The Interlopers: Are You Ready to Rumble?

Using the attached Lesson Slides, display slide 3. Post the essential question on the board as students enter the room. Read it aloud at the beginning of class.

Move to slide 4. Instruct the students to take out a sheet of notebook paper, and write the following words in a column, leaving space between each word for notes:

• Who?

• What?

• Why?

• Where and When?

Show slide 5 and explain to students that they are going to watch a lyric video of the song “Your Obedient Servant” from the musical Hamilton. Read the background summary on the slide for students, especially if they are not familiar with the musical. Tell students that you will play the video twice. The first time, they should just to listen. During the second, they should take some notes on the 5W questions (who, what, why, where/when).

Display slide 6 and play the Your Obedient Servant video for the first time. After the video plays, check for understanding and answer any questions students have. Then, tell students for the next viewing they will add some notes to their notebook paper as they watch.

Tell students that as they watch or listen to the video again they need to focus on the conflict presented. Direct students to write the word “conflict” on the top of their notebook paper to help remind them of their focus. When the video plays, tell students to fill in notes under the labels they added earlier by focusing on:

• Who were the individuals in conflict with one another?

• What is the conflict?

• Why is the conflict an issue?

• Where and when did the problem take place?

After the song concludes, give the students a few minutes to finish writing.

Show slide 7 and introduce the Roundabout Conversations instructional strategy to the students. Have the class split into two groups. Have one group form an inner circle and the other group form an outer circle. Explain to students that when the music plays, the inner circle will walk clockwise, and the outer circle will walk counterclockwise. If students are unsure of this procedure, consider asking the two groups to face each other (the inner circle facing the outer circle and vice versa), and then ask them to all turn to their right. They would then be facing the correct direction to walk for this activity.

Move to slide 8 and explain that there will be five rounds to this activity. Each round, when the music stops, they will have 90 seconds to discuss the questions on the slide. Use the Your Obedient Servant video to play the song in a new browser tab.

After playing the song long enough for circle groups to rotate, stop the music, and display slide 9. Instruct the students to turn and talk to a partner in the other circle. Remind students that their conversations are timed and they may use their notes to answer the given questions. Start the 90-second timer on the slide to begin Round 1.

Repeat these steps for Rounds 2–4 using slides 10–12 respectively.

• Round 1 (slide 9): Who were the individuals in conflict with one another?

• Round 2 (slide 10): What was the conflict?

• Round 3 (slide 11): Why was this conflict an issue?

• Round 4 (slide 12): Where and when did the conflict(s) take place?

Show slide 13. Invite students to discuss the answers to the questions as a class.

Show slide 14. Review the lesson objectives.