Summary
In this lesson, students examine the political, social, and economic conditions that led to the French Revolution. Students further explore these conditions by reading and summarizing primary source documents, watching a video about the Three Estates, and creating a pie chart to represent the causes of the French Revolution. To conclude the lesson, students summarize their learning in a six-word memoir. This is a multimodality lesson, which means it includes face-to-face, online, and hybrid versions of the lesson. The attachments also include a downloadable Common Cartridge file, which can be imported into a Learning Management System (LMS) such as Canvas or eKadence. The cartridge includes interactive student activities and teacher's notes.
Essential Question(s)
What caused the French Revolution?
Snapshot
Engage
Students list everything they already know about revolutions.
Explore
Students categorize conditions for a revolution as political, social, or economic.
Explain
Students summarize documents that detail the conditions of pre-revolutionary France.
Extend
Students create a pie chart by assigning percentages to the causes of the French Revolution.
Evaluate
Students summarize the causes of the French Revolution in six words.
Instructional Formats
The term "Multimodality" refers to the ability of a lesson to be offered in more than one modality (i.e. face-to-face, online, blended). This lesson has been designed to be offered in multiple formats, while still meeting the same standards and learning objectives. Though fundamentally the same lesson, you will notice that the different modalities may require the lesson to be approached differently. Select the modality that you are interested in to be taken to the section of the course designed for that form of instruction.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Revolutions Card Sort handout (attached; one per pair of students)
Pre-Revolution Notes handout (attached; one per student)
Pre-Revolution Documents handout (attached; one per pair of students)
Causes Pie Chart handout (attached; one per pair of students; optional)
Pens or pencils
Notebook paper
Copy paper
Colored pencils or markers
Engage
20 Minute(s)
Use the attached Lesson Slides to guide the lesson. Display slide 3 and introduce students to the Tell Me Everything strategy. Ask students to write everything they already know about revolutions on a piece of notebook paper.
Provide time for students write everything they already know. Then, have each student share their completed list with an Elbow Partner. Invite a few volunteers to share out some items from their lists. Then, move through slides 4–5 to share the essential question and learning objectives.
Explore
10 Minute(s)
Organize students into pairs and move to slide 6. Give one set of the Revolutions Card Sort to each pair of students. Have students read the provided category cards: political, social, and economic. Then, have them sort the each of the sorting cards into one of the category that best describes the card. Allow students time to sort the cards.
Invite a few pairs to share out how they sorted their cards. Guide a class discussion about the cards. During the discussion, share that all of the characteristics students sorted were issues French citizens faced before the French Revolution.
Explain
30 Minute(s)
Move to slide 7 and have students watch the video Causes of the French Revolution about what happened in France leading up to the revolution.
Once the video is over, pass out one copy of the attached Pre-Revolution Notes handout to each student. Organize students into pairs. Move to slide 8 and use the I Notice, I Wonder instructional strategy to have students analyze the the charts on the slide. The chart depicts the Three Estates’ population, land ownership, and the taxes paid.
Have students discuss what they notice and wonder about the images with their partners. Then, invite several students to share out what they discussed. During this discussion, clarify the structure of the Three Estates system in pre-revolutionary France.
Guide the whole class in summarizing the chart in the first box of the Pre-Revolution Notes handout. Then, pass out one copy of the attached Pre-Revolution Documents handout to each pair of students. Move to slide 9 and have students work with their partners to summarize each of the four documents in their Pre-Revolution Notes handouts.
Provide time for students to analyze the documents. Then, move to slide 10. Have students discuss with their partner what they think the main cause of the French Revolution was based on the documents. Provide time for discussion, then ask a few groups to share out their thoughts.
Extend
5 Minute(s)
Display slide 11 and pass out the attached Causes Pie Chart handout, or provide students with a piece of blank copy paper. Provide colored pencils or markers to students.
Using the Dividing the Pie instructional strategy, tell students to think about what conditions held the most weight for French citizens and which had the largest part in triggering revolution. Have students work with their partners to create a pie chart that depicts the causes of the French Revolution. Encourage students to use the Pre-Revolution Documents to determine which percentages they should assign to the causes. Remind them that all percentages should equal 100%.
After students create the pie charts, have each pair discuss their pie chart with another pair of students. Provide time for a discussion about how students decided to assign percentages to each cause of the revolution.
Evaluate
20 Minute(s)
Move to slide 12 and introduce the Six-Word Memoirs strategy. Have students create a six-word summary of what caused the French Revolution on the back of the Pre-Revolution Documents handout. If necessary, provide the following example for students: “Third estate said enough is enough.”
Collect the Pre-Revolution Documents handout to assess students’ understanding of the lesson.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Card sort. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/147
K20 Center. (n.d.). Dividing the pie. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1867
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow partners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). Google apps - force copy. https://k20center.ou.edu/tech-tips/force-copy/
K20 Center. (n.d.). Google sheets. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2855
K20 Center. (n.d.). I notice, I wonder. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/180
K20 Center. (n.d.). Padlet. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/1077
K20 Center. (n.d.). Six-word memoirs. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/75
K20 Center. (n.d.). Tell me everything. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/107
K20 Center. (2021, January 27). Causes of the French Revolution [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/VWSYXHTMVVo