![\"alt=""\"](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSurrounding the area, students from First Colonial High School\u2019s (FCHS) Legal Studies Academy awaited the sixth-graders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students from First Colonial were a perfect fit because they have community service to do and they know the legal ramifications [of witness testimony],\u201d Tarkenton stated.<\/p>\n
Their job was to play the role of one of four witnesses during the Boston Massacre, starting with a personal account of what occurred. After hearing the various eyewitnesses, sixth-graders filled out a questionnaire to rate from one to five whether they thought the witness accounts were evidence to support self-defense or murder \u2013 and why. This was important because the Boston Massacre eventually resulted with varying views on who was at fault\u00a0when the case went to trial.<\/p>\n After this activity, the sixth-graders headed to other stations, all taking place in different classrooms which\u00a0they rotated through in 45-minute increments.<\/p>\n At the artifacts station, students sat in groups to review various propaganda posters or other historical items and discussed whether it was for or against the revolution.<\/p>\n Sixth-grader Hassan Dawson was examining one of the most famous posters used in present day in conjunction with the Boston Massacre and noticed a differentiating factor that made it a propaganda piece.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was more chaos,\u201d Dawson noted. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t really like that with each side lined up.\u201d<\/p>\n At other stations, students learned about additional historical events that also contributed to revolution. Some of those stations were simulations, like the pretend tavern where they sat around with the high school students to discuss events of the time as if they were colonists.<\/p>\n But over in room 20, a spirited debate could be heard from the hallways, and with good reason \u2013 it was a re-enactment of the First Continental Congress with students playing various delegates, debating whether the colonies should go to war with Great Britain.<\/p>\n \u201cHonorable delegates,\u201d Lee Hicks, sixth-grade social studies teacher, said in a British accent, emulating how colonists of the time spoke. \u201cBang on your desk and say \u2018aye\u2019 if you like what the delegate is saying, or if you don’t like,\u00a0then you hiss. If it gets a bit heated as it should happen from time to time, I will have to bang the gavel and say \u2018decorum delegates,\u2019 which means to have class since you are in the Continental Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n