1. Ritz1
Assure Method Unit Plan
Introduction: This Unit Plan will be teaching students about European Exploration which led to
Colonial America. This unit will center itself around using 21st Century technology, Web 2.0
applications, and collaboration between students and the teacher.
I. Analyze Learners
My Unit Plan was written for students in a 4th grade classroom. The
students would be between 9 and 10 years old. My goal is to cover who
and when each part of North America was discovered, when the first
colonies were established, and how colonists created a life for themselves
in the different colonies.
II. State Objectives http://wveis.k12.wv.us/Teach21/public/cso/cso.cfm
 SS. O. 4. 5. 1 Create timelines to sequence and infer connections
between events in major historical periods in U.S. history (e.g., discovery,
colonization, revolution).
 SS. O. 4. 5. 5 List the European explorers of the 15th and 16th
centuries, explain their reasons for exploration and the information gained
from their journeys and then show how their travels in North America
affected both North America and the rest of the world.
 SS. O. 4. 5. 12 Select, analyze, interpret and use information from
various sources for reconstructing the past (e.g., documents, letters, maps,
photos, newspaper articles) and prepare short reports that explain who,
what, when, where, how and why events occurred as they did.
 SS. O. 4. 3. 5 Summarize how slavery and indentured servitude
influenced the early economy of the United States.
 SS. O. 4. 5. 6 Compare and contrast community life and family roles
in various regions and social classes of colonial America.
 SS. O. 4. 5. 11 Explain the similarities and differences in
backgrounds, motivations and occupational skills between people in the
English settlements and those in the French and Spanish settlements.
 SS. O. 4. 4. 2 Analyze and assess the effects of and explain how
people adapted to geographic factors (e.g., climate, mountains, bodies of
water) on the following:
o Transportation routes
o Settlement routes and population density

2. Ritz2
o Culture (e.g., jobs, food, clothing, shelter, religion, government)
o Interactions with others (local, national, global)
III. Select Media and Materials
 Smart Board
 Bulletin Board
 Maps
 Globes
 Board Games
 PowerPoint
 Wiki for the Classroom
 Textbooks
 Computers
 Handbook
 Document Camera
 Websites:
o http://cybersleuth-kids.com/americanhistory/Chapter1/earlysettlements.htm
This website is geared toward students where they can learn about how the first colonists
came over to America and what they saw when they landed in the foreign land.
o http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/history/index.html
This website is geared toward the students where they can interact with the website.
Students can take quizzes to see if they would survive in Colonial America, become a
captain of a voyage across the Atlantic, and dress up a colonist in their clothing of the
time.
o http://cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/History/US_History/Colonial_Period/index.htm
This website is geared toward the students where they can choose link that directs them
to a description of some of the major events that happened during Colonial America.
These links include: The Boston Tea Party, Jamestown, and the Thirteen Colonies.
o http://www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Explorers.html
This website is for students where they can click on the different links and find out about
the explorers, and there are also interactive sites that can be visited.
o http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/explorer.html
This website is for teachers; here teachers can click on each of the explorers’ names and
get information about them.
o http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson162.shtml
This website is geared toward teachers and can be used a guide for different activities for
the students and lessons ideas for the teacher.
o http://www.besthistorysites.net/USHistory_Colonial.shtml
This website is geared toward teachers and is whole page of different links that can be
chosen for different events of Colonial America and the history of Colonial America.
o http://www.teachervision.fen.com/american-colonies/teacher-resources/6606.html

3. Ritz3
This website is geared toward teachers and is a resource page. Here teachers can find
different arts and crafts, articles from personal accounts, and biographies of colonists.
IV. Utilize Media and Materials
Day 1 – SS. O. 4. 5. 5
The first day European Exploration will be introduced to the students.
Students will be taught about the different explorers from each country and what
their contribution to exploration was. After the lesson plan is over students will
receive the Age of Exploration worksheet which will be completed at the end of
the class. Students will work on this worksheet by themselves for the first 10
minutes to test their knowledge then they can get into groups and compare
answers. Students will be assigned to read the chapter on exploration for
homework and write down any facts they think are important.
Day 2 – SS. O. 4. 5. 12 and SS. O. 4. 5. 5
The first half of class will be dedicated to going over the chapter on
exploration and comparing each student’s facts that they thought were interesting.
The second half of the class will be focused on using maps and photos of the
different explorers and the routes they traveled. The student will be separated into
groups and will be given an explorer. Students will be given a blank map of the
world and will need to draw the travel route of their explorer. The students will
also need to provide what year the exploration took place, where the explorer was
headed, and where the explorer ended up. Students will also have to put the photo
of their explorer on the map (which will be provided) and provide a 2-3 sentence
paragraph about the explorer. This group project will take up the whole rest of the
class and half of the next so students will not have homework.
Day 3 – SS. O. 4. 5. 12 and SS. O. 4. 5. 5
Each group project will present in front of the class while the other groups
take notes of the information that is being given. After the projects are finished
timelines will be passed out of the all the exploration dates and the class will be
introduced to Colonial America by the timeline worksheet. Students will be
challenged by having a knowledge quiz on Colonial America through the Student
Response System; students will not be graded on this but will be awarded
participation points for doing the quiz. After each students answers the correct
answer will appear on the screen. I will also hand out the Thirteen Colonies
worksheet; this is strictly to test the student’s knowledge and will not be graded.
After the quiz and the Colonial America worksheet we will go over the worksheet
as a class and students may answer if they think they know the right answer or
have an answer.

4. Ritz4
Day 4 – SS. O. 4. 4. 2
Students will be introduced to the New England, Middle, and Southern
colonies, along with names and founding dates of each of the states. The
interactive bulletin board will be used for this and students will match the name of
the colony with the state on the map. Interactions between the colonies will also
be introduced like what they used for transportation, which the colonists
interacted with each other, and what the colonist did for jobs, food, and clothing.
After seeing the bulletin board and learning about the colonies students will be
quizzed on the Smart Board. For homework students must read the chapter in the
text and highlight or take notes. This reading will be discussed during the next
class and students will be able to earn participation points.
Day 5 – SS. O. 4. 5. 6
The chapter on colonies will be discussed and notes will be compared
between the students and here they will be able to earn participation points.
Students will be introduced to the different family roles and social classes in each
of the different sections of the colonies. The class will be split into three groups
and each will be assigned a section of the Thirteen Colonies (i.e. New England,
Middle, and Southern). Each group will create a podcast of their section of the
colonies including family roles and social classes of each of the colonies. Each
team member must talk at least 3 times and they podcast needs to be creative; if
the student wish to they may take it home and work on it if it is not finished in
class.
Day 6 – SS. O. 4. 5. 6 and SS. O. 4. 3. 5
Each podcast will be listened to and students are expected to take notes
from what they hear. Next slavery in the colonies will be introduced to the
students and how it affected the colonies. In order to get the full effect of what
slaves’ endured students will read excerpts of personal experiences by slaves and
write a short response on what they thought (i.e. whether or not they felt
sympathy for them or if they what was being done to the slaves was right). This
exercise will be done on blogger and at the end of the Unit Plan students will
write a reflection paper on what they learned during the Unit Plan and what they
liked/disliked. This will all be done in class then peer reviewed and turned into
the teacher.
Day 7 – SS. O. 4. 5. 11
The last day of the class English, French, and Spanish settlements will be
compared with each other. A PowerPoint will be provided on this and discussed

5. Ritz5
during the first part of the class. Students will once again be separated into groups
and assigned a country. Students are expected to create a poster describing their
countries settlement and will be documented by camera. Students will have to
interact and speak to get full credit. A study guide for the whole unit will also be
handed out and worked on in groups. This will help the students prepare for the
assessment to come. There will be sometime left in class to work on the study
guide and students may use their fellow classmates for help.
Day 8 – Computer Lab
During this class period students will go to the computer lab and explore
the different websites about the unit. Worksheets will be provided with the
websites on them and students have to choose at least two websites to explore and
do two activities on each website. After the student has completed the activities
they are to be printed out and turned into the teacher. For extra credit students can
visit all four sites and do two activities for each, this can be taken home and done
if class time does not permit. Students may work with a partner for this
assignment. Here the students will write their reflection paper on blogger of what
they thought about the unit.
V. Require Learner Participation
To keep the learners attention I will provide many hands on activities to
keep the class fun and interesting. There will be many hand outs and
worksheets that will allow the students to work in groups of 2 or
sometimes 4 and collaborate with each other. For one day of the lesson
plan a board game will be provided for each group of students to play for
half of class. Student will also interact with the interactive bulletin board
on the smart board. One arts and crafts project will also be provided for
the class for half of the period. For extra credit students can dress up as a
colonist for one day and state to the class which colony they are from and
why they chose this colony.
VI. Evaluate and Revise
Students will not just be evaluated at the end of the unit but also during the
unit with worksheets, group projects, and quizzes. Students will also be
tested through the Student Response System and the Smart Board. As one
big last project students will create their own colony (i.e. name of colony,
where it will be, religion if any, crops, trade, etc). This project will be
presented to the class and will be documented by camera. One big
assessment will be administered at the end of the unit which will include

6. Ritz6
matching, true or false questions, multiple choice, and one short answer
question. A bonus question will also be added to the test of one interesting
fact that was taught over the unit.