|
Lesson 2: The Massachusetts Frontier: Turner
1 class period (85 minutes)
top of
page
| Key Content Ideas Taught in this Lesson |
Turner, at the turn of the 20th century, sets
out his theory of the impact of the settlement of the new frontier
lands on those who settled. It was during the period of his writing
that the frontier was expanding further westward still.
top of page
| Intended Learning Outcomes |
Understandings
Students will understand:
- the political, social, religious, and
economic world and national context in which the settlement of
Deerfield occurred.
- that there were increasingly in this
period competing political agendas, and competition for land,
power, and wealth in Deerfield.
Skills
Students will be able to:
- identify and articulate differing points
of view.
- use graphic organization skills to represent
conceptual understandings of land use and acquisition.
top of page
| In Preparation for Teaching |
Background Reading:
Cronon, William. Changes in the Land.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.
Foster, Stephen. The Long Argument: English
Puritanism and the Shaping of New England Culture, 1570 - 1700.
Chapel Hill: Published for the Institute of Early American History
and Culture, Williamsburg, VA, by the University of North Carolina
Press, c1991.
Kupperman, Karen. Settling with the Indians.
Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman, 1980.
Melvoin, Richard. New England Outpost.
New York: Norton, 1989.
Salisbury, Neal. Manitou and Providence.
New York: Oxford, 1982.
top of
page
Primary and Secondary Sources:
- Turner, Fredrick Jackson. "The
First Official Frontier of Massachusetts Bay". from The
Colonial Society of Massachusetts. 4 April 1914.
- Allen, David Grayson. Vacuum
Domicilium: The Social and Cultural Landscape of Seventeenth Century New England.
New England Begins. pp. 1-9.
- Information from this website: Turns of the Centuries Exhibit: Native Peoples - 1680-1720
- Map of the
Native Peoples in the Connecticut River Valley
Other:
- Atlases
- Overhead projector
- Newsprint
- Acetate
top of page
| Activities |
Materials in Context |
|
Activity 1
1. Determine that each student has a
copy on the Turner article.
2. Introduce the students to the Memorial
Hall website. Go to the Exhibit Section and review the Native
Peoples 1680-1720. Locate the Map of the Native Peoples
in the Connecticut River Valley.
3. Introduce students to mapping, a graphic
organizer.
For the mapping activity:
Mapping is a method of graphic
organizing which provides students with a visual method
of making connections to ideas found in the Allen article.
For this activity, begin by placing the words "empty
land" in a circle in the center of a large sheet
of newsprint. As the reading is being completed, link
each idea with the central item or an item, which it supports.
For example two connecting ideas to the empty land will
be represented by two circles which contain English and
Native Peoples connected to the main topic "empty
land." Following those subtopics, additional connected
topics can be made as "off shoots" of those
main topics until the entire article is mapped, representing
the main ideas found in this sophisticated article. A
student should be able to recall the thrust of the article
by looking at the completed activity.
4. Divide the students into two groups.
One group will map the Native Peoples of the Connecticut
Valley; the other to map the Turner article.
5. Share the mapping of the Turner article,
then the mapping of the content of the Native Peoples website.
6. As a class discuss that fact that
Turner states that the native peoples were a very real influence
on the mind and morals as well as the institutions of colonial
New England. Normal and exceptional relations occurred with
the puritan types of English colonist. What events would
constitute normal relations between these two groups? What
events would describe exceptional relations? How did these
interactions affect the mind, spirit, and morals of the
colonial institutions? Of the native peoples? Do you think
that this pattern of settlement repeated itself?
7. Homework assignment: Read the
article by David Grayson Allen Vacuum
Domicilium: The Social and Cultural Landscape of
Seventeenth Century New England
|
"The
First Official Frontier of Massachusetts Bay"
by Frederick Jackson Turner
Turns of the Centuries Exhibit: Native Peoples - 1680-1720
Map
of the Native Peoples in the Connecticut River Valley
Vacuum Domicilium:
The Social and Cultural Landscape of Seventeenth Century New England.
by David Grayson Allen
|
top of page
Use the student's homework assignment from Lesson
1 of the prototype of the development of a frontier village and
class participation as the means to assess the student's understanding.
top of page
|
