• Developers: Verena Calas, National Park Service Museum Educator, Washington D.C
• Grade Level: 6-8 grades
• Number of Sessions in the Lesson Unit Plan: 5
  [Back to top]
  

• Park Name: This lesson unit plan draws on the extraordinary Valley Forge National Historic Park. Museum collections featured in the virtual museum exhibit at www.nps.gov/museum.
• Description: Students will explore the challenges experienced by the Continental Army and its leadership, including General Washington, during their encampment at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778 through object-based learning, hands-on activities, and active research. Students will work with and analyze primary source materials; including original Washington correspondence and other related documentation. Students will have the opportunity to make connections between the Revolutionary War period and the present by examining the similarities and differences between the original training manual of General Von Steuben and modern military manuals. Students will also practice analytical research, close reading, and debate skills through the examination of symbolism in colonial currency, the analysis of 18th century portraiture, and the discussion of women's role in the military.    
• Essential Question: During the American Revolution, General Washington and the fledgling Continental Army encountered many obstacles. However, from the Valley Forge encampment they emerge an organized and trained fighting force. Therefore, what obstacles did soldiers encounter while at Valley Forge? And, what factors contributed its emergence as a trained professional fighting force?
  
  The following lesson plans are organized individually but make up a cohesive unit plan for "The Winter at Valley Forge". Teachers can choose to teach all five lessons as a unit, or each individually.
  
  Lesson Overviews
  
  • Lesson Plan 1: Daily Life at the Valley Forge Camp: This lesson introduces students to the challenges experienced by every day soldiers and their commanding officers during the winter at Valley Forge and explores how they dealt with these challenges not only physically, but mentally, as well.
  • Activity 1: Washington's Frustration
  • Activity 2: Rucksack Rummage
  • Lesson Plan 2: In Their Own Words: This lesson introduces students to the primary source documentation and analysis through the correspondence of men living in the Valley Forge encampment. Students will get another look into the challenges the camp presents as well as the emotional toll war can on the soldiers fighting it.
  • Activity 1: The Voices of Valley Forge
  • Activity 2: A Postcard Home
  • Lesson Plan 3: Von Steuben Makes an Army: This lesson explores the military training and tactics introduced by General Von Steuben at Valley Forge. Students will explore the importance of military manuals as modes of sharing information amongst large organized groups.
  • Activity 1: Who is Von Steuben?
  • Activity 2: Document Transcription and Translation
  • Activity 3: Creating a Manual
  • Lesson Plan 4: Remember the Ladies: This lesson explores the various rolls of women at the Valley Forge encampment. Students will compare the experiences of Valley Forge women to the changing rolls of American women in the military throughout history and partake in a class debate.
  • Activity 1: Who are the women of Valley Forge?
  • Activity 2: The Different Women of War, Independent Research
  • Activity 3: Class Debate
  • Lesson Plan 5: The Economy of War: This lesson explores the different kinds of currency and symbolism used not only in the Valley Forge Camp, but in the Thirteen Colonies at large. Students will also engage in the mathematical exchange of money.
  • Activity 1: Symbolism in Colonial, Continental, and Modern Currency
  • Activity 2: Redesign of the Dollar Bill
  • Activity 3: Converting Currency
  
  [Back to top]
  

NSS-USH 5-12 Era 3 – Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820's)

National Core Arts Standards

Select, organize, and design images and words to make visually clear and compelling presentations.

Currency: something (as coins, treasury notes, and banknotes) that is in circulation as a medium of exchange; a common article for trade or bartering.
Barter: to trade goods or services in exchange for other goods or services.
Wampum: beads of polished shells strung in strands, belts, or sashes and used by North American Indians as money.
Commodity Money (“Country Pay”): money whose value comes from the commodity they are made from such as gold, silver, copper, salt, and tea.
Bills of Credit: a note designating a promise to pay in the future.
Counterfeit: made in imitation of something else with the intent to fool or deceive.

• Reduce the number of currency used in activities to allow for time constraints.
• Allow students to work in groups for currency redesign instead of individually, depending on class size.