Writing with Quill Pens

After reading a detailed and lengthy letter written by Paul Revere himself about his famous ride last week, students got first-hand knowledge of how difficult it was to write using a quill pen today in class. Students crafted the end of a goose or turkey feather so that it produced a nice writing line when dipped into "ink" (watered down tempera paint). Then students wrote a short paragraph, testing it out. The writing topic was on "betrayal", as tomorrow we begin to analyze the Revolutionary War and how the 13 colonies basically betrayed their parent country. Our conversations will focus on the question: Is betrayal always bad?