Shh! We're Writing the Constitution

I ordered a dozen copies of Shh! We're Writing the Constitution for school.  Our seventh graders cover the Revolutionary War, and the teacher agreed we could work on something that was either collaborative or coincided with each other.  Well--it just coincided.  Nonetheless, the students found the exercise beneficial.

As for the book itself.  I did not love it.  It was definitely an adult writer, and the interesting facts in the book seemed forced and "throw in."  The students felt some of these random facts just seemed out of place.  They did not love this book, either.  It did, however, serve many purposes.  It was a nonfiction piece of work (check!).  It helped make connections with the students' prior knowledge of the Revolutionary War period taught by the history teacher and the current reading (check!).  It was also a springboard for a creative project in which students were asked to write a skit based on something talked about in this book (check!).  They enjoyed this aspect--but could not have done it if it were not the review this book provided.  We did have a VCR tape of this book, but I didn't want to take the time to hook up our dusty VCR recorder to play for the students.  I suspect their skits were better!

Jean Fritz (click here) has an extensive list of historical books in her repertoire.  I just don't love THIS one.