1-Jun-20-2025-06-23-21-4941-PM

About Unit 3

💭 Essential Question: How did people of diverse ethnicities and identities experience life in the North American English Colonies?

Through this driving concept, students will develop and refine their inquiry skills as they evaluate historical evidence to support arguments about colonization and the American Revolution. Students will analyze multiple perspectives and interpretations, drawing conclusions about the causes and effects of historical events in the colonial and revolutionary era. To develop an understanding of the different ways individuals may have experienced daily life, students will study laws and interactions that impacted Europeans colonists, people of African descent and Indigenous Nations. Students will analyze the changing relationship between the colonial governments and Britain, analyzing the reasons that individuals and groups within the diverse American population supported or opposed independence from the British. Students will also contextualize concepts such as liberty, freedom and democracy, comparing their use in justifications for independence and the extent to which they were applied to different Americans on the basis of religion, socio-economic status or class, race and gender.

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Unit Overview                    
Do First: Frayer Model               
Exit Slips                              
Inquiry Journal                              
Topic 1: The First Permanent English Colonies (150 minutes)

Lesson 1

   Lesson 2

Topic 2: Contested Land and Indigenous Resistance (150 minutes)

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Topic 3: The Evolving Construct of Race (270 minutes)

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Lesson 7

Topic 4: Colonial Identity(ies) (180 minutes)

Lesson 8

Lesson 9 (Placed-Based Extension Lesson - Coming Soon)

Lesson 10

Topic 5: Assessment (120 minutes)

Lesson 11

 

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Class discussions in a social studies classroom are vital for enhancing student engagement with information and learning of new material. 

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Predicting allows students to engage in critical thinking and processing. This step before the "Do First" ensures students take guesses using key information, pictures, and texts. 

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Formatives assessments are a powerful way to measure how your students are progressing towards identified learning objectives (Additional Video).

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The Four Corners Activity is an interactive teaching strategy that gets students up and moving, thinking, analyzing, and collaborating. 

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The Frayer Model is highly effective for teaching vocabulary in a social studies classroom because it goes beyond simple memorization.

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A gallery walk is an activity where students move around the classroom, engaging with various displays of information, artifacts, or student work

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The "Give One, Get One" activity is a collaborative classroom strategy that fosters idea sharing, peer learning, and critical thinking.

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Graphic organizers are visual tools that help support students to structure, analyze, and understand information.

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The inquiry journal is used throughout the lessons provided by Thinking Nation and encourages critical thinking, reflection, and questions. 

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The jigsaw strategy is an effective cooperative learning technique that promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and deeper understanding.

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The "Levels of Questions" activity integrates with Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) framework to hel students develop questions. 

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Coming soon!

 

 

The Notice, Wonder, Think learning strategy is an inquiry-based approach that encourages students to engage deeply with a topic, image, text, or historical event.

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The Quick Write strategy is an instructional method used to engage students in short, focused writing tasks to support thinking and class discussions of new material. 

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The Reduce it! strategy is an engaging activity allows students to read, summarize, and identify key vocabulary words related to topic or concept.

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The source annotation strategy is a powerful tool for teaching students how to interact with and analyze historical documents.

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Document analysis is a cornerstone of social studies education, offering numerous benefits that enhance students' skills and learning. 

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This Triangle, Square, Circle strategy is used by Thinking Nation to help students process new information during the closing minutes of class. 

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The Write and Draw strategy is an engaging, student-centered approach often used in social studies classrooms to help students process information.

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