Using local history as an entry point into American and world history motivates students to learn about and to become more engaged in their smaller world. Learning resonates with students when they become part of the timeline of their own area and community, an approach known as place-based education.
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This model creates a pathway to understanding our current time in the places that we live. Through this close-reading curriculum unit designed for second graders, history will become accessible to the young students as they explore, investigate, and discover how the Algonquian families lived on the same land that the students now call home.
With the long, rich history of American Indians here in New Haven, students will work with informational text of American Indians in general and the Quinnipiac and Pequot tribes specifically to practice close reading. A social studies component includes research projects developed from authentic questions generated during close reading experiences and collaborative discussions.
