Teacher's Guide

Procedure

PREPARATION: Teacher Planning (one planning period)

Create two identical primary source packets for each region. Print out all resources on card stock to make the sources look authentic. The sources to be printed are linked from the resources page.

• New England Colonies
• Middle Atlantic Colonies
• Southern Colonies

DAY ONE ACTIVITY: Warm Up with Students (one class period)

Discover the American Memory collections through a series of engaging activities. These activities can be done with the whole class or you can use computer lab time and have the students self-guide themselves through the activities. Select a primary source from each region (a map of the region is especially good) to show the class.

DAY TWO ACTIVITIES:

STEP ONE: Class Discussion (10-15 minutes)
How does environment affect where a person lives?

Discuss with students how people adapt to the environment of a particular location or relocate to suit their needs/wants. For example, people who live in the midwest are most likely farmers. Most actors move to California and New York. Why?

Sample questions for your students:

• If you wanted to become a movie star, where would you live?
• If you wanted to be a lobster fisherman, what region of the country would suit your needs?
• Where would a dairy farmer most likely live?

At the end of this class discussion, give each student a copy of the Lesson Outline and rubric to serve as a guide throughout the activity.

STEP TWO: 20-30 minutes
Divide students into 6 groups; 2- New England Colonies Region, 2- Middle Colonies Region, 2- Southern Colonies Region. Distribute primary source packets. Assign each group member at least one source to examine and analyze using the Guide to Examining and Analyzing Primary Sources worksheet.

STEP ONE: In groups, share findings about the primary sources in your packet. Fill out the Regional Analysis worksheet as a group.

STEP TWO: Based on the information in the Regional Analysis worksheet, students write a letter to a sibling "back home" describing his/her experience in the new country and convincing the sibling to join him/her.

STEP THREE: Students exchange letters with a member of each of the other regions and fill out the graphic organizer on similarities and differences of the three regions.

Evaluation

Extensions:

Students search the American Memory collections for more sources that depict/describe the region.

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