The Farber Gravestone Collection is an unusual resource documenting the sculpture on over 9,000 gravestones most of which were made prior to 1800. Many of the tombstones are from the 1600s. Why not do something different for your "day before Halloween" lesson this year and have students look through these primary source artifacts tell us something about some of the people who lived at that time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbhR1f_L_xE
In what at first looks like another overly-ambitious lesson, the resources provided with this lesson make it clear that it can absolutely be done. valuable critical thinking skills and historical analysis are exercised in this lesson. Be sure to look through the resources provided, there is enough material here to run the lesson right out of the box.
Students will practice using historical thinking skills including sourcing, close reading, contextualizing and corroborating to evaluate John Smith's Map of Virginia (1612) by comparing and contrasting Smith's map with Augustine Herrman's Map (1670) and a map of Maryland today. Students will draw conclusions about the reliability of the Smith map as a primary source and explore the changes in Maryland through an analysis of these maps.
The purpose of this lesson is for students to gain an understanding of the establishment of a democratic government in America by studying Jamestown, Plymouth, and St. Mary's City to identify how early settlements adapted and survived in America.
Either run the whole lesson, or just pick out the Mayflower Compact analysis materials
