Day 1:
Topic: Introduction to the unit: What is Colonialism and what areas are we talking about?
Rationale:
To study Colonialism and Native American cultures students need to be able to use certain low frequency words associated with the time period. Also students should be able to identify on a map the areas they will be learning about. This will lay the groundwork for the rest of the unit.
Materials Needed:
1) PowerPoint presentation of vocabulary definitions. (optional)
2) Map of New England with political borders for each student.
3) Transparency Map of New England with political borders.
4) Overlay transparency to draw areas where certain tribes lived.
Objectives:
1) Students will be able to identify all the New England States with 100% accuracy, and locate where important tribes were located in the region.
2) Students will read and copy definitions of vocabulary terms from a PowerPoint presentation.
3) Students will analyze the causes of why Europeans came to the Americas as colonizers.
Do Now:
I start all my units with a KWL to help the students guide me in what topics to cover. Have students describe what they already know about colonialism and what they want to know.
Procedure:
-
1) Have students complete and hand in KWL. (5min)
-
2) Notebook work (Note taking skills addressed)
-
a. (5min)Describe in short section of notes outlined on the board what colonialism was. How it was a system set up to benefit European countries. That its goals were to make money and to increase the power of a country. Give example of England, Spain, France
-
b. Have students copy vocabulary definitions from interactive PP Presentation (10-15min)
-
c. Vocabulary List: 1.colony 2.adapt 3.nomadic 4.agriculture 5.environment 6. fitness (ability to survive and reproduce) 7.land use 8.epidemic 9. value (v) 10 ethics
-
3) Map work (15min)
-
d. Pass out a map of New England to each student. And have them help each other with labeling each state on the map.
-
e. Have transparency of same area and after students have worked on done their best labeling the states show your transparency on the board.
-
f. Then overlay 2nd transparency with geographic areas of different New England tribes. You can make this map as detailed as you want. Include as many tribes as you see fit. I will include the Mohegan, Narragansett, Wampanoas, Cowasuck, Quinnipiac, and Wabanaki
-
i. Tribal land map at http://www.nctc.com/~cheyanne/page7b.html
-
g. Inform students they will be quizzed on state names and tribal locations later in the unit.
-
4) Conclusion :
-
h. Ask students in the class questions about what was learned for the day.
-
-
5) Homework: Use each vocabulary word in a sentence correctly.
Day 2:
Topic: The meeting of two cultures: Native Americans & Europeans
Rationale:
This day's lesson will focus on the conditions that led up to the meeting of these two cultures. The lifestyles of these two cultures will be discussed and students will be asked to predict the outcome of this meeting.
Objectives:
-
1) Students will be able to describe/ compare and contrast Native American and early colonist culture
-
2) Students will write down a description of the 1st thanksgiving, and compare that to
-
What we learned today at the end of class.
-
3) Students will predict what happened when these two cultures met.
Do now:
At the beginning of class have the students spend 5-10 minutes writing down what they know about the first thanksgiving? Ask them question about how the two parties got along? What foods were eaten?
Procedures:
-
1) Notebook work (15-20 min) Use Web diagram to highlight the differences in these cultures.
-
Native Americans
-
a. Describe to students in organized notes how a Native American village was owned communally. Women farmed & men hunted.
-
b. Describe hunting/ and farming methods noting how this allowed for a semi-nomadic lifestyle. (Few possessions) Highlight changes such as controlled burning that N. Americans brought to the land.
-
c. Use of multicrop fields, that did not require clear cutting.
-
d. Describe N. American methods for wintering. Little activity/ and few food surpluses saved from the growing season. Explain there are two ways to survive food shortages. Conservation of energy or finding/saving new food sources.
-
European Colonists
-
a. Religious work ether that said hard work was the path to heaven.
-
b. Focused on "improving" and harvesting what the land could provide.
-
c. Relied heavily on livestock for work and food, describe colonist farming methods. Clear fields to grow one crop at a time.
-
d. Question: Why couldn't Europeans understand why N. American men let the women do all the farming? What do you think they thought of N American methods to survive the winter?
-
-
2) Create a worksheet that allows students to create their own Native American or Colonial Village. This sheet gives the students a chance to draw what they think a N. American and a colonial village would look like. Villages should reflect the class discussion in terms of accuracy. A 6x6 grid overlayed with streams and forest could be a simple example of this worksheet. Students should hand in for a class participation grade.
-
3) Homework: Have students complete a one paragraph writing assignment on their predictions of what will happen to these cultures and the land they control when they meet. Discuss responses for starting activity the next day.
Conclusion:
Have students predict whether or not these two cultures would get along once they met each other? Which society would be more productive? Which society would be better able to compete? Compare there comments from this discussion to what they wrote about the first Thanksgiving from the beginning of class. Do these predictions describe what would happen at the 1st Thanksgiving? Discuss….
Day 3 Diseases & Land Use
Rationale:
The purpose of this lesson is to show the impact of disease upon Native populations of the Americas.
Objectives:
-
1) Students will analyze the effects of epidemics upon Native American populations by simulating how a disease can spread.
-
2) Students will discuss their responses to the previous night's homework in a guided classroom discussion.
-
3) Students will complete a short quiz on the vocabulary and teacher selected topics already covered in the unit. (optional)
Materials Needed:
-
1) Clear plastic cups for each student. Filled ¼ full with water or acidic solution.
-
2) Various colors of food coloring to color the water
-
3) Paper Towels for clean-up
-
4) Vinegar or lemon juice
-
5) Litmus Strips
Procedure:
This game simulates a tribal council meeting of a New England Native American tribe after one tribe member has come into contact with a white person carrying Smallpox. The purpose is to show how quickly infections spread among and killed Native Americans who had no immunity to Smallpox.
-
1) Explain situation and simulation to students
-
2) Have class appoint a student "Chief" for the tribe.
-
3) Have all the students take a cup filled with colored liquid. Make sure at least one or two students take a cup filled with either vinegar or lemon juice.
-
4) Let students talk and move around the room for 5-10 minutes. Have them record each person they talk to on a sheet of paper. Tell them they must all talk to at least 10 people to get credit for the activity. Having them record who they talk to assures that students will mingle sufficiently to "spread" the smallpox.
-
5) Instruct students that whenever they talk to another member of the tribe, that they must drop 6 drops of the liquid from their cup into the other tribe member's cup.
-
6) After the students have talked for a while. Give them each a litmus strip and a pH indicator. Have the students record the pH of the solution in their cup.
Discussion:
After students have recorded their pH explain to them that those students whose pH is lower than 7 have contracted smallpox. Explain to them the simulation and what it was intended to show, and be sure to point out the student who had the smallpox virus originally. Explain that typically the death rate associated with smallpox is about 30%, but that in many Native American villages the rate was often 80-90% of the population. Have students calculate how many students would have died in the class if everyone got smallpox. Physically separate these students to one side of the room for effect. Ask students what would happen to a culture if 90% of it died off in a month. Would it still exist? What would its chances be to defend itself from its enemies? What happens if the student "Chief" were to die and the tribe was left with no leadership?
Notebook work:
Have students take notes on the "Guns, Germs, Steel" concepts explained earlier in the narrative. Explain this is what people who study social studies think determines what cultures thrive and which die out. Relate these notes to the in class activity, and to that fact that not only were Native Americans killed off in huge numbers by smallpox and other diseases, but they also faced a culture which had superior weaponry and technology. Use the previous night's homework to see if student predictions were right.
Days 4-6
Conclusion of the unit:
The last two days of the unit will focus around a student research project, where students will research a modern land use. They will complete a series of questions on the land use, and will be forced to evaluate it for its necessity and fairness. They will have to judge its value to society versus the environmental cost that is associated with the land use. Students will be given one day to research the land use, and create a short presentation on its pros, cons, and necessity. They will also have to judge for themselves whether or not they themselves feel the pros outweigh the cons or vice versa.
Day 7
Possible Field Trip:
Possible field trips include a visit to the Mashantucket-Pequot Museum in
Assessment
Assessment for this unit will be based on three grades a quiz, a presentation, and a major paper. The quiz will be designed to test the factual information learned about the Native American Civilizations of the Pre- Columbian Americas, and its contact with Europeans. The research presentation will make students research a particular land use such as corn farming, strip mining, or river damming, and have them judge the ethics, fairness, and necessity of these land uses. The essay will be styled in the CAPT persuasive essay format, and will force students to take a side either for or against the Kyoto Accords. For the CAPT style essay the students will need three non-fiction articles to read and get background information on. The teacher can either find three reading level appropriate articles from the internet or other media source, or they can write their own articles. I have used both methods and find that writing my own non-fiction articles to be better for the students. By writing the articles myself I can assure that the reading samples are on grade level. Both the presentation and the paper will have a teacher designed rubric included with them for the students.
