1. The teacher will direct the students to look up the word “freedom” in a dictionary and in a thesaurus. The students should be encouraged to use more than one kind of dictionary, so that they can see the variety of ways that definitions are written. The teacher should point out that repeatedly the students will read the w ord "independence" as a synonym for "freedom."
2. The phrase "Freedom means:" should be written on the board. All of the synonyms that are found should be listed below. Students should then be encouraged to create a new list under the phrase, "Freedom is like:" This should encourage discussion of the real meaning(s) of the word.
3. There are many sources a teacher may use to share information about the causes of the American Revolution, including texts, filmstrips, films, and videos. Among the videos,
Countdown to Independence: Causes of the American Revolution
(Rainbow, 1993) is a good example that quickly covers the major events leading up to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Regardless of the resourc es used, students should be able to trace basic reasons for the movement toward independence from British rule and to tie this movement back to the definition of "freedom" they developed.
4. The teacher may share parts of all of the Declaration of Independence with the students. Since later CROSSROADS lessons in middle school will review the document in detail, this level need only understand its major purpose, not the many reasons listed for independence. Students should discuss in detail the "truths" that are held to be "self-evident"; these should be understood and again compared to the d efinitions of freedom above.