Before and Beyond the Colonies

The Importance of Land to Indigenous Peoples and to Colonists

To begin their study of United States history, students access background knowledge from fourth grade about the Indigenous peoples of North America. They consider Indigenous worldviews and how land matters to different communities. Student curiosity about the topic is piqued as they ask questions about a map drawn by the Catawba Nation in 1721 and compare it to a colonial map from the same timeframe. Students collaborate in a Give One, Get One routine to share knowledge about the ways of life of Indigenous peoples in regions across North America. They begin their study of colonization by examining the motives for European exploration and empire-building. Students look at the settlement at Jamestown as a case study of how land mattered differently to the settlers and the Powhatan. They use a True for Who? routine to discuss primary source quotes that exemplify the different ways colonists and Indigenous peoples thought about the land. Finally, students use relevant information from articles to help them answer the Supporting Question: How did the land of North America matter differently to Indigenous peoples and European colonists?

The Founding and Development of the 13 British Colonies

Cluster 2 continues building the themes from the previous cluster about how common values shape the worldview of a community. Using a video as a stimulus, students ask questions about the three regions of British colonies in North America. They classify and prioritize their questions to help drive the learning throughout the cluster. In a deeper dive, students explore a representative colony from each region and what influenced its formation. They share what they learned with other students while comparing and contrasting the regions. Students are introduced to the different types of labor in the colonies (free, indentured, and enslaved) and the kinds of jobs people held. The system of mercantilism is introduced to help students understand the unbalanced trade system that led to Great Britain becoming wealthy at the expense of the colonies. This system will be expanded upon in Cluster 3 when students learn about the third leg of the Triangular Trade system, the Middle Passage, which brought enslaved people to the colonies. To synthesize learning at the end of this cluster, students participate in a Discussion Diamond to help generate ideas for answering the Supporting Question: What beliefs and values influenced the founding and development of the 13 colonies?

Slavery and the Struggle for Freedom in the Colonies

Cluster 3 is centered on the hard history of slavery in the British colonies of North America. It deals directly with the racism and economic motivations that justified the practice of enslaving African people. Several resources and instructional routines are shared throughout the cluster to support teachers with having difficult conversations with fifth grade students about this content. To spark curiosity at the start of the cluster, students participate in the Launching the Question routine. They engage with several images and ask questions about the beginnings of the Triangular Trade and its connections to mercantilism. They explore the different beliefs and perspectives of Africans and of European colonists. Using timeline cards, students investigate the progression of laws about slavery in the colonies and how they became harsher over time. Students also study the African diaspora in the colonies and how enslaved Africans sustained their culture by sharing common knowledge related to language, food, art, music, and dance. They also study three examples of resistance to enslavement using a jigsaw routine. Finally, students synthesize what they have learned in this cluster by working together in small groups to create concept maps in a Hexagonal Thinking activity. The main connections in these maps help students answer the Supporting Question: What beliefs and values led to the enslavement of Africans, and how did enslaved people resist?