Unit 1: Colonial America & Independence

Standards

Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations

Thinking Like a Historian

• P1.1 Use appropriate strategies to read and analyze social science tables, graphs, graphics, maps, and texts.
• P1.2 Interpret primary and secondary source documents for point of view, context, bias, and frame of reference or perspective.
• P1.4 Express social science ideas clearly in written, spoken, and graphic forms.

Foundations in United States History and Geography

• F1.1 Describe the ideas, experiences, and interactions that influenced the colonists’ decisions to declare independence by analyzing
  • colonial ideas about government (e.g., limited government, republicanism, protecting individual rights and promoting the common good, representative government, natural rights)
  • experiences with self-government (e.g., House of Burgesses and town meetings)
  • changing interactions with the royal government of Great Britain after the French and Indian War
• F1.2 Using the Declaration of Independence, including the grievances at the end of the document, describe the role this document played in expressing
  • colonists’ views of government
  • their reasons for separating from Great Britain.

Common Core History-Literacy Standards

• RH.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
• RH.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
• RH.6-8.6 Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
• RH.6-8.8 Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
• RH.6-8.9 Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.
• WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
  • a. Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
  • b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources.

C3 Framework

• D2.His.3.6-8. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant.
• D2.His.9.6-8. Classify the kinds of historical sources used in a secondary interpretation.
• D2.His.11.6-8. Use other historical sources to infer a plausible maker, date, place of origin, and intended audience for historical sources where this information is not easily identified.
• D2.His.12.6-8. Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to identify further areas of inquiry and additional sources.
• D2.His.13.6-8. Evaluate the relevancy and utility of a historical source based on information such as maker, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose.
• D2.His.4.6-8. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.
• D2.His.6.6-8. Analyze how people’s perspectives influenced what information is available in the historical sources they created.
• D2.His.14.6-8. Explain multiple causes and effects of events and developments in the past.
• D2.His.16.6-8. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past.
• D3.1.6-8. Gather relevant information from multiple sources while using the origin, authority, structure, context, and corroborative value of the sources to guide the selection.
• D3.2.6-8. Evaluate the credibility of a source by determining its relevance and intended use.
• D3.3.6-8. Identify evidence that draws information from multiple sources to support claims, noting evidentiary limitations.
• D3.4.6-8. Develop claims and counterclaims while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both.
• D4.1.6-8. Construct arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources, while acknowledging the strengths and limitations of the arguments.
• D4.2.6-8. Construct explanations using reasoning, correct sequence, examples, and details with relevant information and data, while acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of the explanations.
• D4.3.6-8. Present adaptations of arguments and explanations on topics of interest to others to reach audiences and venues outside the classroom using print and oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays, letters, debates, speeches, reports, and maps) and digital technologies (e.g., Internet, social media, and digital documentary).
• D4.6.6-8. Draw on multiple disciplinary lenses to analyze how a specific problem can manifest itself at local, regional, and global levels over time, identifying its characteristics and causes, and the challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address the problem.
• D4.8.6-8. Apply a range of deliberative and democratic procedures to make decisions and take action in their classrooms and schools, and in out-of-school civic contexts.

Unit Compelling Question: Were the American leaders justified in breaking away from Great Britain?

Supporting Questions

• How do historians determine what happened in the past?
• What skills do historians use when reading historical documents?
• Why do accounts of the past differ?
• Why do people form governments?
• Why did some people in colonial America believe they had the right to form their own country?
• How might the Puritan's religion shape their actions in the New World? How did the Puritans react to the Native Americans they encountered?
• What geographical features were colonists concerned with when settling the original British colonies in America?
• How did ideas about government influence the political thought of the English colonists?
• How did colonists with different regional interests and experiences use ideas from the past to unite and justify their independence from Great Britain?
• What was mercantilism?
• What was salutary neglect?
• How did British policies inflame tensions in the American colonies?
• How were racial distinctions created in colonial British America and why?
• What role did slavery play in the colonial economic system?
• What was the effect of colonial growth on Native populations?
• What actually happened at the Tea Party on December 16, 1773?
• What efforts were made to avoid war?
• How does the Declaration of Independence reflect the idea of the people (the governed) as the source of power and authority of government?
• How have ideas from the Declaration of Independence inspired others to seek social and political change?
• What was life like for a soldier during the American Revolution?
• How did the revolutionary war impact women, Native Americans, and enslaved peoples?

1. Baseline Assessment

Standards: RH.6-8.1, 6-8.2, 6-8.9, WHST.6-8.9

Supporting Questions: What were the interactions like between Columbus, his men, and the Native Americans? Why would a historian want to use multiple accounts to understand Christopher Columbus' place in history?

2. Thinking Like a Historian-Lunchroom Fight Part I

Standards: RH.6-8.6, RH.6-8

Learning Target: I can analyze multiple perspectives of a historical event to determine the most plausible cause.

Supporting Questions: What does it mean to think and read like a historian? How is finding the truth about the lunchroom fight similar to the work of a historian? How do I corroborate sources?

3. Thinking Like a Historian-Lunchroom Fight Part II

Standards: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8, WHST.6-8.1b

Learning Targets:

1. I can evaluate sources to determine their credibility.
2. I can make a claim supported with evidence about who should receive a consequence in the lunchroom fight scenario.

Supporting Questions: How does context/background information influence the content of a source? What makes one account of an event more trustworthy than another? How do I determine the credibility of a source? How do I corroborate sources?

4. Thinking Like a Historian-Corroboration

Standards: RH.6-8.9

Learning Target: I can explain ways that historians and educators decide what to include and what to leave out of history.

Supporting Questions: What gets included in history and why? How do I corroborate sources?

5. Building Geographic Context: Mapping the Colonies

Standards: RH.6-8.2

Learning Target: I can analyze maps to make a claim about early colonial settlements in America.

Supporting Questions: What was the world like in 1507? Given that North America had not been explored or mapped by Europeans when the first colonists arrived, what are some of the problems that the colonists may have encountered? What do maps made by early British explorers and settlers tell us about early colonial settlements in America? What geographical features were colonists concerned with when settling the original British colonies in America?

6. The Puritans: Selfish or Selfless?

Standards: RH.6-8.2

Learning Target: I can analyze primary source documents to make a claim about the Puritans who came to North America.

Supporting Questions: How might the Puritan's religion shape their actions in the New World? How did the Puritans react to the Native Americans they encountered?

7. Comparing the Colonies-Similarities

Standards: RH.6-8.7

Learning Target: I can integrate visual information from maps with other information to make a comparison of the colonies.

Supporting Questions: What did the American colonies have in common with one another? What was mercantilism? What did the colonies send to England and what did they get in return? What was salutary neglect?

8. Comparing the Colonies: Economic differences

Standards: RH.6-8.7

Learning Target: I can integrate visual information from maps and charts with other information to compare the economies of the colonies.

Supporting Questions: What made the economies of the northern, southern, and middle colonies different?

9. Comparing the Colonies: The Triangular Trade

Standards: F1.1, RH.6-8.6

Learning Targets:

I can explain how colonies differed from one another.

I can explain the role slavery played in how the colonial economic system.

Supporting Questions: How did the British colonies in North America differ from one another? What role did slavery play in the colonial economic system?

10. King Phillip's War

Standards: RH.6-8.7

Learning Target: I can integrate visual information from maps and charts with other information to make a claim about the cause of King Phillip's War.

Supporting Questions: How did the population in North America change from 1600 to 1700? What caused King Phillip's War of 1675? What was the effect of colonial growth on Native populations? What were the reasons for conflict between European settlers and Native Americans?

11. Racialization in the Colonies: Slavery

Standards: RH. 6-8.2, 6-8.7

Learning Target: I can integrate visual information from maps and charts with other information to make a claim about the system of slavery in the colonies.

Supporting Questions: How were racial distinctions created in colonial British America and why? How has race been used as a mechanism of social control? How did indentured servitude compare to slavery? What was similar? What was different? What were the causes of Bacon’s rebellion? What claims can you make about enslaved peoples in Colonial America?

12. The Road to Revolution

Standards: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, WHST 6-8.1

Learning Target: I can analyze multiple sources to make a claim about the causes of American Revolution.

Supporting Questions: What caused American colonists in different states to unify as one nation leading up to the French and Indian War? What put the American colonists on the road to Revolution against England? What is a "turning point" in history? What was the impact of the French and Indian War on the colonies? What is an excise tax?

13. The Boston Tea Party: Activism or Vandalism?

Standards: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, WHST 6-8.1

Learning Target: I can analyze multiple sources to make an argument about the Boston Tea Party.

Supporting Questions: Why were the colonists upset before the Tea Party and what actions had they already taken to try and resolve their problems with Great Britain? What actually happened at the Tea Party on December 16, 1773? Was Great Britain’s reaction to the Tea Party justified?

14. Loyalists vs Patriots

Standards: RH.6-8.2, WHST.6-8.1

Learning Target: I can analyze multiple sources to make a claim about why some colonists remained loyal to the King of England.

Supporting Questions: What choices faced people living in the British colonies around 1776? What are some reasons why a colonist would remain loyal to the King of England?

15. The Declaration of Independence

Standards: RH.6-8.2, 6-8.9, WHST.6-8.1

Learning Targets:

1. I can analyze the Declaration of Independence to determine the specific proclamations of the colonists.
2. I can analyze multiple sources to make a claim about how the European Enlightenment influenced the Declaration of Independence.

Supporting Questions: What did the Declaration of Independence actually declare? What were the main ideals of the Declaration of Independence and what debt to they owe to the European Enlightenment?

16. The Revolutionary War: A Soldier's Perspective

Standards: RH.6-8.2, WHST.6-8.1

Learning Target: I can analyze multiple sources to describe life for soldiers during the American Revolution.

Supporting Questions: What was life like for a soldier during the American Revolution? What was the financial state of America during and after the war? What were the post war promises made to soldiers?

17. Impact of the Revolutionary War: Women, Native Americans, Enslaved Peoples

Standards: RH.6-8.7, WHST.6-8.1

Learning Target: I can integrate analysis of multiple sources including data to make a claim about enslaved peoples in Colonial America.

Supporting Questions: What claims can you make about enslaved peoples in Colonial America?

18. Unit Review: Synthesis Task

Standards: WHST.6-8.1

Learning Target: I can review the major content and themes from the unit to make a claim about the development of the colonies.

Supporting Questions: What are the roots of American democracy? How did the environment impact the development of the different colonial economies? How did the economy shape social and political structures in colonial America?