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Jamestown
Heather Brooks
Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, will celebrate its 400th anniversary in 2007. The original settlers of 1607 faced overwhelming odds, such as famine, disease, disorder and native hostilities. Yet Jamestown persevered. Its survival was due in large part to its leadership, relocation, and profit incentives. This lesson will focus on the people of the Jamestown colony, Native American relations, farming and tobacco, Bacon's Rebellion, and the government of the colony.
1. Frayer Diagram (available at www.seaford.k12.de.us/it/frayer.htm)
2. Classroom textbook - We Use the Americans by McDougal Littell, but any American History text you have access to will work.
Danzer, Gerald A., J. Jorge Klore de Alva, Nancy Woloch, and Louis E. Wilson. The Americans. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2006.
3. TV with Internet access
4. 5 Sheets of Poster-board
5. Books on reserve from school library
6. Access to copier
7. Terms worksheet (linked)
8. Instructions worksheet (linked)
9. Markers, construction paper, rulers, glue, and tape.
10. Quote from John Smith Document avaliable at:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1039
2 Ninety minute blocks
2
How did Colonial America develop?
Content Specific Question:
How did Colonial Virginia develop and what led to its success?
1. As students come into the classroom, have a transparency of a Frayer diagram projected on the board.
2. Have the word joint-stock company written in the center circle. The students will use their classroom text book to diagram the term.
3. To diagram the term, they need to give its definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples. An example can be found at www.seaford.k12.de.us/it/frayer.htm
For example: The following diagram comes from information taken from The Americans by McDougal Littell.
Definition: Colonies that are funded by a number of investors who pool their money together to fund the venture in hopes of earning a profit.
Characteristics: They had to obtain a charter or official permit from the British government. The investors had the responsibility for maintaining the colony.
Examples: The Virginia Company/The Massachusetts Bay Company
Non-examples: A Royal Colony/Georgia
Material cited from The Americans (citation below):
Danzer, Gerald A., J. Jorge Klore de Alva, Nancy Woloch, and Louis E. Wilson. The Americans. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2006.
1. Use the worksheet linked to this lesson(titled Activating Strategy - Jamestown Terms), print it and cut the terms and definitions out separately. There are 11 terms listed with 11 definitions. One you cut terms and definitions apart you should have 22 slips of paper with either a term or a definition on the slip.There are suggestions for additional terms, depending on the number of students in the classroom. Each student needs one slip of paper.
2. Place all 22 slips of paper in a large manila envelope. Shake it up.
3. Go around the room and let each student pull out one slip of paper without looking to see what they are pulling out of the envelope.
4. Once all students have selected a slip of paper, have the student go around the room searching for the person who has the term or the definition that matches the term or definition that they have.
5. Students are not to use books to do this activity. Once they think they have found their partner, have the students to go back to their assigned seats.
6. Go around the room asking students what term or definition they had. Once they read their term, have the person who has the term or definition to read their half aloud so the class can determine whether they are correct.
Definitions for the above activity are cited from The Americans (citation below):
Danzer, Gerald A., J. Jorge Klore de Alva, Nancy Woloch, and Louis E. Wilson. The Americans. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2006.
1. Web - Write the term Jamestown on the board in the front of the classroom and circle it. Have the students create a web of what they already know about the colony of Jamestown.
2. Write different ideas as the students raise their hands and offer suggestions. Discuss as you go along.
3. Divide the class into five teams (I would suggest assigning teams based on student capabilities and work habits).
4. Assign each team a topic for colonial Jamestown: People of the Jamestown colony, Native American relations, Sources of Labor for Jamestown, Bacon's Rebellion, and Government of the colony.
5. Provide each team with a sheet of poster-board, markers, construction paper, and sources. I would suggest going to your school media center and putting books on reserve that deal with Colonial America. (I check out a number of books and have the librarian to put them on a cart that I can carry to my room.)
6. Provide instructions to each group in writing. For example: A. They must title the poster with their topic heading, B. Time line their topic, C. Summarize five events/personalities that are related to your topic, D. Pick out five pictures that are related to your topic and caption them, E. Present your poster to the class.
Summary Activity: "Instructions, by way of advice, for the intended voyage to Virginia" by John Smith
To summarize and review what the students learned during the lesson, display a quote from the document "Instructions, by way of advice, for the intended voyage to Virginia" by John Smith, updated (probably early 1600's) from the Virtual Jamestown Project.
I've selected the following two quotes, but the entire document is available at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1039
"Instructions, by way of advice, for the intended voyage to Virginia" by John Smith
Quote:
And to the end that you be not surprized as the French were in Florida by Melindus, and the Spaniard in the same place by the French, you shall do well to make this double provision. First, erect a little stoure at the mouth of the river that might lodge some ten men; with whom you shall leave a light boat, that when any fleet shall be in sight, they may come with speed to give you warning. Secondly, you must in no case suffer any of the native people of the country to inhabit between you and the sea coast; for you cannot carry yourselves so towards them, but they will grow discontented with your habitation, and be ready to guide and assist any nation that shall come to invade you: and if you neglect this, you neglect your safety.
When you have discovered as far up the river as you mean to plant yourselves, and landed your victuals and munitions; to the end that every man may know know his charge, you shall do well to divide your six score men into three parts: whereof one party of them you may appoint to fortifie and build, of which your first work must be your storehouse for victuals; the other[s] you may imploy in preparing your ground and sowing your corn and roots; the other ten of these forty you must leave as centinel at the haven's mouth.
Questions for students:
1. In the first paragraph, what recommendations does Smith make to future colonists?
2. What does he recommend in the second paragraph?
3. Why do you think he felt it necessary to make these recommendations?
4. Other than the problems that Smith lists above, what other problems did early Virginians experience?
5. What ultimately made Virgina a successful colony?
Other documents from the early colonization of Virginia can be found at the Virtual Jamestown Project located at:
www.virtualjamestown.org/fhaccounts_date.html
Additional sources of information:
Belmonte, Laura A. Speaking of America: Volume I: To 1877. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007.
Hakim, Joy. A History of U.S.: Making Thirteen colonies 1600-1740. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Dean, Ruth and Thomson, Melissa. Life in the American Colonies. San Diego: Lucent Books, 1999.
Lukes, Bonnie L. Colonial America. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000.
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