Technology in the American History Classroom Mini Lesson
Name: Meaghan Johnson
District: Reading Public Schools Grade Level: 3rd Grade
Subject: Social Studies Unit: Colonial Times
Lesson Title: Colonial and Wampanoag Children in Massachusetts – A Critical Comparison
Goal: The goal of this lesson is for students to apply information that they have learned about the daily life of colonial children in Massachusetts and use it to analyze the similarities and differences between the daily lives of Wampanoag children during the same time period.
Massachusetts History & Social Science Curriculum Frameworks Learning Standard:
3.2 Identify the Wampanoags and their leaders at the time the Pilgrims arrived, and describe their way of life.
3.3 Identify who the Pilgrims were and explain why they left Europe to seek religious freedom; describe their journey and their early years in the Plymouth Colony.
Essential Questions:
ü How are several of the major daily activities of colonial children similar and different to the same activities of Native American children?
ü If you lived during this time period, would you have rather been a child in the Wampanoag tribe or a colonial child? Why?
Learning Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
ü Students will be able to take information they have learned, through print, electronic, and audio visual resources, about the daily life of colonial children and categorize it according to given topics using Kidspiration software (reproduced on p. 3).
ü Students will be able to take information learned through the given electronic resources to categorize information about the daily life of a Wampanoag child according to given topics using Kidspiration software
ü Students will be able to sort information from given topics into similarities and differences using Kidspiration software.
ü Students will be able to take this comparison and use it as a resource to write a paragraph describing their decision to have been either a Wampanoag tribe member or typical colonial child.
Materials/Resources:
§ Optional Literature: How Reading Grew Up & If You Lived in Colonial Times
§ Technology: Computer, Printer, Smartboard, Kidspiration software, Internet access for website: http://www.plimoth.org/education/olc/index_js2.html
§ paper, writing utensils
§ The technology included in this lesson gives students an opportunity to expand their learning and their viewpoint of early colonial life by incorporating primary sources into their learning and allows students to make several visual connections to prior learning.
Procedure:
1. Students will spend several weeks prior to this activity reading, analyzing, and discussing what daily life was like for early colonial settlers. This information will be provided mainly through the literature sources previously listed.
2. Students will view information about the daily life of a Wampanoag tribe member, taking special note of any information regarding their clothing, homes, daily activities, and religious beliefs.
3. Students will then take the information they have already learned about the clothing, homes, daily activities, and religious beliefs of colonial settlers and compare it to the information they viewed about the Wampanoag people’s same categories. They will record this information using Kidspiration software and the template created for them (reproduced on page 3).
4. Students will use this template to formulate a written paragraph. The prompt of this assignment will be: If you lived during this time period, would you rather of been a child in the Wampanoag tribe or a colonial settlement? Give at least 3 detailed reasons why you made this choice.
Assessment: The assessment for this lesson will be both the Kidspiration template as well as the written paragraph. The template will serve as a way to check each student understands the main aspects of daily life for Wampanoag and colonial children. The written paragraph will be a formal assessment of each student’s ability to support their opinion with facts and sufficient details.
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