Subject: 5 t h Grade Social Studies: Our StoryAre We to be a Nation?

Generative Topic: Whats Worth

Fighting For?
Singing the Songs of Freedom
Understanding Goals:
-

Students will understand for what early Americans were willing to fight. PM: What
issue is so important you are willing to die (or cause others to die) for that cause?
Students will understand qualities and influences of revolutionary leaders. PM: What
does it take to be a leader?
Students will understand they are the people of We, the people PM: What is my
stewardship as a citizen of the United States of America?
Students will distinguish between local, state, and federal issues and structures. PM:
Who represents me in the government of our town, state, and country?
Students will understand the importance of commerce and trade in the American
colonies.
Students will understand how the slave trade developed and affected colonies and
individuals.
Ultimate Personal Meaning (PM):
o Students will understand how freedom and equality are worth fighting for.
o Students will understand how learning about the perspectives of other people
creates respect in individual relationships and in the community as a whole.

Performance Goals:
-

Students will write a letter to a United States Senator or Representative from Idaho
relating their feelings about the Constitution of the United States. They may include
their understanding of what it means to be a great leader, what their responsibility as
a citizen is, or what they would like to see their representative do to uphold the
Constitution of the United States of America.
Students will create a commerce map showing the differences between the
southern and northern colonies.
Students will map the Triangular Trade routes and the Middle Passage.
Students will write a journal entry from the perspective of a captive slave aboard a
slave ship.
Student will examine primary source documents and pictures to determine what it
was like to live as a slave.
Students will record their thoughts about what rights all men and women should
have.
Students will listen to and read several Slave Spirituals and write what they think
the words might mean.
Students will write their own Slavery Spiritual poem illustrating the aspects of life
as a slave. (Ideas included should be hardship, hope, loss, freedom, captivity, light,
etc.)
Personal Meaning: Students will examine the perspectives of different individuals
(Olaudah Equiano as captive slave, farmers, ship captains, etc.) involved in slave
trade to examine the way different people see issues differently.

Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.

How did colonial economies contribute to the need for slaves?

What are human rights?
Was slavery an American problem?
Does slavery exist today?

Content Pieces:
-

Middle Passage
Triangular Trade
Route
Indentured servant

Slave
Slave Spiritual
Commerce
Trade

Freedom
Human Rights

Subject: Colonial Economies, Slave Trade, Middle Passage, Triangular

Trade Routes

oGenerative Topic: Depending

on One Another
o Pre-Assessment
o

In the gathering activity, students will explain everything they know or

remember about economy, trade, bartering, goods, services, and
slavery in a paired gathering activity.

o Understanding Goals:
-

Students will understand the importance of commerce and trade in the

American colonies.
Students will understand how the slave trade developed and affected
colonies and individuals
Personal Meaning: Students will understand how we sometimes depend on
one another to thrive.

o Performance Goals:
-

Students will create a commerce map showing the differences between the
southern and northern colonies.
Students will map the Triangular Trade routes and the Middle Passage.
Students will consider and discuss how the colonies relied on slaves and
trade with England to thrive.
Personal Meaning: Students will consider how they depend on other people
through a community circle reflection.

o Questions:
1. How did colonial economies contribute to the need for slaves?

o Knowledge Construction: Economy, Trade, Triangular

Trade Route, & Middle Passage
o Content Pieces/Order:
-

Economy
Trade
Goods
Services
Raw materials

Manufactured
goods
Import
Export

Slave Trade
Triangular Trade
Route
Middle Passage

Economy (recap): The exchange of goods and services

Miss Ponds definitions as she used with this group:

-

Goods: Physical items someone can transport and exchange

Services: Actions or help done for others, for the good of helping (free) for
money or for something else.

Cue: They played Settlers of Catan in large scale to explore the idea of economy
in Jamestown.

Trade: (n.) A skill used to provide goods or services. (v). The exchange of
goods and services between individuals.
Correlational Features:
-

Usually an economy uses an exchange of money for goods or services

Usually, other types of exchange include bartering or goods for goods,
services for services, or goods for services.

Slave Trade: The act of procuring (obtaining), transporting, and selling

human beings as property to work for another individual.
Correlational Features:
-

Usually references the import of African slaves to North and South America.

Triangular Trade Route: A three-way system of trade in which British

goods were traded for slaves on the African coast, who were shipped to
America and traded for the raw materials.

Middle Passage: The side of the Triangular Trade Route that brought slaves
from Africa to North and South America.

Resource
s
MODEL!
Concepts:
Goods
Services
Slavery
Economy
Trade

5 min

10 min

5 min

5 min

LEARNING MAP
Strateg
Description
y
Comm. Inside/Outside Circle:
Circle
In Ms. Jensens class, you learned about economy while
Gatheri exploring a large scale Settlers of Catan and about slavery
ng
when Ms. Pond brought in tobacco leaves.
Activity - In pairs, the students will face one another with one partner
forming part of an inside circle and the other forming an
outside circleHowdy! Looks like youre my partner!
- When a concept is named, the partner in the inside circle will
have 20 seconds to explain as much as they can about it.
- When they hear Switch, the outside partner will add as much
as possible to the idea. The outside partner has had 15
seconds to DOVE (Expand on the idea in particular).
- When they hear Rotate, the outside circle will rotate to the
right (counter-clockwise) to work with a new partner and a
new concept.
(If all students seem to be on right track, move on to next one. If
there is dissonance, have pair on right track share what they
talked about)
Transition: Go back to your seats.
Recap: In group 3 (marker pass, 2 min): Based on what you remember
Colonial about the geography of the northern colonies, what were
Geogra features of the geography of the northern colonies? How
phy
did these features determine what resources they had
available for their economy?
In group 3 (marker pass, 2 min): Based on what you remember
about
the of
geography
of the
southern
colonies,
what were
Activity: In
groups
3, have one
person
read these
selections
about the
Colonial economies of the northern colonies and southern colonies.
Econom - The northern colonies are divided further into New England
ies and
and Middle colonies because each area has their own
Trades
specific economy.
- On this map (projected colony map), you can see the way
they
KC
Today
weare
aredivided.
going to learn about the way an economy uses
Review:
Trade

different TRADES. Trade can be used to mean an area of skilled

work that provides goods or services, but we are going to use it
to describe the exchange of goods and services between
individuals .
- Usually an economy uses an exchange of money for goods or
services
- Usually, other types of exchange include bartering or goods for
goods, services for services, or goods for services.

Map
Readings
(10 each
class)
MODEL
Journal
Charts (10
Definition
sheets

Trade
Model
(2
tables)

5 min

KC:
Triangul
ar Trade
Route

KC:
Slave
Trade

2 min min 10

Individu
al
Transition:
Reflecti
on
Circle

For example, this table group is their own country that has their
own raw materials (cotton balls/bolls), and this table is a
different country that is skilled at sewing.
- If the 1st table needs clothes, what can they do?
- If the 2nd table runs out of fabric to sew with, what can
they do?
- What about if the 2nd table needs SO much cotton that
they buy all of the 1st tables supplies? How can the 1st
table get more?
There was a specific route that colonial ships would follow
called the TRIANGULAR TRADE ROUTEbecause it allowed for
England, the colonies, and Africa to trade materials and slaves
between the different continents.
In groups of 3, look at your lists of businesses in the
northern and southern economies that would depend on
having helpwhere could they get that help? What
would happen to the economy if they didnt get that
help?
During the colonial periodthe period we are talking about with
the 13 Coloniesthere was something called the SLAVE TRADE.
The Slave Trade was the act of procuring (obtaining),
transporting, and selling human beings as property to work for
another individual. We usually associate this with the way
Africans were forced to come to North and South America to
work as slaves. What could they TRADE to have slaves?
(Show triangular route map & distribute journal maps) This is a
map of the Triangular Trade Route. England was starting a lot of
Clean-up procedure. Meet in community circle.
In talking about the way the economies of the colonies
depended on slavery to thrive, lets think about this: How
would you feel if you were the person stuffed into the

Cotton
Clothes

MAP

Definition

Projected
map

The Economy of the Northern Colonies

The economy of the colonies in

New England

was largely dependent on the ocean

(far north)

. Fishing

(especially codfish) was most important to the New

England economy, though whaling

, trapping

, shipbuilding
, and logging
were important also.
The

Middle Colonies

enjoyed a successful and diverse

economy. Largely agricultural,

farms in this region grew
numerous kinds of crops, most notably grains and oats. Logging

, shipbuilding

, and papermaking
the

, textiles production

were also important in

Middle Colonies.

Big cities such as Philadelphia and New York were major shipping

hubs

, and craftsmen such as blacksmiths

silversmiths

wheelwrights

, cobblers

, wigmakers

, milliners

, and others contributed to the economies of such

cities.

The Economy of the Southern Colonies

The

Southern

economy was almost entirely based on farming

. Rice

indigo

, tobacco

sugarcane

, and cotton

were cash crops. Crops were

grown on large plantations where

SLAVES

and indentured servants (needs defining) worked the land.

In fact, Charleston, South Carolina became one of the centers of the

American slave trade in the 1700s.

Areas of Business using Slave Labor in the Northern and

Southern Colonies
Northern Colonies (New England
and Middle)

Southern Colonies

1.

1.

2.

2.

3.

3.

4.

4.

5.

5.

Areas of Business using Slave Labor in the Northern and

Southern Colonies
Northern Colonies (New England
and Middle)

Southern Colonies

1.

1.

2.

2.

3.

3.

4.

4.

5.

5.

Areas of Business using Slave Labor in the Northern and

Southern Colonies
Northern Colonies (New England
and Middle)

Southern Colonies

1.

1.

2.

2.

3.

3.

4.

4. 4.

5.

5.

The Triangular Trade Route & Middle Passage

The Triangular Trade Route & Middle Passage