Unit Overview: Read more about the unit and find all unit materials here on the Fishtank website

This unit challenges students to view history with a critical lens, and to notice how there is always more than one side to a story. The unit begins with the Mayflower and helps students develop an understanding of why so many colonists decided to leave England and travel to the New World. Students will explore the hardships faced by the colonists, both on the ship and once they arrived in the New World, and how the colonists persevered and relied on the geography and environment to meet their needs. Students will then learn about the Wampanoag, the people who were on the land before the Pilgrims arrived. They will learn about what the Wampanoag valued, how they viewed the Pilgrims, and how the arrival of explorers and settlers negatively influenced their tribe. Then, students will be pushed to analyze what really happened at the first Thanksgiving, and whose story is being told. Students will realize that the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving contains many myths that don't accurately reflect the Wampanoag and what really happened in 1621. 

Students think about the ways in which events are connected. When learning about historical events and reading historical texts, students explore how they can use chronology to explain the connection between events. Students review how to use cause and effect to explain what happened with particular events and why. Students read texts on similar topics that include multiple perspectives of a historical event, allowing students to compare and contrast texts and critically analyze the perspectives that are present in each text. 

When discussing the text, students continue to work on elaborating and supporting their own ideas, using examples and evidence to justify their own thinking. Doing so sets students up for success with discourse in later units when students are pushed to engage with the thinking of others. 

Students continue to build their fluency with writing daily in response to the text and crafting sentences that show a nuanced understanding of content. In the second half of the unit, students write informational paragraphs, including a topic sentence and supporting reasons and facts. The unit culminates with students researching, drafting and illustrating their own informational books to teach others the truth about Thanksgiving.