Dramatizing+SS


 * Dramatizing SS **

**Script Template for Dramatizing Social Studies**

Famous Women in American History PA Standards NCSS Themes People, Places, and Environments Individuals, Groups, and Institutions History Third 8 minutes
 * 8.3.3.A:** Identify and describe the **social, political,** cultural, and **economic** contributions of individuals and groups in United States history.

Hello, I’m Betsy Ross. You may best know me for creating the American flag, but there is much more to my story than just that. My given name is Elizabeth Griscom, and I am one of seventeen children in a Quaker family. I went to school for eight hours a day, and was taught reading, writing, and sewing, similar to school today. Shortly thereafter, my father got me a job at an upholstery shop. Today, when you think of upholstery, you think of couches and furniture mending. Back in my time, however, it also included flag making. While I was working at this shop, I fell in love with a man named John Ross. This sounds pretty typical, but there were some serious issues with this relationship. He was Episcopalian, and I, like I said, I am a Quaker. Quakers severely frown upon inter-dominational marriage, but we were young and in love, so we eloped. John and I actually had Benjamin Franklin’s son, William Franklin sign our wedding certificate. My family and friends excommunicated me from the Quaker way of life, of course, so we began to attend John’s church. At this church, I met and became friends with George Washington, who sat only a pew away from us. John and I began our own upholstery business. When the war came to us, it was tough to run our business. The fabrics we used were hard to come by, and business was slow for us. John joined the Pennsylvania militia, and sadly, didn’t make it back. Shortly thereafter, I met with George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross. George Washington and I were already acquainted from church and George Ross was my late husband’s uncle. Robert Morris was a well-to-do business man, whom I did not know well. They asked me to create the first American flag for them. George Washington wanted there to be a six pointed stars on the flag, however, I impressed him, by showing him how I could create a five pointed star in just one snip of my scissors. After showing them this, they left the flag’s design up to me. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress, seeking to promote national pride and unity, adopted the national flag. "Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." “To want in one’s head to do a thing, for its own sake; to enjoy doing it; to concentrate all of one’s energies upon it- that is not only the surest guarantee of its success. It is also being true to oneself.” Hello, my name is Amelia Earhart. I was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. When I was growing up my father worked for the railroads and traveled a good bit. My mother often traveled with him and my sister Muriel and I stayed with my grandparents. During that time period it was considered improper for girls to do boys activities. My sister and I were encouraged to be inventive, imaginative and independent. I saw my first airplane in the summer of 1908 at the Iowa State Fair. In December of 1917, the United States had recently entered World War I. I was spending winter break with my sister Muriel in Toronto, Canada. I was shocked to see so many wounded soldiers there and decided to stay and work as a nurse with the Red Cross. I worked at Spadina Military Hopsital and became friends with some wounded pilots. It was during this time that I really began to become interested in airplanes. I hung around the local airfields in my spare time. “I remember well that when the snow blown back by the propellers stung my face, I felt a first urge to fly.” I bought my first plane a few years later, a Kinner Airster. In May of 1923 I earned my pilot’s license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. In 1925 I became a social worker at Denison House, a Boston community center. I taught English to Syrian, Chinese, Italian and Irish immigrants and helped them become settled in their new country. On June 17, 1928 I made history as a passenger on the plane Friendship on a transatlantic flight. I was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane. I continued to push the limits of what women could do and be. In February 1931 I married George Putnam, who was my manager, publicist and promoter. He encouraged me to set new records for women pilots and write books, articles and go on lecture tours. Ever since my flight on the Friendship I had felt challenged to make my own solo flight across the Atlantic. On May 20, 1932 I set out from Newfoundland and landed 13 ½ hours later in Londonderry, Ireland. I was the first woman pilot to successfully make the Atlantic crossing. Continuing to rise to new challenges I flew solo across the Pacific Ocean in 1935. Besides being concerned for the opportunities of women in aviation, I also campaigned for equal pay, education and career choices for men and women. I became a career counselor at Perdue University and helped in the aeronautics department. It was here I came closer to accomplishing my lifelong dream of being the first woman to fly around the world. On March 17, 1937, my friend and experienced navigator Fred Noonan and I started out for Honolulu, Hawaii from Oakland, California. There we had a disastrous crash and had to repair our plane. On May 21, 1937, Fred and I left California going east to Miami, Florida. From there we stayed around the Equator stopping in South America, flying to Africa, Arabia, Pakistan, India, through Indonesia. At our last stop in New Guinea, we prepared for the most dangerous part of our journey. We had already covered 22,000 miles. We were flying to Howland Island in the Pacific that is tiny and difficult to locate. On July 2nd her plane the Electra took off for the last time. During the flight she lost contact with the U. S. Coast Guard ship Itasca who was waiting to guide her into her landing. No trace of the plane or crew has ever been found. “Please know that I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, failure must be but a challenge to others.” Hello, my name is Mary Edwards Walker. I was an assistant surgeon in the union army during the civil war, the first woman surgeon in the US army in fact. I was born November 26th, 1832 in Oswego New York, one of six children. My father was a doctor and a progressive thinker for his time; he believed that his four daughters deserved the same education and equality as that of this son. I was raised to be a free thinker and would grow up to be an active proponent of the Women’s Rights movement, as well as dress reform. I much preferred to wear traditional men’s clothing over the stifling garments that proper ladies were expected to wear at the time, which often got me arrested. I was the only woman in my class and I graduated at 21 to join the tiny number of women doctors that existed in the nation. I married Albert Miller, a fellow physician and created quite a stir by refusing to wear a dress on our wedding day, and keeping my own maiden name. Unfortunately the public was not as accepting of my eccentricity as Albert was, and our medical practice failed as did eventually our marriage. As war broke out within the country I attempted to join the union army and was denied, instead I acted as an assistant surgeon in the US Patent Hospital in Washington, later I had the chance to take to the battlefield as a field surgeon near the Union front lines. I considered myself a bit of a spy, and I would often cross confederate lines to treat civilians. I was captured in 1846 by confederate troop and held as a prisoner of war for four months until I was exchanged for seventeen confederate surgeons, I prided myself that the armies considered my worth equal to that of one of their male surgeons. On November 11th President Johnson presented me with the Congressional Medal of Honor, I also take pride in knowing I was the only woman ever to receive this great honor. Sadly this honor would be retracted when the standards top receive were limited to those who had participated in actual combat with an enemy. I refused to give up my medal even up until my death in 1919. After the war I became a writer and lecturer on Woman’s Rights, dress reform, health and temperance issues.
 * Script**
 * **Characters**
 * Betsy Ross
 * Belle Star
 * Amelia Earhart
 * Mary Edwards Walker
 * **Setting**
 * Each character has a different setting
 * **Props**
 * Clothing related to each time period
 * **Activity**
 * Betsy Ross**
 * My name is Myra Belle Shirley Starr and I was born in Cartridge, Missouri in 1848. My father was a wealthy innkeeper and my mother, Elizabeth Hatfield Shirley was a decedent of **the** Hatfield’s. From the infamous Hatfield and McCoy family feuds.
 * In school, I was incredibly bright. I attended the Cartridge Female Academy where I excelled in reading, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, deportment, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and music-learning to play the piano.
 * As a teenager, outlaws of the West used to hide out at our family and I became well acquainted with them.
 * In 1866, I married my husband Jim Reed and we had two children together and he tried his hand at farming, but he would get so restless, so he started spending time with the Starr family who were infamous for whiskey, cattle, and horse thievery in the Indiana territory, as well as my old outlaw friends from Cartridge.
 * //Then he shot a man and we had to run to California, and then he got caught counterfeiting money and we had to run to Texas. It was a whole big mess.//
 * When he got arrested for robbing $30,000 from a wealthy farmer in the Indian Territory, I was named as an accomplice, but I was never prosecuted… I did live rather lavishly for the next few years, however.
 * Jim was caught and killed in Paris, Texas after robbing a stagecoach for $2,500. A poor widow, what else was I to do?
 * I left the kids with my relatives and joined up with the Starr clan to fully immerse myself in ‘thievery’. organizing, planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harboring them from the law. My past knowledge in the outlaw game to provide bribery to free my friends from the law whenever they were caught. And whenever you’re unable to buy off a lawman, a little flirting never hurts. In 1880, I became an official member of the clan when I married my husband Sam.
 * Now, Judge Parker was just out to get me, but I was much too quick for him. I continued my outlaw ways, but there was never enough evidence to pin me, so he always had to let me walk. I even provided council at Bluford Duck’s trial after his murder of a farmhand and his sentence was lowered from hanging to life in prison. Boy was the judge mad!
 * But, at the age of 40, I was shot in the back while reading to the general store. No one ever found out who did it, and the legend of my outlaw life still exists today.
 * Amelia Earhart**
 * Mary Edwards Walker**

Betsy Ross: Hello, there. My name is Elizabeth Griscom, but you may know me as Betsy Ross. You may know me as the creator of the American flag, but a whole lot happened before all that. I am a New Year’s baby, born January 1, 1752. Just like most kids in America today, I spent several hours a day in school, and learned how to read, write, and my favorite, how to sew. My father got me an apprenticeship, doing upholstery sewing. I made and mended sofas, however, I also was in charge of creating flags. At this shop, I fell in love with the most handsome John Ross. Well, I was a Quaker and he was an Episcopal assistant. This was extremely frowned upon. However, being young and in love we didn’t care. We eloped and had William Franklin (Benjamin Franklin’s son) sign off on our wedding certificate. John and I opened our own upholstery shop, and, since I could no longer be involved with my Quaker friends, I went to my husband’s church. It was there that I met George Washington. In 1776, the war took its toll on our shop. We couldn’t get enough cloth to make our wears, and business was slow as it was. My husband joined the Pennsylvania militia, and, sadly, was killed twenty days after my 24th birthday. I did everything in my power to save him, but, alas, he was taken by God. With John gone, I turned back to my Quaker ways. When the Revolution began, I joined a group of Free Quakers. We supported the war against Britain, and did what we could to help. In June of 1776, I met with George Washington, George Ross, and Robert Morris. These three were part of the Continental Congress and asked me to sew the first flag. George Ross was my late husband’s uncle and Robert Morris was also quite well to do, and I respected them both. George Washington, being a neighbor and friend, asked me to make a six pointed star for the flag. Instead of that silly nonsense, I showed those three that I could make a five pointed star with just a single snip. Naturally, they told me to do create what I saw fit. Our new flag had red and white alternating stripes, and thirteen white stars, for the thirteen colonies of course, to show the a new constellation, The United States of America.