in addition to the Content Assessment as a pulse point for what students can read and analyze independently, a skill often required for standardized testing.

Fluency Assessment

The Fluency Assessment allows teachers to monitor students' oral reading fluency progress with a reading passage drawn from one of the unit's core texts. Find guidance for using this assessment and supporting reading fluency in Teacher Tools.

Unit Prep

Intellectual Prep

Unit Launch

Before you teach this unit, unpack the texts, themes, and core standards through our guided intellectual preparation process. Each Unit Launch includes a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning to ensure you're prepared to support every student.

Essential Questions

  • What key events led to the outbreak of the American Revolution? 
  • How did opinions differ on the idea of independence? 
  • Were the colonies really a land of equality and liberty? 
  • Why is it important to look at history from multiple perspectives?  

Reading Focus Areas

  • To explain key events in a historical text, readers think about what happened and why. To do so, readers notice the author’s use of cause and effect, sequence, and chronology.

  • Summarizing a text involves deciding which ideas from the text are most important and synthesizing them to show the main points or ideas in the text.

  • An author’s point of view or perspective on events shapes the information they give.

Writing Focus Areas

Opinion Writing

  • Write strong topic sentences that clearly state the opinion.

  • Provide reasons and evidence to support a particular opinion.

  • Elaborate on the reasons to show understanding of the text and topic.

Informational Writing

  • Introduce a topic clearly and group related information into paragraph sections.

  • Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, or other information.

  • Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary.

Speaking and Listening Focus Areas

  • Elaborate to support ideas. Provide evidence or examples to justify and defend a point clearly.

  • Use specific vocabulary. Use vocabulary that is specific to the subject and task to clarify and share thoughts.

Vocabulary

Text-based

alliancealliancealliesambushammunitionauthorizedbombardedboycottclasscondemndelegatedefieddesertdemonstrationsdisguiseeliteenforceenlistfortheroinesinsultsinfuriateintolerableindenturedjeerslibertyloyallocalloyalistsmerchantmilitiamournmonopolymutinyneutraloppressionpossessionsrebelrepealrebellionretreatedriotsettleseizedtyrannyunitewill

Root/Affix

-sion-tionen-in-

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 5, view our 4th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.

Supporting All Students

In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.

Content Knowledge and Connections

Lesson Map

Common Core Standards

Core Standards

L.4.1
L.4.1.f
L.4.2
L.4.2.a
L.4.2.c
RI.4.2
RI.4.3
RI.4.6
RI.4.7
SL.4.1
SL.4.3
SL.4.4
W.4.1
W.4.1.a
W.4.1.b
W.4.2
W.4.2.a
W.4.2.b
W.4.2.d
W.4.5
W.4.6
W.4.7
W.4.8
W.4.9

Supporting Standards

L.4.1.a
L.4.3
L.4.4
L.4.4.b
L.4.6
RF.4.3
RF.4.4
RI.4.1
RI.4.4
RI.4.9
RI.4.10
SL.4.2
SL.4.6
W.4.4
W.4.9.b
W.4.10

Read Next

Examining Our History: American Revolution
Lesson 1
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