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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Shared Reading: Learning About Colonial Trades

For Teachers 4th Standards
Trading in Colonial America is the focus of a lesson plan that boosts reading skills. As a class, scholars examine the informational text for crucial details, use their newfound knowledge to share information with their peers, and write...
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Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Declaration of Independence

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Scholars work in pairs to decide whether leaders wrote the Declaration of Independence for the rich and powerful or for every man. To draw their conclusion, pairs read excerpts from two historians and complete a graphic organizer citing...
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Unit Plan
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

Colonial Tobacco Economy

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Tobacco as money? Middle schoolers investigate how eighteenth-century Virginia farmers used tobacco as a cash crop to buy tools, livestock, and household goods. They also examine the connection between tobacco production and the slave...
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Lesson Plan
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

How Do We Know about Colonial Life?

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
Young history sleuths examine an inventory of the belongings of a Virginia colonist and use deductive reasoning to determine what the document reveals about colonial life. They then use a Venn diagram to compare the inventory with a...
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Lesson Plan
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

Why Did Some Colonial Virginians Continue to Support the King?

For Students 5th - 12th Standards
Not all colonials supported the American Revolution. A resource from the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown ask young historians to investigate the reasons why some colonial Virginians were loyalist and continued to support King...
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Lesson Plan
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

What Was Everyday Life like in Colonial Virginia?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
What was everyday life like in Colonial Virginia? To find the answer cooperative groups work collaboratively to read an informational handout and complete a graphic organizer. The speaker of the group then shares their new-found...
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Lesson Plan
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

What Was Everyday Life like in Colonial Virginia?

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
After reflecting on jobs people perform in the present day, scholars discuss what they believe jobs would have been like in Colonial Virginia during the American Revolution. Small groups then perform a jigsaw using informational packets....
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Lesson Plan
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Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary

Choosing a Trade in Colonial America

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
How did workers pick a trade in colonial America? Using a WebQuest approach, scholars explore life in the colonial era by looking at professions available to men like Benjamin Franklin. Individuals then apply their knowledge to create...
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Lesson Plan
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Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Need a model for character education? Benjamin Franklin presents himself as in a constant state of striving to become the man he hoped to be, making his autobiography is far more accessible to learners than those of people who consider...
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Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Colonial Designs

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The adventures of the New World came at a cost for Native Americans. Scholars investigate the economic side of settling the European colonies. Using video clips, statistical evidence, and primary sources, they create hypotheses and...
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Lesson Plan
Elizabeth Murray Project

The Education of Women in Colonial America

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
What educational opportunities were available to women during the colonial era in American history? How did the opportunities available to women differ from those for men? To answer this question, class members examine a series of...
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Lesson Plan
NPR

Journalism Lesson Plan

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
Honor women in journalism with an online exhibit called Women with a Deadline. Class members demonstrate their understanding of the topic in a final assessment by writing a newspaper article on the information they learned in the online...
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Lesson Plan
Elizabeth Murray Project

Colonial Women During the Revolution

For Students 3rd - 7th Standards
Young researchers use the Internet or books to find out about colonial women during the American Revolution. They organize information in a graphic to demonstrate their understanding of the research they gathered before writing a...
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Worksheet
K12 Reader

The Mayflower

For Students 4th - 6th Standards
The journey aboard the Mayflower in 1620 was long and arduous for the Pilgrims set for the New World. Learn about the difficulties of the expedition, including the extended timeframe and cramped quarters, with an informative reading...
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Worksheet
Read Works

Plymouth Colony

For Students 11th - 12th Standards
Read about the tumultuous beginning to the United States with an informational text passage about Colonial America. As young researchers peruse an article about the arrival of the Mayflower, the settlers' relationship to the neighboring...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Preparing to Write Historical Fiction: Determining Characteristics of the Genre

For Teachers 4th Standards
A language arts instructional activity helps young writers identify elements that make up historical fiction. First, it guides them through elements of fictional pieces with vocabulary cards. Then, pupils work collaboratively to...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Planning Ideas: Developing a Colonial Character Profile

For Teachers 4th Standards
The second lesson in a historical fiction series encourages pupils to develop a character profile of a colonial person using research acquired in the previous unit. Learners prepare their historical fiction narrative by responding to a...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Practice Planning a Historical Narrative: The Wheelwright

For Teachers 4th Standards
Fourth graders use a four-square graphic organizer to plan a paragraph writing about a wheelwright. Using gathered research from the previous unit, young writers discover how to organize a plot in preparation for writing a historical...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Planning a Historical Fiction Narrative Based on Expert Trades

For Teachers 4th Standards
Pupils plan for a historical fiction narrative based on their previous research on expert trades from the Colonial Era. Individuals use the four-square graphic organizer to organize the information they want to be detailed in their four...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Drafting a Historical Fiction Narrative: The Wheelwright

For Teachers 4th Standards
Young writers use the four-square graphic organizer to draft their historical fiction narratives' first, second, third, and fourth paragraphs on the wheelwright. The instructional activity promotes discussion and modeling of what makes a...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Drafting a Historical Fiction Narrative Based on Expert Trades

For Teachers 4th Standards
Young historians use their planning graphic organizer to prepare a personal narrative draft on expert trades. Since the instructional activity is considered the mid-unit assessment, learners respond to a writing prompt related to the...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Writer's Gallery and End of Unit 3 Assessment: On-Demand New Historical Fiction Narrative

For Teachers 4th Standards
Fourth-grade writers applaud their historical narrative writing pieces through a Writer's Gallery. First, they read an assigned classmate's work and leave a positive comment on a sticky note. Once learners have read a couple of people's...
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Unit Plan
New York City Department of Education

Colonial America and The American Revolution

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
How did the founding of the American colonies lead to a revolution? Use the essential question and sample activities to guide learners through a series of history lessons. Additionally, the packet includes effective strategies to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Landscape Long Ago and Today

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
Combine a fantastic review of primary source analysis with a study of Captain John Smith's influence on the Chesapeake Bay region in the seventeenth century. Your young historians will use images, a primary source excerpt, and maps...