Come To America!
Advertising A Colony
By
Heather Heinz
8th Grade U.S. History
Ellis Middle School
School District U-46
This learning was developed as part of the requirements for Aurora University/District U-46 graduate credit course
Design Problem Based Learning OEDC 6047 Summer 2006, under the guidance of instructor Richard Levine
Project-Based Learning
Unit Description
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Students will learn about different
colonies, communities and why people
chose to live in certain colonies over another.
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Students will learn about the hardships of people
when they came to America as well as the positives
and negatives of their locations.
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Students will be able to describe the adaptations
and changes the colonists made to the environment.
Goals and Curriculum Fit
Illinois Social Science Standards
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16D3a (US) Describe characteristics of different kinds
of communities in various sections of America during the
colonial/frontier periods.
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16D3b (US) Describe characteristics of different kinds
of families in America during the colonial/frontier periods.
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16E3a Describe how early settlers in the
U.S. adapted to, used and changed the
environment prior to 1818.
Essential Question
¾ How will you attract colonists to move and
settle into your colony?
Identifying, Representing and
Describing the problem
(Sub-essential questions)
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What type of government does your colony use?
What type of Religion does your colony
welcome?
Explain types of housing available.
Explain types of Education available.
Explain common jobs.
Explain characteristics of farmland.
Explain entertainment and other activities.
Create a physical map of the colony.
Interdisciplinary Considerations
¾ This project requires research and reading
skills. The English teacher could help
students with research skills, and the
Reading teacher could use non-fiction
articles about the colonies and
colonization to help familiarize the
students with life in the colonies.
Timeline
¾ The entire unit will take about 10 school days.
¾ Four full days will be spent in the library
researching with a possibility of a fifth day.
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All other work must be done outside of the
classroom or during work time in the
classroom.
Time Management for
Presentations
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We will devote 2 class periods to presenting the
project.
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Students will present their project to a small group
of 4 students.
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Each group must consist of 4 different colonies.
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Each student will be responsible for a peer
evaluation of the colonies that were presented in
his/her group.
Other Participants
and working outside
the classroom
¾ This project will not directly involve other
classrooms.
¾ Aside from the librarian, this project will not
directly involve others outside the classroom.
¾ Students are free to get help from parents
and to visit the local library for more research
information.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
¾ Knowledge—Students will identify and describe
characteristics of the colony.
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Comprehension—Students will explain required
information and give examples.
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Analysis—Students will create a Venn Diagram to
compare and contrast the different colonies.
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Synthesis—Students will create a map.
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Evaluation—Students decide why their
colony is the best choice for settlers and give
reasons to support that decision.
Target Audience
¾ Students will have to present their project
to a small group of their peers who will fill
out a peer evaluation form for each
presentation given.
¾ Students will also present their project to
the teacher.
Student Product
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Students will advertise their colony with the goal of
attracting more settlers.
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Students must address certain issues
of the time 1630—1750 (included on rubric).
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Students must write their information as if they are a
colonist living during that time period.
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Students should not make comparisons to today, or
use a past tense voice!
Student Product
Cont.
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Students will have to advertise a colony based on William
Penn and his advertising pamphlets.
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Students will need to entice other colonists with several
pieces of information about their chosen colony.
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Before students begin researching in the library, they will
be given a teacher-made Rubric with all the parameters
of the project.
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Students will also see examples of projects that have
been done by previous students.
Technologies
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Students will use the internet as well as books set
aside by the librarian to research their information.
See list of approved websites.
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Students will record their information in the form of
notes (this is to avoid copyright issues, so students won’t simply cut
and paste from the internet).
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Students will rearrange their information based on
the rubric provided by the teacher.
Technologies Cont.
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Students will create a pamphlet or poster with
their information. They may hand write or type
their information. They may use hand drawn
pictures or computer generated pictures.
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Students will present the product to a group of
peers within their class period and turn the final
product into the teacher for assessment.
Role of Students
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Each student is responsible for his or her own
colony project—this promotes active learning
because they have to research and decide
which information is important and useful.
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During the peer evaluation portion, each student
will be responsible for evaluating every student
in his or her group—this promotes active
learning because they will have to write down
information they learn from another student.
Students as Problem Solvers
¾ Students will be able to choose a colony
they would like to research and advertise.
¾ Students choose the type of
product they will create.
¾ Students will choose how to layout and
organize the information in their project.
Managing Student Groups
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Peer evaluation groups will be determined by the
teacher (each group will have 4 different colonies represented).
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Each student will play the same role within the
group—they will take turns being a listener or a
presenter.
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Students will not only listen to the presentation of the
other group members, but he/she will also be
responsible for filling out a peer evaluation form for
each colony presented.
Checkpoints
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I will check on students progress on a
daily basis using a checklist.
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Each research day, students should have the
recorded the required information for two of the
categories listed (it doesn’t matter in what order they get the
information).
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When I read the students’ information I will see what
they are missing and ask them why they don’t have
it—this will help me discover where they may be
having difficulties.
Checkpoints Cont.
¾ I will give assistance and suggestions to
those students who are having difficulties.
¾ Students will have classroom notes that
may assist their research as well.
Conceptual/Language Readiness
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Students have taken notes in class with
the teacher and discussed them to have
a general background of all the 13 colonies.
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Students will had compared and contrasted the
13 colonies in class and created a Venn Diagram.
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The Librarian is notified of the project
and given a copy of the rubric so that
she can be of assistance to the students
when they are researching.
Conceptual/Language Readiness
Cont.
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Students will view a power point presentation created by
the teacher comparing the colonies. They will take notes
along with the power point.
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The Librarian pulls all the books that pertain
to the project and puts them on a cart for the
students to use during each research day in
the library.
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The reference books in our school library are for the most
part at the correct level for our students to use and
comprehend.
Technical Readiness
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I will check to see which students have turned in
permission slips to use the internet at school.
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I will survey the students to see how much they know
about researching on the internet—the Librarian and
myself will be able to assist those who have less
experience.
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The approved websites for the students to use are
provided by the teacher in a hard copy for them to research
outside of school as well as put in a folder on the school
computers so they can just click on them directly.
Research Skills Readiness
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Students should have a little research
background from the previous school year.
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Librarian will spend about 15 minutes on the first
day going over with the students how to use
reference books to find their information.
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The approved websites are the only
websites that the students may use
during school.
Assessing Students and Evaluating
Products
¾ Active learning information can be found
with Role of students—slide 15.
¾ Expectations, objective and rubric
information can be found with Student
Product—slide 12.