Francis J. Degnan
This curriculum unit is designed to involve students in the third, fourth and fifth grades in the study of the growth of the New Haven Colony. Much of our city’s growth from village to New England town and eventually to a regional center has been based on events that shaped our early history. In our early mercantile and manufacturing history New Haven has had a climate that has inspired and nurtured invention and experimentation. In this climate it is evident that there was a sense of adventure, an ability on the part of our forefathers to take risks. The names of John Davenport, Oliver Winchester and Eli Whitney may immediately come to mind. The successes and failures that accompanied their undertakings reflect upon the flexibility and resilience of a determined people. These are the elements of a unique heritage we now have the chance to pass on to our students.
The strategies this unit will employ will encourage the youngsters to use various learning skills. Part of the unit’s lessons will allow hands-on experiences that will aid in the immersing the youth of New Haven in the study of our New England heritage. These lessons will take into consideration the development of household industries, the system of apprenticeship and also the early evolution of the assembly line. Each student will also have the opportunity of critically examining slides of selected portraits to discover the intriguing amount of economic and personal information early portraiture contained The students will be asked to record, in either a written or artistic format their feelings and interpretations of what they encounter. A major consideration and strategy is to use this unit in an interdisciplinary manner. The unit will involve the art of both studying portraiture and creating likenesses, and the verbal skills of expressing ideas and feelings in prose or poetry. These activities will be coordinated with visits to the Pardee-Morris house, the New Haven Colonial Historical Society, Yale University Art Gallery and the Grove Street Cemetery, in order to make concrete what is usually presented as an abstraction. Particularly for elementary students in an urban environment this approach is a definite need. Let’s use New Haven to teach about New Haven.
Our New Haven Public School’s curriculum at the elementary level includes studies of both Colonial New Haven and Connecticut. It is a period in our history that is wonderfully alive in our area. Twenty three years in the New Haven School System’s classrooms teaching grades three through six have given me a chance to develop an interdisciplinary approach to this area of study. During my last six years I have been an itinerant instructor of the talented and gifted students in kindergarten, first, second and third grades. My colleagues and I develop curriculum around a yearly theme that thoroughly involves the students in a single area of study. Our nation’s first two hundred years is one of our areas of emphasis. This study gives me a chance to expand upon this theme continuing a study of the colonial period I started in an earlier Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, 1989’s
America as Myth
. I hope this unit enriches and allows for the creation of individual curriculum.
The more preparation I have done for this unit the more involved I have become in a new understanding of the history of New Haven. I grew up in New Haven and attended the public schools. I teach in New Haven, about New Haven, but it was not until I undertook this unit that my interest was truly piqued. An important thrust of this unit is to impart my fascination about our colonial history.
Goals of the Unit
In this unit students:
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1) will have created a game using the information from the unit.
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2) will be able to explain the differences between cottage crafts and assembly line production and have an example of an item produced in group that way.
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3) will be able to replicate in their own work some of the techniques employed to give an added biography of the subject in a portrait.
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4) will be able to associate some of New Haven’s landmarks with the historic figures they are named after.
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5) will be able to identify the names of different trades and have their own examples of the crafts.
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6) will have a collection of prose or art that reflects the activities the group has done.
