Teacher Resources
Boston
Inquiry Question
When does protest become revolution — and who gets to decide?
Primary Sources
What Teachers and Students Use
Paul Revere's Engraving of the Boston Massacre (1770)
PRIMARY · American Antiquarian Society / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / Various museum collections
5 analysis prompts
George Robert Twelves Hewes' Account of the Tea Party
PRIMARY · Various historical societies / Originally published by S.S. Bliss (Hawkes) and Harper & Brothers (Thatcher)
5 analysis prompts
Downloads
Ready to Print
Student packet, teacher guide with answer key, and quiz — each formatted for classroom printing.
Opens in a new tab. Use your browser's Print dialog (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P) and choose “Save as PDF.”
Lesson Plan
In the Classroom
Learning Objectives
- 1Students will analyze primary source accounts of the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party from multiple perspectives
- 2Students will evaluate how propaganda and media shaped colonial public opinion
- 3Students will trace the escalation of conflict between Boston colonists and British authorities from 1770 to 1775
- 4Students will identify the roles of key figures including Samuel Adams, Crispus Attucks, and Paul Revere in the revolutionary movement
Warm-Up · 10 minutes
Display Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre without context. Ask students: "What story does this image tell? Who are the 'good guys' and 'bad guys'?" Then reveal it was created by a Patriot silversmith for political purposes. Ask: "Does knowing the creator's purpose change how you read this image?"
Direct Instruction · 20 minutes
· Context: British troop occupation of Boston beginning in 1768 and escalating tensions
· The Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770): what actually happened on King Street
Closure · 10 minutes
Exit ticket: "Name one way Paul Revere's engraving was effective propaganda and one way it was misleading. What does this teach us about using images as historical evidence?"
Differentiation Strategies
Struggling Learners
Annotated versions of primary sources with vocabulary support, sentence starters for editorial writing, visual timeline of events
Advanced Learners
Additional sources including John Adams's defense of the British soldiers at trial; extended essay comparing the effectiveness of different forms of colonial protest
ELL Support
Bilingual key terms glossary, image-based evidence analysis option, graphic organizer with sentence frames
Explore Further
Boston in the Knowledge Graph
The lesson packet draws from these pages. Use them to extend the lesson or give students primary source context.
Comparative Study
Connected Towns
The corroborate prompts in the student packet point to these towns. Teachers can assign cross-town comparisons.
Cambridge
SHARED EVENT
Cambridge served as Washington's headquarters during the siege; the two towns faced each other across the Charles River.
Lexington
SHARED EVENT
The British expedition that triggered Lexington departed from Boston; Paul Revere's ride connected the two towns in a single night.
Concord
SHARED EVENT
The British march to seize stores at Concord began in Boston; the retreat returned bloodied soldiers to the besieged city.
Assessment
Boston's Road to Revolution
Answer all questions based on our study of Boston in the American Revolution. For short answer questions, use specific evidence from sources we studied. · 7 questions · Answer key in Teacher Guide PDF
What was the significance of Crispus Attucks in the Boston Massacre?
multiple choice
How did Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre differ from what trial evidence suggests actually happened?
multiple choice
What role did Samuel Adams play in Boston's revolutionary movement?
multiple choice
+ 4 more in the full quiz PDF
Ready to Print?
All three documents below — student packet, teacher guide, and quiz — are formatted for letter-size classroom printing.