Hamilton and Burr: Compare and contrast - Where English and history meet: A collaboration guide

Learning outcomes

At the close of this lesson, students will:

understand the characters of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton
understand the relationship between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton
construct a clear comparison and contrast of Burr and Hamilton, using appropriate grammar, rhetorical strategies, and organization

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

120 minutes

Materials/Resources

video “The Duel. Hamilton vs. Burr: An Even that Changed History.” Run time is 60 minutes. Video is available from PBS.
VCR
textbook Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. Ninth Edition. Kirszner, Laurie G., and Mandell, Stephen R. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.
one notes worksheet for each student

Technology resources

No special technology resources are needed. Students should be able to access a computer in order to word-process their essay.

Pre-activities

Students should read in Patterns for College Writing pages 363-371 (on how to write a compare/contrast essay).

Activities

Teacher should introduce the lesson by reviewing the strategies for writing a compare/contrast essay (from the pre-activity). Teacher should then remind students that Hamilton and Burr were both important early American politicians, but they were very different. Spark student interest by saying, “And yet they met on a field in New Jersey in 1804, and one of them died there. Why? What brought these two very different men together? Your task is to assess these men and compare/contrast them.”
Teacher will instruct students to take notes during the video that follows. The notes worksheet can be handed out to students or used as an overhead transparency for student reference.
Teacher will remind students of the appropriate way to construct a comparison/contrast essay for AP English (from pre-activity).
Students will write a 500-word essay addressing the following prompt. They may use their notes. Prompt: Compare the political and social legacies of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.
Remind students that they should develop the comparison using specific information about the two subjects. They may use a point-by-point or subject-by-subject comparison approach.

Assessment

Students will submit their video notes for a classwork grade (completion).

The essay will be graded using the general AP rubric below.

Generic AP rubric (adapted from College Board)

9 (100 percent)
8 (95 percent): Superior papers specific in their references, cogent in their definitions, and free of summary that is not relevant to the question. These essays need not be without flaws, but they demonstrate the writer’s ability to discuss with insight and understanding and to control a wide range of the elements of effective composition. At all times they stay focused on the prompt, providing specific support for the comparison/contrast.
7 (90 percent)
6 (85 percent): These papers are less thorough, less perceptive or less specific than 9–8 papers. They are well-written but with less maturity and control. While they demonstrate the writer’s ability to compare/contrast, they reveal a more limited understanding and less stylistic maturity than do the papers in the 9–8 range.
5 (80 percent): Safe and “plastic,” superficiality characterizes these essays. Discussion of meaning may be formulaic, mechanical, or inadequately related to the chosen details. Typically, these essays reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing. They usually demonstrate inconsistent control over the elements of composition and are not as well conceived, organized, or developed as the upper-half papers. However, the writing is sufficient to convey the writer’s ideas, stays mostly focused on the prompt, and contains at least some effort to produce analysis, direct or indirect.
4 (75 percent)
3 (70 percent): Discussion is likely to be unpersuasive, perfunctory, underdeveloped or misguided. The meaning they deduce may be inaccurate or insubstantial and not clearly related to the question. Part of the question may be omitted altogether. The writing may convey the writer’s ideas, but it reveals weak control over such elements as diction, organization, syntax or grammar. Typically, these essays contain significant misinterpretations of the question or the ideas they discuss; they may also contain little, if any, supporting evidence, and practice paraphrase and plot summary at the expense of analysis.
2 (65 percent)
1 (60 percent): These essays compound the weakness of essays in the 4–3 range and are frequently unacceptably brief. They are poorly written on several counts, including many distracting errors in grammar and mechanics. Although the writer may have made some effort to answer the question, the views presented have little clarity or coherence.