Students on the seventh grade Little River Team at Gorham Middle School recently needed to “rise up!” for an exciting, but challenging unit; studying the American Revolution largely through the hit Broadway musical, “Hamilton: An American Musical.”
For their culminating assessment, students chose, researched, and wrote about an important event or person from the period. The assignment was given as a challenge. Students were told that due to the overwhelming success of “Hamilton,” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda needed another song for his show and that the best song in the class may be featured in the musical in an upcoming production. The assignment was a huge success.
“The songs were phenomenal,” said University of Southern Maine ETEP teaching intern Pamela Marshall, who taught the “Hamilton” unit. “It took everyone out of their comfort zones and the best part was that they surprised themselves.”
Student Ben McInnis’ rap was a conversation between Nathan Hale and General Washington, “Ok, Nathan here is your mission.” “Yes sir.” “I want you to spy on the British, Hale.” “Like collect all their mail?” “No, no see what they plan to do to my troops and live to tell the tale.”
Students were also challenged to lay down beats to accompany their raps. Some chose to lay their lyrics onto pre-existing rap songs and others used software on their laptops to make their own beats.
Emily Wilcox wrote about the famous American general turned traitor, Benedict Arnold. “Benedict Arnold was born in 1741. In Norwich, Connecticut growing up wasn’t that fun. He had eleven siblings but most of them died. But he didn’t let that ruin his pride. He then made a plan in 1780. To switch to the British side, he was real shady. He became known as a world famous traitor. There will never be a greater famous traitor.”
Perhaps the biggest crowd pleaser, and the rap that won the challenge, was a collaboration by Tessa Dol and Joleen Gima about Aaron Burr. “The Battle of Monmouth, Burr suffered heat stroke. He was so disappointed his heart nearly broke. Burr decided times were getting rough. In 1779 he resigned, he’d had enough! 1784 Burr got into politics. He wanted to help resolve some conflicts.”
“The winning group excelled because of Joleen’s careful research and Tessa’s whimsical rhymes,” said Marshall who added, “This was truly one that blew me away. The length was beyond expectation and each stanza was filled with accurate historical content and clever rhymes. They did a great job telling Aaron Burr’s story in this way.”
Marshall finished the “Hamilton” unit in April at the end of her internship, but students have continued to listen to and learn from the “Hamilton” soundtrack. Marshall’s mentor teacher, Sarah Rubin, noted its staying power. “Although we’ve moved on into later studies of the American Revolution and the founding of our nation, students still reference songs from Hamilton and point out historical figures that they were first exposed to through the musical. It has been an exceptional teaching tool and experience.”