Hamilton lyrics in the below lessons are in bold dark red. 

WEAVING IN MIRANDA'S HAMILTON LYRICS INTO THE U.S. HISTORY CURRICULUM

One student exclaimed in 2016,
"Ms. Mac, how did you ever teach without Hamilton!"
The following lessons have weaved in Lin-Manuel's lyrics within lessons within my Founding Era unit:
  • "World Turned Upside Down"
  • "Constitution Needed!"
  • "The Dinner Deal"
  • "Election of 1800"
  • "Code Duelo and the Hamilton-Burr Duel"

"World Turned Upside Down"

Preview: A preview assignment is a short, engaging task that foreshadows the upcoming content. After defining the military word, siege, the teacher leads a student discussion identifying where on the map the choke points would be for a siege to take place at Yorktown.
Small Group Activity: In groups of four using Chromebooks, students will work together to answer a question for each segment of Mount Vernon’s Now or Never: The Yorktown Campaign ten-part video series on the Battle of Yorktown. The teacher can also choose to view the videos as a whole group.
Whole Group Reading:  The teacher will read the excerpts from Chernow’s Hamilton and lead a discussion on how it matched what they viewed on the segments on the Battle of Yorktown. Students will then listen to the “World Turned Upside Down” from the drum/fife corps at Williamsburg. The teacher will stress it myth that the British played it and discuss how the repetitive nature of the tune. Students will follow the lyrics of Miranda’s rap “The Battle of Yorktown” while the teacher plays the clean version of the rap. The teacher lead a discussion on how parts of the rap feel like moments in the battle.
​Assessment: Using the secondary sources, the Battle of Yorktown Map, the videos “Now or Never: The Yorktown Campaign,” the excerpts from Chernow’s Hamilton and the ballad “The World Turned Upside,” highlight the Miranda’s Battle of Yorktown lyrics and annotate with textual evidence that match the history of the battle. Matching myth with historical events, identify three events within the Battle of Yorktown victory that Americans could interpret as “The World Turned Upside Down.”

Constitution Needed!

Picture
Preview:
A preview assignment is a short, engaging task that foreshadows the upcoming content.
Pass out the “Events Around the Constitution” PDF
The teacher play “What Comes Next?”while the students follow the rap lyrics.
Direct Instruction:
Using the PowerPoint “Plain, Honest Men” based on Richard Beeman’s book, “Plain Honest Men” and continuing using the “Events Around the Constitution” PDF, the teacher introduces the dynamics that surround the Constitutional Convention and interesting men who labor that hot 1787 summer in Philadelphia.
  • “Share read” the excerpt from Washington’s Newburgh speech. Share reading is the teacher FIRST reading the excerpt modeling prosody, inflection, and punctuation and the students follow along silently.
  • After students clarify unknown words in the Washington speech excerpt, the teacher reads the secondary source account written by Chernow.
  • Before reading the Washington speech excerpt together as the whole class, the class reenact Washington taking out his classes and repeat the Washington exclamation, “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in service to my country.” The class then reads the excerpt a second time with the teacher continuing to read along with the students serving as the model for the class. This technique will support struggling readers as well as English Language Learners (ELL).
  • After the students listen and follow the rap lyrics ​“Non-Stop,” the teacher elicits from the students textual evidence from Miranda’s lyrics of Hamilton’s writing prowess.
Student Assessment:
Student will complete the worksheet “Events Around the Constitution Worksheet” PDF. 

The Dinner Deal

Preview: This preview assignment is to ensure a review of events connecting them to “place” emphasizing that Philadelphia was the leading candid for the location of the nation’s capital. Using color pencils students will identify the different cities and where certain events took place. Teacher leads a discussion on where “historically” the nation’s capital should have been placed.
 
Direct Instruction: Teacher leads discussion on the charts, “Understanding the Problem” and “Finding a Solution.”
  • Have students color in the two charts with red always being red.
  • Allow the students to choose a color for income, revenue, expenses, taxes, or duties.
Teacher and students view and discuss “Dinner Party of 1790” that includes Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ron Chernow, Joanne Freeman, President G.W. Bush and President Obama.
 
Pair Group Activity: Have whole class line-up by students’ birthday. Student match up with their “birthday twin.” The “birthday twin” students complete two activities.
  • Complete putting Chernow’s excerpts in chronological order by numbering them.
  • Discuss when students felt powerless in a decision.
​Whole Class Discussion: Teacher reviews the Chernow’s excerpts ordering and leads observations of students’ stories of feeling powerless in a decision. Teacher passes out “The Room Where It Happens” pdf and after playing Miranda’s Hamilton rap, "The Room Where It Happens," leads a discussion on how it feels to have to power to decision and the powerless to b left out of decisions.
 
Student Assessment: Students writes a paragraph answering “What does it mean and why is it important to be in the “room where it happens”?”

Election of 1800

Preview: The preview assignment connects politics with geography.
  • The students will choose two colors to represent Adams and Jefferson.
  • They will color the states and then tally the total for Adams and Jefferson to fill in the pie chart.
 ​Direct Instruction: The teacher will “share read” the secondary source excerpt from Chernow’s Hamilton.
  • When share reading is the excerpt, the teacher should model prosody, inflection, and punctuation while students follow along silently. 
  • After the first read, the teacher will answer questions by students of unknown words.
The teacher will play “Election of 1800” while students follow the lyrics. Class discussion should center around what students learned new that was not included in the Ron Chernow’s excerpts.  

Student Assessment: Students will list three specific objections Hamilton had for Burr assuming the presidency using textual evidence from the two primary documents, explain why Hamilton believes that Jefferson, as president, is the lesser of two evils and then highlight and annotate five places that the Miranda lyrics reflect the primary documents (letter excerpts from Hamilton) and the secondary source (Chernow Hamilton excerpts). ​

Code Duello and the Hamilton-Burr Duel

Day One:

 Preview: The class listens to “Ten Duel Commandments” while following lyrics. The teacher will read the introduction to the “Code Duello.”
Small Group Activity: In groups of four, students will the twenty-five rules for the Code-Duello.
  • The group task is to find textual evidence in the twenty-five rules of the Code Duello with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rap “Ten Duel Commandments.” The group will annotate their copy of “Ten Duel Commandments.”
     While the students are working, the teacher assigns each group rules from the Code Duello to illustrate the assigned rules after the group is finished with their annotations.
  • If the class has twenty-four students, there would be six groups of four, allowing for four rules per group. For instance, group one would get rules 1, 2, 3, and 4, group two gets rules 5, 6, 7, and 8 and so on.
  • The illustration can be stick figures, although some students may have more artistic illustrative talent.
Whole Group Presentation: Each group presents their illustrations to the whole class. 

Day Two: 

 Preview: The class listens to “Your Obedient Servant” while following the lyrics.
Direct Instruction: The teacher presents Hamilton’s past encounters with duels using the PowerPoint, “Five Duel Experiences.” The teacher should emphasize the last slide on Hamilton’s intention to throw away his shot.
Small Group Activity: Using the same groups of four from the day before, the students will read the five letters between Burr and Hamilton that lead to the duel. Half of the classroom groups take the Burr questions and the other half of the class take the Hamilton questions.
                                              Burr Group
  • How does Burr state the Hamilton’s “only common thread has been your disrespect”?
  • How does Hamilton “answer for the accusations I lay at your feet”?
                                            Hamilton Group
  • What does Hamilton ask for when he want Burr to “cite a more specific grievance”?
  • How does Hamilton “stand by what I said” and refuse to “apologize because its true”?
After the groups are done, have students stand up and reform into new groups of four with two “Hamilton” and two “Burr.” Have the new groups of four share their information with each other.
Student Assessment: Students will answer a reflective question: “Who do you sympathize with more? Hamilton or Burr? Why?