Free eBook — One April in Boston: The Gift of the Spyglass

One April in Boston: The Gift of the Spyglass is a one-of-a-kind educational product for grade school teachers. It starts will the Free eBook available today at the iTunes Store! This children’s book, written for ages 10-13, is set in Colonial Boston and follows author Ben Edwards’ actual ancestors as they experience the events of Paul Revere’s Ride, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and beyond. Your students will be immersed in a story that not only educates, but inspires. From the American Revolution, the tale will transport them into the future with connections to Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and World War I as it teaches the power of imagination and the value of goal setting. They’re sure to be captivated by the characters in the story — all wonderfully brought to life by Cortney Skinner’s 46 illustrations.

Companion Audio Book and Lesson Plans

A companion product consisting of an audio book and lesson plans is available for purchase. The audio book contains 3 ½ hours of audio conveniently broken down by chapter covering key events. For example, you’ll find chapters on the lantern signal at Christ Church (Old North Church), the Midnight Ride, and Lexington and Concord.  Award-winning narrator Phil Rosenthal is sure to hold the attention of even the most challenging grade school student! You can hear three samples from the audio book below.

Boston and the Revolution Lesson Plans

The unit “Boston and the Revolution” covers all the key events in Boston leading up to the American Revolution plus the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill. The unit is broken into 6 individual lesson plans: Taxation Without Representation (British tax policies — Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Tax on Tea); the Boston Massacre; the Boston Tea Party (and the Coercive Acts that followed); “The Midnight Ride” (the lantern signal at Old North Church and Paul Revere’s Ride); the Battles of Lexington and Concord; and the Battle of Bunker Hill. The lesson plans are grade 5 specific, grades 4 and 6 appropriate. They are written by Elizabeth Massie who taught grades 4-7 in Virginia for 19 years and now serves as an educational writer in the fields of social studies and language arts producing work for some of the major educational publishers.

Bonus: Re-Enactment of the Battle of Lexington Video

As a bonus, you’ll also receive online access to outstanding footage of the re-enactment of the Battle of Lexington. This annual re-enactment is performed by the Lexington Minute Men Company, along with members of His Majesty’s 10th Regiment of Foot and other British units. It is held on Lexington Green at about 5:45 a.m. — the time of the original battle. Author Ben Edwards has a film crew covering the event nearly every year, so you’ll have great video to share with your students that really brings the battle to life!

This product will be available soon.

Goal Setting For Children Lesson Plans

One April in Boston: The Gift of the Spyglass teaches children the power of imagination and the value of goal setting. A second series of lesson plans is now available for purchase that will help you teach the goal setting process introduced in the children’s book. The unit “Goal Setting for Children” consists of two lesson plans: Create a Goal and Take Action and Never Give Up on Your Dream. In the first lesson, students will learn to envision their goals as already having been reached. With a greater confidence, they’ll step back into the present to put their goals in writing, review them often, and discover how they can take consistent action toward their achievement.

Author Ben Edwards encourages children to set lofty goals, and the second lesson plan introduces Ben’s own such goal of pitching his book as a feature film or made-for-TV movie. Students can follow Ben’s action steps toward his goal. They can learn about the feedback he receives, the setbacks he faces, and the progress he makes. The lesson plans are grade 5 specific, grades 4 and 6 appropriate. They are written by Elizabeth Massie who taught grades 4-7 in Virginia for 19 years and now serves as an educational writer in the fields of social studies and language arts producing work for some of the major educational publishers.

The Goal Setting for Children lesson plans will be available soon.

The Lincoln Assassination

Primary Source Audio lets your students listen to key moments in American history as they were reported in newspapers of the day!  The first product in our series by award-winning narrator Phil Rosenthal is The Lincoln Assassination. It is a spoken narrative of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln derived from the April 15, 16, 17, and 18, 1865 issues of the New York Herald. The audio begins with breaking news of the events in Washington City that reached New York City by telegraph in the early morning hours of April 15 — just in time to make the first edition, also known as the 2 a.m. edition, of the New York Herald. Your students will hear exactly what people were reading in these newspapers over 150 years ago as the dramatic and tragic events played out over the next 4 days.

The product includes nearly an hour of audio broken into tracks by newspaper date and a website link granting online access to 50 high-resolution images from these four historic New York Herald editions. All of the original newspapers used in the Primary Source Audio series are part of an extensive collection of colonial and Civil War newspapers author, historian, and private tour guide Ben Edwards has developed over the past 15 years.

Bonus Items

Order today and we’ll include two Bonus Items:

• Online access to a fifth newspaper — the April 28, 1865 issue of the New York Herald reporting the capture of John Wilkes Booth.
• An audio recording by Phil Rosenthal of a letter actor Harry Hawk wrote to his parents about being on stage at Ford’s Theatre when President Lincoln was shot.

Purchase Primary Source Audio: The Lincoln Assassination (Buy Now)

The Lincoln Assassination Lesson Plan

The unit “The Lincoln Assassination” consists of a lesson plan and transcripts of the April 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 28, 1865 issues of the New York Herald. A transcript of the April 18, 1865 issue of The World, a New York newspaper, is also included because its reporting features important details not found in the New York Herald. The World is the only newspaper, we are aware of, that published a series of diagrams detailing the scene of the assassination within its pages. Those original diagrams appear in the transcript.

Lesson plans for both grade school and high school are available for purchase. The grade school lesson plan is grade 5 specific, and grade 4 and 6 appropriate. It is written by Elizabeth Massie who taught grades 4-7 in Virginia for 19 years and now serves as an educational writer in the fields of social studies and language arts producing work for some of the major educational publishers. The high school lesson plan is written by Michelle A. Larson who teaches high school in Pennsylvania.

Bonus Items

Order today and we’ll include two Bonus Items:

• An audio recording by Phil Rosenthal of a conversation one of Lincoln’s bodyguards, William H. Crook, had with President Lincoln on April 14, 1865.
• Abraham Lincoln’s Dreams: Two dreams have become part of Lincoln lore — one recurring dream foretold an important national event and another his assassination. One has significant evidence to support it, and the other does not. Can your students tell which one is fact and which one most historians now consider to be fiction? This audio recording features Phil Rosenthal and legendary Lincoln portrayer Jim Getty.

The Lincoln Assassination lesson plans will be available soon.

The Gettysburg Address — As It Appeared in Newspapers 

Abraham Lincoln produced five manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address. Wording in the versions vary. The Nicolay Copy and the Hay Copy are the earliest versions and are housed in the Library of Congress. One of these was likely Lincoln’s reading copy. The Bliss Copy, the last that Lincoln wrote and the most reproduced today, is on display in the Lincoln Room of the White House. The Gettysburg Address first appeared in print in newspapers on November 20, 1863 — the day after Lincoln’s speech. The text in these newspaper accounts varies widely as well. In this second product in the Primary Source Audio series, you’ll learn why that occurred and hear original press reports of the ceremonies on November 19. The audio includes a wonderful version of the Gettysburg Address performed by legendary Lincoln portrayer Jim Getty. It is a reading of the Bliss Copy — the version inscribed on the south wall of the Lincoln Memorial.

You’ll also receive a website link granting online access to high resolution images of the Gettysburg Address as it appeared in The Press, a Philadelphia newspaper, and the New York Daily Tribune. Here you can read versions that appeared in other newspapers as well and view transcripts of all five manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address.

Bonus Item

Order today and we’ll include this Bonus Item:

• Lincoln’s Words: An audio recording featuring Abraham Lincoln’s Farewell to Springfield, a portion of the Emancipation Proclamation, and sections of his First Inaugural Address and Second Inaugural Address all beautifully narrated by Jim Getty.

This product will be available soon.