Topic: Understanding the relationship between the region and environment of the Powhatan

Indians and their culture.

Enduring Understandings: (What big idea(s) will students understand as a result of this
lesson?)
The students will understand that by examining places on a map we can make inferences about
the environment and how that impacts the lifestyles of people who live there.

Essential Questions: (What question(s) will students grapple with as they learn through this
lesson?)

What can we tell about an environment of a place by looking at a map?

How does location and environment influence the way people live?

Primary Content Objectives:

Students will know: (facts/information)

The environment of the Powhatan Indians influenced the ways they lived.
The region of the Powhatan Indians encompassed most of the coast of Virginia, from the
Potomac River to the James River to parts of what is now North Carolina.
The environment of the Powhatan Indians included rivers, mountains, hills, and
coastlands.
The Powhatans found food by using the water around them to fish, and the forests around
them to hunt, farm, and gather plants.
The Powhatans used the water around them as their main form of transportation, and used
trees from the forest to make canoes.
The Powhatans used the wood from the forests around them to build homes.

Students will be able to do: (skills and behaviors)

Identify the location where the Powhatan Indians lived on a map.

Use information gleaned from the map of the Powhatan Indians home to make inferences
about the physical characteristics of the Powhatans environment. (For example: The
Powhatans environment included many rivers)
Infer from the physical characteristics of the Powhatans environment the influences of
the environment on the way they lived.

Related state or national standards: Social Studies SOL 2.4-d: The student will develop map
skills by understanding the relationship between the environment and the culture of the
Powhatan, Lakota, and Pueblo Indians.
Assessment: (How (and when) will students be assessed? What evidence will you collect to
determine whether students have met the lesson objectives? Will the assessment(s) be a preassessment (diagnostic), formative (ongoing feedback) or summative?)
Before beginning the read aloud I will do a Think-Pair-Share asking students to answer
the question: What can we tell about the Powhatans environment just by looking at this map.
This formative assessment will be used to gain evidence of students understanding from their
previous unit on maps. It will also give me information on students ability to make inferences
about the environment by looking at a map. This links up to the big idea of the lesson and will
allow me to see how much students understand about making inferences about maps at the very
beginning of my lesson. If students seem confused about this I will focus more on it during my
lesson, returning to the map more often to make connections between the things they see the
Powhatans doing and the things they see on the map.
Throughout the read aloud I will use informal formal assessments by asking students
questions about the book to test for understanding. These questions will be similar to the ones
used in the pre-assessment, in order to continue student thinking about how environment
influences the way people live. On page 4 there is a picture of the region where the Powhatans
lived. I will ask students, What can you tell about the environment of the Powhatan Indians by
looking at this picture? This will allow me to gain evidence of their ability to make inferences
about the Powhatans environment, and their understanding of how their environment influenced
the ways that they lived. On page 10 I will ask students to make a prediction about the seasons
that the Powhatans experience. This will allow me to gain evidence of their understanding that
the Powhatans climate is similar to ours in many ways because we both lived in Virginia.
Throughout the lesson I will also be guiding the students through a graphic organizer
about the Powhatans environment and its influence on the way they lived. This graphic
organizer will contain sections about: Shelter, Food, Clothing, and Climate. I will stop at various
points throughout the lesson and ask students about information they have learned that they
could add to the graphic organizer. This will allow me to see how well students understand the
way the Powhatans environment influenced the ways that they lived.

I will end the lesson with a small, informal summative assessment. I will ask students to
pick one way that the Powhatans environment influenced their lives and draw a picture. They
will then write one-two sentences explaining their picture. This will allow me to gain evidence
of students understanding of the topic. I will look at their pictures to see what stood out to them,
and who has confusion about how the environment influenced the Powhatans way of life.
Materials and Resources: (List here all materials that you will need in order to successfully
teach this lesson. Include technology and website links, texts, graphic organizers, student
handouts, physical manipulatives, etc.)

Powhatan Indians by Suzanne Morgan Williams

Picture of beaver building a dam to show students (Picture taken from
http://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/building-thedam.jpg)
Graphic Organizer (1 per student)
Paper for student drawings (1 per student)
Map of the where the Powhatan Indian Territory (Taken from The Powhatan Indians by
Melissa McDaniel)
Document Camera

Key Vocabulary and Definitions:

Powhatan Indians: A group of Native American tribes living along the Eastern coast of
Virginia in the 1600s.
Natural Resources: Something found in nature that can be used by people.
Environment: A persons physical surroundings

Lesson Procedures:
1. Introduction and goal orientation (Minutes 1-5):
The lesson will begin with the students sitting at their desks in pre-arranged table
groups. The teacher will explain that today we are going to be talking about how where a
person lives influences the ways that they live. The teacher will begin the activity with a
warm-up activity to get the students thinking about how environments influence the way
people live. The teacher will put up a picture of a beaver building a dam and ask the
students to raise their hands and share how the beavers environment influences the way
he lives. If necessary the teacher will prompt the students to think about how the beaver
uses the water and the trees to eat and live. The teacher will then explain that just like a
beavers environment influences the ways that they live, a persons environment
influences the ways that they live. The teacher will then tell the class that today we will
be learning about a group of Native Americans called the Powhatans and how their
environment influenced the way they lived.

2. Connecting to prior knowledge and experiences: (Questions or activities that help

students make links) (Minutes 5-15):
The teacher will remind students that they have been learning about maps. The teacher
will then ask: What can we learn from looking at a map? The teacher will then use the
document camera to show the class a map of the Powhatans territory taken from the book
The Powhatan Indians by Melissa McDaniel. The teacher will have the students do a ThinkPair-Share to answer the following question: What can we tell about the Powhatans
environment just by looking at this map? The students will share their answers with their
partner and then the teacher will ask a few students to volunteer and share with the class.

3. Tasks and activities: (What challenging tasks and activities will students engage in as
they construct knowledge, learn new skills or behaviors and develop understandings?):
The teacher will then hand out a graphic organizer to each student. She will explain that
they will be stopping and filling this out together as they go through the lesson. The teacher
will then begin reading aloud from Powhatan Indians by Suzanne Morgan Williams. She
will stop at the following places to ask questions and/or have students fill out the graphic
organizer. The teacher will fill out the graphic organizer along with the students to help them
follow along.

On page 4 there is a picture of a river, grassland, and trees that makes up part
of the Powhatans environment. The teacher will show students this picture
and ask them What can we tell about the Powhatans environment by looking
at this picture? (Minute 17)
On page 7 the teacher will pause and ask students if we have learned anything
about the Powhatans shelter to put in our graphic organizer. (Powhatans built
homes by bending trees to make a circular frame) (Minute 20)
On page 8 the teacher will pause and ask students if they have learned
anything about the Powhatans food to put in the graphic organizer. (The
Powhatans hunted, fished, and gathered berries and nuts.) (Minute 22)
On page 9 the teacher will pause and ask students if they have learned
anything about the Powhatans clothing to add to the graphic organizer. (The
Powhatans made clothing from animal skins and plants) (Minute 24)
Before reading page 10 the teacher will show students the header (Powhatan
Seasons) and ask students to make predictions about what the Powhatans
seasons are like, knowing the fact that the Powhatans lived in Virginia just as
we do. (Minute 26)

After reading page 11 the teacher will pause and ask the students if they have
learned anything about the Powhatans climate to add to the graphic organizer
(The Powhatans had four seasons, in the spring and summer they farmed and
gathered food that they would store for the winter.) (Minute 29)

4. Closure: (How will you wrap up the lesson and reinforce key ideas? Closure may include
some form of assessment or exit slip): (Minute 30-)
The teacher will end the lesson by reviewing the idea that the environment of the
Powhatans had a big impact on the way that they lived. She will then ask students to pick
one thing from the environment that the Powhatans used and draw a picture of it. They
should then write one to two sentences explaining what natural resource they picked and why
it was important for the Powhatans. The teacher will explain that students may use their
graphic organizer or pick another fact that they liked from the book.
Accommodations for individual differences: How will you modify the content (what is
learned), the process (how the content is mastered) or product (how the learning is observed and
evaluated) to support diverse learners? Describe additional supports that can be used for reteaching if needed, and a challenging extension for students for demonstrate mastery quickly or
show evidence of a lot of prior knowledge.
I will be using formative assessments throughout the lesson in order to check for student
understanding of the topic. If students are not able to clearly answer the questions in the warmup about how the beavers natural resources and environment influence the way he lives I will go
back and explicitly teach these terms to help for understanding. I would do this by writing the
terms on the board and asking students to help me write definitions of the words. I may also give
some examples and non-examples to help clear us any confusion. I will monitor student
answers during the map Think-Pair-Share to make sure that students are able to make appropriate
inferences from the map. If they are confused by this activity I will provide prompts such as:
What do you see on the map? Did the Powhatans live close to where we live? Can you use this
information to help you make some predictions about what their environment may have looked
like?
In order to help students that may become distracted or lost throughout the read aloud I
will provide the graphic organizer as a tool to help them follow along and pull out the essential
information. I will also use the document camera to fill out a copy of the graphic organizer with
the students. This will help the students who respond better to visual learning and will help
students to follow along with the lesson more clearly. I will also encourage students who seem
confused to reference the graphic organizer when completing the drawing activity at the end.
If some of the students demonstrate a quick mastery of this content or show evidence of a
lot of prior knowledge, I will give them the option of writing a paragraph about how the
Powhatans environment influenced their way of life rather than drawing a picture. I may also

ask them to peer-teach a struggling student if their mastery of the content is very high and they
are within close proximity to a student who is struggling.

Rationale for this lesson (Why did you organize your lesson as you did? Why did the sequence
of questions in the read aloud scaffold students understanding of key objectives? How do your
assessments align to your stated objectives?

The intro activity uses an animals environment to give students an example of

environment influencing the way something lives in a way that is more concrete and
easier understand. It will also orient student thinking towards the topic and scaffold their
thinking towards the ways the environment influences the way one lives.
The Think-Pair-Share is used to make connections to the unit on maps that students just
completed. It will first help students to make connections across units, but it will also get
students to make predictions about that days lesson and get them thinking even further
about the environment of the Powhatans and how that might influence the ways that they
live.
The text was selected as it provides many clear examples of the ways the Powhatans used
their environment in their daily lives, for things like shelter, food, and clothing. It links
up very clearly with the objectives of this lesson and provides examples of each to help
give students concrete understandings of these points.
The graphic organizer helps students to pull out and see clearly the main ideas of the text
and the lesson. It will help students to see the many ways the environment of the
Powhatans had an impact on their lives and organize this information in a clear and
helpful way. The graphic organizer will also help students to remain engaged in the
lesson and help them to better follow along with the book.
The drawing activity will be a quick way to check for student understanding of the topic.
It will give the students an opportunity to think critically and apply what they learned. It
will also allow me to check for student understanding of how the Powhatans used things
from their environment to live. I will be able to tell what stood out to them, which
students are struggling to grasp this concept. Additionally, my students really seem to
enjoy drawing so I think that this activity will be enjoyable for them.

The Powhatans
Shelter

Food

Clothes

Climate