Video Description: Thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alexander Hamilton is currently one of the hottest Founding Fathers. But, there’s another lead character in the musical “Hamilton” who we don’t know as much about: Alexander’s wife, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton. She famously burned most of her letters, but through lots of research, co-authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie learned she has quite the story of her own – after all, she lived 97 years and knew 12 of the first 16 Presidents! Dray and Kamoie tell us more about this formidable founding mother – even letting us in on some stories that were left out of their book, “My Dear Hamilton”. Plus, they talk about working as co-authors who have very different writing styles.

• Use the video in conjunction with a student activity that has them writing stories in the historic fiction genre. What insights do they gain from the authors and the discussion of the genre that they can use as they write their own stories?
• Use the video in conjunction with a student activity that has them writing with a partner. What insights do they gain from the authors talking about their writing process working together that they can use as they work with a partner?
• Use the video as inspiration/example for an activity that has your students interview each other on writing they have done. Use the video to show interview styles, types of questions, and how a finished interview video could be edited together.