A LOOK AT COLONIAL AMERICA A Second Grade Unit

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A LOOK AT COLONIAL AMERICAA Second Grade Unit
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Grade 2 Connecting History to our World Today
Colonial America and the Early Nation

• Colonial Laws and Rules
• Diversity Within the Colonies and Colonial Ways
  of Life (families, homes, foods, gender roles,
  education, etc.)
• Colonial Leaders
• The Geography of the Colonies
• The Colonial Economy (Jobs, Goods and Services,
  Surpluses and Shortages)

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Key Perspectives Addressed

• Cultural Heritage
• Students will learn about Early Americans and
  their ways of life.
• Time, Place and Space
• Students will learn about the geography of the
  colonies and the time period in which the United
  States was founded.
• Diversity and Difference
• Students will learn about diversity within the
  colonies as well as societal differences between
  past and present times.

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Background InformationWhat do we know about
Colonial America?

• It relates to the 13 original British colonies in
  North America before their independence in 1776.

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Background InformationWhere was Colonial
America?

• The 13 original colonies were located on the
  Eastern coast of North America.

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• Background Information
• The 13 original colonies consisted of

• Connecticut (1635)
• Delaware (1638)
• Georgia (1733)
• Maryland (1634)
• Massachusetts (1620)
• New Hampshire (1622)
• New Jersey (1618)
• New York (1624)
• North Carolina (1653)
• Pennsylvania (1623)
• Rhode Island (1636)
• South Carolina (1670)
• Virginia (1607)

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Background InformationWho came to the colonies
and lived there?

• Puritans from England came to America because
  they wanted religious freedom.
• They traveled on long voyages by ship.
• Native Americans had already been living there.

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Connecting Colonial America to our Community Today

• Cultural perspective can be given to where our
  nation is today by allowing students to explore
  the lives and society of our ancestors.
• Learning about a different time period, students
  are able to grasp history and envision the
  timeline that has led to where our nation and
  society is today.
• Children will compare and contrast their roles in
  our community with the roles of children in
  colonial times in their community.

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StandardsColonial America is covered by

• Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science
• Goal 16 History
• Goal 17 Geography

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State Goal 16 Understand events, trends,
individuals and movements shaping the history of
Illinois, the United States and other nations.

• 16.A.1a Explain the difference between past,
  present and future time place themselves in
  time.
• 16.B.1 (W) Explain the contributions of
  individuals and groups who are featured in
  biographies, legends, folklore and traditions.

• 16.C.1a (W) Identify how people and groups in
  the past made economic choices (e.g., crops to
  plant, products to make, products to trade) to
  survive and improve their lives.
• 16.C.1b (W) Explain how trade among people
  brought an exchange of ideas, technology and
  language.

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State Goal 17 Understand world geography and
the effects of geography on society, especially
in the United States.

• 17.A.1b Identify the characteristics and
  purposes of geographic representations including
  maps, globes, graphs, photographs, software,
  digital images and be able to locate specific
  places using each.

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Rationale

• Part of the Curriculum.
• Integrates well with literature.
• Can be approached in an inventive manner.

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Instructional Strategies and Rationale for
Strategies

• Teach students map skills. This will benefit
  them in locating not only the early colonies, but
  also in reading present day maps.
• Immerse students in different customs/costumes of
  the times so that they can experience the
  cultural differences.
• History is made more relevant when students learn
  about the people and their ways of life.

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Literacy LinkPilgrims of Plimoth By Marcia
Sewall

• Pilgrims of Plimoth takes a historical look at
  the daily life of the people commonly referred to
  as Pilgrims.
• This book will be used to introduce students to
  the real-life children of Colonial America.
• Daily activities, community life, chores,
  outfits, and families can be looked at.

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Literacy LinkYour Travel Guide to Colonial
America By Nancy Day

• A research book providing background on the time
  period and information on culture, geography,
  economy, and history.
• Optional classroom activities are included as
  recipes, games, time lines, and biographies found
  in the book.
• This can be the introduction to maps and how they
  will be used to chart Colonial America.

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Unit SketchLesson 1 Colonial Ways of Life

• Instructional Style Teacher-Directed
• This lesson will introduce students to the topic
  of Colonial America. The teacher will read a
  book aloud to students, Home and Child Life in
  Colonial Days by Alice Earle (for example) and
  then lead a discussion where childrens lives in
  Colonial America are compared to today.
• Teacher will direct students attention to family
  life and expectations.
• There are more children in each family and they
  are expected to do many many chores to help out.
  They start their real jobs by age 8.

• ISBE Standard 16.A.1a

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Unit SketchLesson 2 Colonial Ways of Life cont.

• Instructional Style Teacher-Directed
• Students will compare education and toys by
  observing from last lessons literature.
• Education was far less important, especially for
  poor children or girls. Many schools were taught
  by ministers and only covered practical topics.
• Their toys are made of corn or hopscotch or cats
  cradle.
• Students can make their own cornhusks dolls to
  compare the colonial toys to their toys today.
• Cornhusk doll directions www.teachersfirst.com/s
  ummer/cornhusk.htm

• ISBE Standard 16.A.1a

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Unit SketchLesson 3 Colonial Laws and Rules

• Instructional Strategy Guided Inquiry
• Students will look at the laws and rules for
  Colonial America.
• They will compare what was expected of colonists
  and what is expected of us today.
• The laws found at www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h3
  15t.html can be discussed and how these
  slave/discriminating laws are different from life
  today.
• After laws are presented to the students, a
  comparison should be led by classroom discussions
  that can be recorded on the board by the teacher.

• ISBE Standard 16.A.1a

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Unit SketchLesson 4 Colonial Leaders

• Students will learn about famous colonial leaders
  that made contributions to society during their
  time.
• Students will also explore the importance of how
  their contributions have affected America even
  today.
• Description In groups, students will choose a
  famous leader and make an informative poster.
  They will use computers and library books for
  research. Students will share their posters with
  the class (oral presentations).
• Examples of some leaders John Cotton, Benjamin
  Franklin, Anne Hutchinson
• Instructional strategy Teacher directed
• Materials websites (http//cpcug.org/user/billb/h
  utch.html, http//earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/
  index.html )
• Assessment Rubric for group poster (content,
  appearance, group participation), oral
  presentation- participation from entire group

• ISBE Standard
• 16.B.1

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Unit SketchLesson 5 Geography of the Colonies

• Students will learn the geography of the early
  colonies and compare them to the states now.
• Description Students will be given large pieces
  of paper that are pieces of a large puzzle of the
  thirteen colonies. They will be given directions
  on where to place the pieces that will eventually
  show the colonies. After this, they will have a
  worksheet that they will label using the large
  puzzle map as a guide.
• Materials worksheets with the map of the
  colonies, large pieces of paper to make a puzzle
  map
• Assessment individual assessment on following
  directions, maps are properly labeled

• ISBE Standard
• 17.A.1b

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Unit SketchLesson 6 Colonial Economy

• Students will learn to connect the geography of
  the colonies to its economy.
• Description After discussing major aspects of
  the colonies geography, students will label
  their colony maps and color them. Discuss
  important points like waterways and their
  importance, geographical barriers, and climate.
  Students will write these important points and
  what they learned on another sheet of paper. On a
  larger piece of construction paper, the map and
  their writing will be pasted on as a final
  project.
• Materials maps of colonies, construction paper,
  writing paper, markers, pencils
• Assessment final product following directions,
  content

• ISBE Standard
• 16.C.1a, 17.A.1b

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Unit SketchLesson 7 Trading During Colonial
Times

• Students will learn about the importance of trade
  during colonial times and how it affected the
  culture in terms of new ideas, technology,
  language, etc.
• Description Students will role play and have
  parts to play in order to understand the concept
  of trade. Each student will play a particular
  part, and the class will have a time to trade
  with one another. After this, there will be a
  discussion on how trade can affect ideas,
  language, etc. Students will then write things
  they learned, especially about the role they
  played. This will be done in their journals.
• Materials materials for costumes, index cards
  with roles descriptions, journals, Pilgrims of
  Plimoth By Marcia Sewall
• Assessment monitor childrens role playing,
  journals- content, relevance to the lesson.

• ISBE Standard
• 16.C.1a, 16.C.1b

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Unit SketchBibliography

• Websites
• www.teachersfirst.com/summer/cornhusk.htm
• www.pbs.org/wgbh.aia/part1/1h315t.html
• http//cpcug.org/user/billb/hutch.html,
• http//earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/index.html

• Books
• Pilgrims of Plimoth by Marcia Sewall
• Your Travel Guide to Colonial America by Marcy
  Day
• Home and Child Life in Colonial Days by Alice
  Earle

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Unit SketchUnit Assessment Plan

• Formative
• Group Poster/Participation
• Oral Presentation
• Maps Correctly Labeled

• Summative
• Journals Throughout the Unit
• Role Playing is Accurate of Information Attained
  Throughout the Unit

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Colonial America Lesson Plan

• Trading During Colonial Times

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Colonial America Lesson Plan

• Essential Question
• How did trade affect colonial culture, language,
  ideas, etc.?
• Key Concepts
• Diversity and Difference, Cultural Heritage,
  Time, Place and Space

• Enduring Understandings
• In this lesson, students will be able to describe
  how trade affected the lives of the colonial
  people in America.

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Colonial America Lesson Plan cont.

• Standards Alignment Illinois Learning Standards
  for Social Science
• 16.C.1a (W) Identify how people and groups in
  the past made economic choices (e.g., crops to
  plant, products to make, products to trade) to
  survive and improve their lives.
• 16.C.1b (W) Explain how trade among people
  brought an exchange of ideas, technology and
  language.

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Adaptations

• Lower proficiency levels These students may be
  given simpler parts to play during the trading
  time. They can also be given more time to write
  in their journals.
• Higher proficiency levels Challenge students to
  write as the character that they played. This
  will challenge them to think deeply as well as
  challenge them with their creative writing
  skills.

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Materials

• Teacher literature
• Wealth of a Nation to Be by Alice Hanson Jones
• The Economy of British America by John J.
  McCusker and Russell R. Menard
• Childrens literature
• Pilgrims of Plimoth by Marcia Sewall
• Other materials
• Simple costumes for children, index cards w/
  roles descriptions, journals, pencils

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Colonial America Lesson Plan cont.

• Procedures
• Begin the lesson by asking the students what they
  have learned about the economy during colonial
  times. Have a short discussion about trading and
  ideas they may have about it.
• Read Pilgrims of Plimoth and discuss the book.
  Let the students know that they will be colonial
  people acting out the trading process during
  colonial times.
• Hand out index cards.Let the children choose
  their costumes.
• Students will then act out their parts and
  trade with one another.

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Colonial America Lesson Plan Cont.

• Procedure cont.
• Walk around the classroom to make sure students
  are on task. Help them with playing out their
  roles if needed.
• After the role playing, have the students sit at
  the rug and share their experiences with the
  class. this is a good time to ask them questions
  about how trade affected the culture during
  colonial times. Allow them to think deeply about
  this particular topic. Have them think as if they
  were living in colonial times.
• Students will return to their desks and write
  reflections about what they learned in their
  journals.

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Colonial America Lesson Plan cont.

• Assessments
• Observe and make notes while walking around the
  classroom to see if students are on task,
  following directions, and playing their roles the
  best they can.
• Look at the reflections made in their journals.
  Is what is written related to the lesson? Is it
  well-written? Is it creative?

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Reflections

• Process
• The process of developing this unit was more
  involved than we thought it would be.
• There were so many people and resources to
  investigate and talk about to mold the shape of
  our unit, that the process couldve taken much
  longer if we had time.
• One of the hardest parts of the process was
  picking out books that were accurate, especially
  in the ways talked about in our class.

• Content
• The subject of Colonial America is a very fun
  topic to teach in elementary grades.
• Since this topic is the everyday lives of our
  ancestors, there are many aspects of life that
  can be relived and acted out to improve learning.
• It was fun to research different parts of
  colonial life that werent taught to us as
  children.

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Reflections cont.

• Future
• In the future when preparing units on any topic
  and for any grade, it will be important to leave
  a lot of time for researching content as well as
  instructional options.
• There are many books available on a lot of topics
  and it is important to consider many books and
  choose the best one to portray an accurate view
  of historical events to students.
• There are so many opportunities to engage
  students in Social Studies lessons in active and
  involved ways. These ways are worth the extra
  work if information will remain with students for
  years to come.