Activity:

This inquiry has been conducted with students from 1 st through 5 th grade, using various levels of support and groupings. The time needed will vary, depending on the age of students and the reading abilities (time needed could vary from one to three weeks).

Make observations from the text. What do you notice?

1 st – 3 rd grades: Portions of texts can be read to the class or in small groups, with the teacher or students using sticky notes to mark evidence of views of land, nature, etc. Sticky notes can simply mark the place or contain a few words to mark the tracks of evidence. Daily, the reading work should end with a discussion. The teacher can then record evidence found by students on a large T-chart (see materials list).

4 th – 6 th grades: Students can be divided into two or more heterogeneous groups, with each group focusing on the view of colonists or Wampanoag beliefs. Each group can use sticky notes and a large graphic organizer to record evidence and their thinking. Sticky notes may include the phrase denoting the evidence and page number. Each day, evidence can be put on a large chart, with sticky notes attached to the appropriate box on a class chart. Alternatively, students can record information found on their sticky notes on individual charts.

Graphic Organizer (Use the sources to compare what you notice about the two cultures):

With younger students, information found should be added daily to the chart as the class examines both the Wampanoag secondary source and the colonist primary document. When both portions have been completed, the class can read through the entire chart. As a class, students fill out a large T-chart.

Older students can add to their individual charts as they work or at the end of the session. Students can then transfer the group’s observations on to a class T chart.

Discussion (Discuss the context and interpret); record discussion points on chart paper:

1. What do you notice about how the two groups viewed land? Wilderness? Woodlands? Animals? Religion? Ways of life?
   
   
2. As you read, did you find any hints about how the colonists viewed the Wampanoag? How the Wampanoag viewed the colonists?
   
3. How could the two groups differing views of land, etc., cause problems? How do these differing views help us to better understand the conflicts that did develop?

Lesson Extension

Copy and enlarge one or two a pages of the actual seventeenth century reproductions, so that students can examine the language, spelling, handwriting and punctuation.