MCLA Blog

The Shaping Role of Place

“connecting  local African American History and Culture to the  American story”

Shaping Role of Place Home |    NEH Curriculum Project

This unit will help students gain an understanding of what life was like for European and African American people living in America during the Colonial Period and during the years immediately following the Revolutionary War.

Through a variety of activities, including reading biographical material about local figures who lived during that time, site visits to historical landmarks, map reading, class discussions, etc. students will be able to relate to these figures and develop an understanding of what their lives and times were like, how they became who they were, and their effect on the people around them and those who followed.
I hope to integrate as many curriculum areas as possible. My educational philosophy is that all learning activities should be varied, “hands on”, and reflective as much as possible. Activities should be designed so that the learner is actively involved and can see the sequence and interconnectedness of the activities, events, and concepts.
The primary curricular links will be between Language Arts (ELA Standard 13 - Non Fiction) and Social Studies( History/Social Sciences Standards 3.1, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.11, and 3.12).
I became interested in this project, initially, because of a personal interest in local history, but also because, as a Third Grade Teacher, the Social Studies Frameworks mandate that we study Colonial America, including Massachusetts and local history. For the past few years, my colleagues and I have been developing our units, but had not gotten beyond the settlement of Plimoth Plantation. We had not done anything with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Puritans, or Westward expansion. Local history had been dealt with in a limited way by Second Grade briefly touching on “Colonial Life” (field trips to the Dan Raymond and John Ashley houses, with presentations on clothing and tools, and a limited study of Mumbet, as an historical figure, but not in depth). The varied make up of the population - and in particular the slavery issue was hardly touched.
I felt that this project would help me to better meet the intent of the frameworks and present our students with more in depth study and understanding of the era (and in particular, the role of early African Americans who lived at the time.)