Claire Bartlett, Unit Plan, Virtual Field Trip to Jamestown Colony 3 rd

Grade
Background Information

Colony
Settlers
Jamestown location
What life looked like in a colony

Integration of Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to apply what they have seen during the virtual field trip
to Jamestown by constructing a letter/journal entry about their surroundings
as if they were an early settler.

Standards
Standard - 5.2.3.A
Identify personal rights and responsibilities.
Standard - 5.2.4.D
Describe how citizens participate in school and community activities.
Standard - 8.1.3.C
Conduct teacher guided inquiry on assigned topics using specified historical
sources.
NCSS Themes: Culture; Time, Continuity and Change; People, Places and
Environments; Individual Development and Identity; Individuals, Groups and
Institutions; Production, Distribution and Consumption; Civic Ideals and
Practices.

Anticipatory Set
To introduce this lesson and have students engaged I will be beginning this
lesson by walking in from the hallway dressed like an early settler of
Jamestown. I will pretend to be lost, like ive traveled through time and I will
ask my students questions:
What year is it?
Where am I?
Can you guess where Im from?
What makes you believe that I am from that place?
Would you like to discover the place where I am from?
After I ask students if they would like to discover the place where I am from I
will tell them that I will go find there teacher to accompany us on this long
journey. I will then step into the hallway and remove the clothes that I was
wearing over my regular clothes.

Procedures

 After I have changed back into my regular clothes, I will come back into

the classroom. I will then ask students if there was a visitor and to tell
me about her, I will then ask if she invited them to explore her home.
Students will then be prompted to take out their laptops. When they
have taken out their laptops they will be given a slip of old looking
paper with a URL
Students will go to this
(http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/jamestown/jamestownstandalone) website and scroll over the different pictures on the map to
show links to more information.
Students will have about 30 to 45 minutes to explore the website
When the timer goes off for the exploration time, students will be asked
to get into groups of 4 and discuss what they have seen during the
virtual field trip
After about 5 minutes of discussion students will be asked to share
what their group talked about with the whole class
I will then hand out another piece of paper with an assignment on it for
a journal or letter that the students will write as if they are new settlers
in Jamestown.
The letter/journal entry will have to include the following:
o How they arrived at Jamestown
o At least one thing they brought with them
o How did they trade or what type of industries did some settlers
try
o What happened to the land after the colonists arrived
Students will have time to complete their letters/journals

Differentiation

For a student with an orthopedic impairment I would allow the

letter/journal to be typed rather than hand written

For a student with ADHD that needs to move, I will allow for students to
move around the classroom during this entire lesson except during the
brief discussions.

Closure

Students will present their letters/journal entries in their groups of four

Formative / Summative Assessment

Students will be formally assessed for this activity based on a rubric,

graded by the teacher.

Materials / Equipment

 Jamestown settler outfit

Laptop
Tea stained paper with the URL to website and directions of what to do

when they get to the website on it

(http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/jamestown/jamestownstandalone)
Assignment page for letter/journal entry assignment
Rubric for grading assignment

Technology

Laptops
National geographic website
Reflection on Planning
Before teaching this lesson, I want to become extremely familiar with the
website for the virtual field trip so I can help point students in the appropriate
direction if they become lost or stuck, or if they believe they have finished but
have not seen everything there is to see on the website.
In planning this activity I thought about what would have grabbed my
attention as a young student and decided that my teacher coming in dressed
in funny clothes would have definitely made me interested and want to learn
more about why she was dressed that way. I also put some thought into what
type of assessment would create an authentic and exciting reason for children
to research and learn more about this place. I settled on letters/journal entries
because it requires students to take what they have read and then apply it to
create a fictional life for themselves.

Content Outline

Settler
Colony
Jamestown location

Lesson Plan Elements

Lesson Plan Details

Point Value
Total /30
/2

Integration of Learning Outcomes/Objectives

/2

Standards PA Civics, History, Economics, Geography. PA

Common Core (Language Arts and/or Math), NCSS

/2

Anticipatory Set

/2

Procedures

/4

Differentiation

/2

Closure

/2

Formative/Summative Assessment of Students (P-12)

/2

Materials/Equipment, Resources, Citation of Sources

/4

Technology

/2

Reflection on Planning

/3

Submitted peer feedback and final on time

/1

Content Outline

/2
Total