Welcome
Understanding Goals
Introductory Performances
Historian Skill: Separating Fact From Myth
Corresponding Online Activity: Introductory Sequence, Home Page, Fact
or Myth?
Guided Inquiry Performances
Historian Skill: Identifying and Analyzing Primary Sources
Corresponding Online Activity: The Evidence
Historian Skill: Making Educated Guesses Using Cultural Clues
Corresponding Online Activities: The Wampanoag People; The English Colonists
Historian Skill: Considering Multiple Points of View
Corresponding Online Activity:The Path to 1621
Culminating Performances
Corresponding Online Activity: Share What You Have Discovered
Historian's Log
Student Graphic Organizers
Educational Standards
Teaching for Understanding
Resources
Bibliography
includes Plimoth Plantation publications and related web sites
As you work through this guide, you and your students will use the skills of historians to peel away the layers of myth and misconception surrounding “The First Thanksgiving” and discover what might really have happened during the fall of 1621. Along the way, you and your students will explore the differences between history and the past, and challenge your own ideas about history. Be prepared; what you discover may surprise you!
Over the last several years, experts at Plimoth Plantation have done a lot of research and thinking about the event that is commonly called “The First Thanksgiving.” We were surprised at what we learned! We are sharing our new-found knowledge through a special Thanksgiving exhibition at Plimoth Plantation (Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth, and Meaning), two children’s books, the You Are the Historian online learning center (see below), and this teacher’s guide.
We are proud of these products, and also of the process that led to their creation. True to the mission of Plimoth Plantation, these products explore the events of 1621 from the perspectives of both the Wampanoag and the English colonists. This could not have been done without the collaboration of a broad team of people, including members of the Wampanoag community, teachers, historians, and Plimoth Plantation staff.
Good luck with your investigation! We hope that you and your students enjoy using this guide, and that you begin to look at Thanksgiving in a whole new way.
|
Sincerely, |
|
Kim VanWormer | |
Nancy Eldredge |
UG 1: Students will understand
how historians use multiple primary sources and educated guesswork to research the past and create history.
Student Version: How do
historians research the past? How do historians create history?
UG 2: Students will understand
how the Wampanoag and the English colonists of 1621
represented distinct cultures with their own points of view.
Student Version:
How are the cultures of the Wampanoag and the English colonists similar and
different? Why might the Wampanoag and the English colonists have had different
thoughts about the harvest celebration of 1621?
UG 3: Students
will understand how the 17th-century English colonists and the
Wampanoag may have interacted during the harvest celebration of 1621.
Student version:
What happened during the harvest celebration of 1621? What did the English
colonists do? What did the Wampanoag do? What did they do together?
Was the celebration a thanksgiving?
UG 4: Students will understand
how to respectfully celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.
Student Version: How do
I celebrate Thanksgiving in a respectful way? How do I encourage others how
to celebrate in a respectful way?
Understanding Goals: 1, 3, 4
Materials
KWL chart
Books, pictures, or other contemporary representations of “The First Thanksgiving”
Large sheet of paper
Markers
Setting the Scene
Explain to students that they will be investigating “The First Thanksgiving”
using the same skills that historians use.
Introductory Activities
Part 1
Ask: What does the word history
mean? What is a historian?
Discuss the various definitions
students come up with. As a class, come up with one definition for each word
to use for the rest of the unit. Post these definitions on the wall.
Part 2
Ask: What do you think you know about “The First Thanksgiving”?
What do you want to know about “The First Thanksgiving”?
Have students split into
groups and fill in the KWL Chart about the origins of Thanksgiving.
At this time, they should complete only the first two columns (What I Think
I Know and What I Want to Know) and save
What I Have Learned for Culminating Performances.
Discuss how a historian has to take his or her preconceptions into account when developing ideas about a historical event. The What I Think I Know column represents the class’s preconceptions. The What I Would Like to Know column represents the questions students would like answered. Create a class version of the KWL chart to use for the rest of the unit.
Guided Inquiry Online
Prompt: Your task
is to investigate whether the story of “The First Thanksgiving” represents
what really happened. As you complete this activity, keep your questions from
the KWL chart in mind.
Students should log on to the site
, experience the opening flash sequence, and become comfortable
with how to use the Home page and how to navigate the site.
Students should complete the online activity Fact or Myth?
Guided Inquiry Offline
Discuss the What I Think
I Know and What I Would Like to Know columns on the class KWL chart. Have
the class identify at least one piece of information that they thought was
fact but now know is not true.
Ongoing Assessment
Have them record
all of their new knowledge in the What I Have Learned column on the class
KWL chart. Have them review the What I Think I Know column and develop new
questions for the What I Want to Know column.
Their new entries
in the columns should show that students are challenging their preconceptions
about Thanksgiving and beginning to separate fact from myth, and that they
are ready to find out more.
Understanding Goals: 1, 3
Materials
Objects, written information,
or stories about a recent event that happened at your school or in your town
or city
KWL chart
Primary Sources 3*2*1 Graphic Organizer
Text Version of the Winslow Letter
Primary Source Organizer
CLASS ONE
Setting the Scene
Explain to students that
historians believe that most of the story of “The First Thanksgiving” is a
myth that people started telling more than 200 years after the event is said
to have occurred. Remind the class that history is only a historian’s view
of the past, a view that can be influenced by a historian’s preconceptions.
Therefore, instead of taking current historians at their word, the class’s
task is to use their historian skills to figure out their own answers to the
following questions:
What parts of the story
of “The First Thanksgiving” are true?
What parts are false?
What really happened in
the fall of 1621 between the English colonists and the Wampanoag?
Explain that a historian’s
first step is to find out whether there is any record of the event in question.
Introductory Activities
Part 1
Identify a major event
that happened recently at your school or in your town or city. Have students
bring in any items they think would help historians in the future figure out
what happened at this event. Have the students create a written or oral description
of what they brought in.
Share the definition of
primary source with the class. Explain that historians, to make sure
they are getting the whole story, look for multiple sources when researching
people and events from the past.
Divide the class in half
and have one group take a “gallery walk” to view and discuss the other group’s
items. During the walk, have students use the Primary Source Organizer to place the items into the
appropriate primary-source category. Have groups switch roles and repeat the
activity.
Discuss the results.
Ask: Which categories have more or fewer items? Was any item not a primary source?
Ask: What do these sources reveal about what happened at the event? What can we not find out about the event using these sources?
Part 2
Ask: What are some stories that have been passed down
in your family? What are some stories that have been passed down in your community?
Discuss oral tradition. Explain that for many years, historians did not treat oral tradition as an accurate source of information. Now, historians know that there are many cultures that choose to record their history in this way instead of (or in addition to) writing.
Ask: What are some stories that you could tell about the local event? How would you tell your story if you were going to tell someone who was not there, and you wanted the person to know as much about what happened as possible?
Have students add these stories to the Spoken Words column of the Primary Source Organizer.
Guided Inquiry Online
Prompt: Your task is to investigate “what really happened”
at the harvest celebration of 1621 using all available sources. Keep
in mind your questions from the KWL class chart. Keep
in mind also what you now know about primary sources and how historians
use them.
Students should complete
the online activity The Evidence.
Guided Inquiry Offline/Ongoing Assessment
Have students complete the Primary Sources 3*2*1
Graphic Organizer as they work online or directly after they have finished
the online activities.
Have students return to the class KWL chart and record new knowledge in the What I Have Learned column. Discuss new questions about what happened in 1621 as well as those that are still left unanswered. New entries should show that students are clearly separating fact from myth, understanding how to use primary sources, and developing new ideas about what happened at the harvest celebration of 1621.
CLASS TWO
Introductory Activities
Choose three of the entries
from the students’ Primary Source Organizers from Class One.
Ask: What if historians in the future were able to find only these three things? Would they be able to get a complete picture of what really happened at the event? What would they be missing?
Guided Inquiry Offline
Part 1
Have students (individually,
in groups, or as a class) write the story of “what really happened” at the
harvest celebration of 1621 using only the information from the sources
presented online. Students may find it helpful to use the text-only versions
of the Winslow letter and the corresponding post-its.
Have students (in pairs,
in groups, or as a class) provide peer feedback on each other’s stories. After
feedback, have students make corrections and/or additions to their stories
as necessary.
Part 2
Have students compare their
completed story or stories of the harvest celebration of 1621 to stories and
images of “The First Thanksgiving” discussed in the lesson Separating Fact from Myth.
Ask: What are the similarities between the story you
wrote about the harvest celebration of 1621 and the myths of “The First Thanksgiving”?
What are the differences?
Students may wish to use a Venn diagram
to organize their responses.
Ongoing Assessment
Return to the class KWL
chart. Have students record new knowledge in the What I Have Learned
column. Discuss new questions about what happened
in 1621 as well as those that are still left unanswered. New entries
should show that students have a clear perception
of how to use primary sources, have developed a basic understanding of how
the Wampanoag and the English colonists may have interacted during
the harvest celebration of 1621, and are eager to gain the additional skills
necessary for creating a comprehensive history of this event.
Understanding Goals: 1, 2, 3
Materials
Venn Diagram
The Wampanoag and
the English Colonist Cultural Charts
Text Versions of The Wampanoag and The
English Colonists Pages
CLASS ONE
Setting the Scene
Explain that historians may never find primary sources that
tell them everything that happened during the three days of the harvest celebration
of 1621. In order to get a more complete picture of an event, historians often
have to make their best guesses about what may have happened. Historians call
these guesses “educated guesses” because in order to make their guesses, they
must educate themselves about all facets of the event. They start by looking
for “cultural clues” to help them understand what may have actually happened.
Introductory Activities
Part 1
Have students think about
their most recent birthday celebration.
Explain that the tradition of having a birthday is something that most of the world recognizes. However, birthdays are honored and celebrated in very different ways depending on the culture of the person celebrating. Define tradition as “thoughts or behaviors that are part of a culture and passed down over time.” Define culture as “the ways of living and thinking, as well as the traditions, of a certain group of people.”
Have students think about
the culture(s) they are a part of.
Have students identify
one element of how they celebrate their birthday that is related to their
culture(s).
Have students compare and
contrast the elements they have chosen.
Teacher’s Note: You way also want to have you your students compare their birthday celebrations with those from other cultures around the world. www.birthdaycelebrations.net is a good place to begin researching different international birthday traditions.
Discuss how culture can affect what happens at an event and also affect how that event is interpreted by the participants.
Guided Inquiry Online
Prompt: Before historians look for specific “cultural clues”
to help them figure out what may have happened at an event, historians need
to get a good idea of the culture as a whole.
Students should complete the online activities The Wampanoag People and The English Colonists.
Ongoing Assessment
Return to the class KWL
chart. Record new knowledge in the What I Have Learned
column. Discuss what questions are still left unanswered. New entries in the
columns should show that students are incorporating their understanding of
culture and its influence on an event, and developing an appreciation for
the similarities and differences between the cultures of the Wampanoag and
the English colonists.
CLASS TWO
Introductory Activities
Explain to students that they will be predicting the weather for later in the day without using a weather report. They will only be able to use their senses and their previous knowledge.
First, have students look around them in the classroom. Then have them look out a window. Finally, if time and conditions allow, have the class go outside. Each time, ask the following questions.
Ask: What will the weather be later today? What helped you make your decision?
Have students explain their answers and point out the things around them that supported their decisions.
Have each student record a final prediction of what the weather will be later that day.
Explain that each time they answered the question What will the weather be later today? they were making an educated guess based on their previous knowledge and on clues they were finding in their environment. The more information they were able to gather (by looking out the window and then going outside), the more educated their guesses became.
Discuss their final predictions and compare the similarities and differences. Compare their predictions with those of the experts.
Teacher’s Note: You may wish to use www.weather.com or www.wunderground.com for local weather information.
Explain that just like well-written history, the weather reports on TV or in the newspaper are not all facts. The reports represent highly sophisticated educated guesses that have been discussed and checked for accuracy by professionals. With today’s technology, weather predictions are becoming increasingly accurate; however, anyone who has not brought an umbrella and then has been rained upon knows that weather forecasting is still an educated guess.
Guided Inquiry Online
Students should be divided into “expert” groups: food/shelter/clothing (1),
daily life of men/boys (2), daily life of women/girls (3), leadership (4), ways
of giving thanks and other customs (5), interactions with other cultures (6).
Each expert group will look for cultural clues for their particular category
when they go online. Students may find it useful to supplement their online
time with the text-only versions of The Wampanoag and
The English Colonists pages.
Prompt: Let’s go back online and do the activities again. This time, look specifically for “cultural clues” that will help you develop a more complete picture of what may have happened during the three days of the harvest celebration of 1621. Use The Wampanoag Cultural Chart and The English Colonist Cultural Chart to organize the clues.
Students should complete the online activities The Wampanoag People and The English Colonists.
Guided Inquiry Offline
Part 1
Create a Wampanoag Cultural
Chart and an English Colonist Cultural Chart to be used with the entire class.
Have each expert group add the information it has collected to these class
charts.
Have students (alone, in groups, or as a class) use the information from the class cultural charts to complete a Venn diagram comparing the cultural clues that may have influenced how the Wampanoag and the English colonists interacted during the harvest celebration of 1621.
Have students (alone, in groups, or as a class) make educated guesses, based on the information they collected, about what may have happened during the three days of the harvest celebration of 1621.
Part 2
Have students revise their
story of the harvest celebration of 1621 based on the new information they have collected
and the educated guesses they have made about how the cultures of the Wampanoag
and the English colonists may have influenced
what happened during the harvest celebration. Students could also illustrate
their story based on the images put forth on The Wampanoag and The English Colonists pages.
Have students (in pairs, in groups, or as a class) use their cultural charts and their Venn diagrams to provide peer feedback on each other’s stories. After feedback, have students make corrections and/or additions to their stories as necessary.
Ongoing Assessment
Return to the class KWL chart. Record new knowledge in the What I Have Learned column. Discuss what questions are still left unanswered.
New entries in the columns should show that students are incorporating
their understanding of culture and the difference between myth, primary source
information, and educated guesses into their ideas of what happened at the
harvest celebration of 1621.
Understanding Goals: 1, 2, 3
Materials
KWL Chart
Setting the Scene
Explain that historians try not only to present what happened
at an event but also to reveal how the event may have affected the people
involved. However, if participants did not leave written or oral accounts
of the event, there is no way for a historian to
be sure how they felt about that event. A historian can use primary source
information; “cultural clues”; participants’ age, gender, and geographic location;
as well as records of similar experiences to make educated guesses about participants’
points of view.
Introductory Activities
Part 1
Have the class form a circle.
Place a large object that is not symmetrical, such as a stuffed animal or
a chair, in the middle of the circle. Have students draw only the side of
the object that they can clearly see.
Have students compare their completed drawings.
Explain that each of the drawings represents a different point of view. Even if two students were drawing the same side, their drawings are different.
Discuss whether or not someone would get a complete picture of the object if the person only looked at one of the drawings, or two, and so on.
Explain that just as historians look for multiple primary sources, historians try to uncover as many points of view as possible about an event to be sure they have the whole picture.
Part 2
Have students create a
timeline of the previous school day. Through drawings, images, or text, have
each student personalize the timeline to highlight events that are personally
meaningful. Post the timelines on the wall and have students look at each
other’s work. You may also want to create a timeline of your own to contrast
with those of the students.
Ask: Why are the timelines different?
Discuss the fact that the time passed in a standard manner, yet each student has his or her own point of view on the day’s events.
Choose one event that many students included, such as lunch.
Ask: What did you eat? Did you do anything besides eat? Who was with you? What were you thinking about? How did you feel?
Have students write a brief paragraph and/or create a drawing answering these questions.
Discuss how students’ actions, feelings, and thoughts are similar or different based on their individual points of view.
Guided Inquiry Online
Prompt: Your task is to figure out what the points of
view of the individual Wampanoag and English Colonists may have been on the
harvest celebration of 1621. Keep in mind the “cultural clues” from the lesson
Making Educated Guesses Using Cultural Clues as you
uncover how the Wampanoag and English colonists may have interacted before 1621
and how they may have felt about their interactions.
Students should complete the online activity The Path to 1621.
Guided Inquiry Offline
Have students revise their
story of what happened in 1621. Students should write the story from the point
of view of a Wampanoag leader; an English colonial leader; or an ordinary
English colonial or Wampanoag man, woman, girl, or boy who may have attended
the 1621 harvest celebration.
Have each student trade
his or her story with another student who wrote from a different point of
view. Students should be able to identify at least three elements of their
version that differ from the version written from a different point of view.
Ongoing Assessment Have students return to the class KWL chart and fill in the What I Have Learned column. Entries should reflect an understanding of point of view and what the points of view of the Wampanoag and the English colonists may have been during the harvest celebration of 1621. If there are still questions that have not been answered about what happened at the harvest celebration of 1621, you may want to allow time for students to revisit certain areas of the lessons or the online activities and/or have students explore additional resources to answer these questions.
Understanding Goals: 1, 2, 3, 4
Materials
KWL chart
Books, pictures, or other
contemporary representations of “The First Thanksgiving”
Setting the Scene
Explain that it is a historian’s job to share what she or he
has discovered about the past. Historians share what they have learned in
many different ways, such as speaking to the public, writing articles and
books, designing museum exhibits, and developing educational web resources
such as this one!
Introductory Activity
Part 1
Discuss how the students now feel about history and their role
as historians.
Revisit the students’ definitions
of history and historian
from the lesson Fact or Myth?
Have students (individually,
in groups, or as a class) finalize new definitions based on their work in
the other lessons in this guide. Compare these definitions to those in the
Glossary of the online Fact or Myth activity
and to those in a dictionary. Post the new class definitions for history and historian on the wall of the classroom.
Part 2
Have the students finalize
the What I Have Learned column of the KWL chart.
Discuss the differences between what the students thought they knew (What I Think I Know) at the beginning of the unit and what they have now learned (What I Have Learned).
Discuss that many people still believe in the myth of “The First Thanksgiving.” Brainstorm ways of letting others know the truth. (Some of these may be able to be used as additional culminating activities.)
Culminating Activities Online
Prompt: Historians must think about a lot of different things
when putting together a museum exhibit. The big question they must answer
is How will we make sure the public understands what we want them to understand?
To answer this question, they must
ask themselves other questions, including the following: Will we choose a theme and why? What images or other
objects will we include? What will we write?
Your task is to keep
in mind everything you have learned so far as you go online to write
an exhibit label or develop an exhibit of your own.
Culminating
Activities Offline [Multiple Suggestions]
Have students create their own offline museum exhibit using the Culminating
Performances Image Library and their work for the online activity Share
What You Have Discovered. Have students (alone, in groups, or as a class)
pick an exhibit theme, write an introduction for the exhibit, select the images
to be included, and write the label text for each image, describing the image
and analyzing it as it relates to their chosen theme.
Have students bring in contemporary images, books, etc. that represent the story of “The First Thanksgiving.” If possible, share with them some of the resources that you or your school currently uses to teach about Thanksgiving. Have students (alone, in groups, or as a class) select one of the resources and edit it based on their new understanding of what happened in 1621. If students select a text, they should also focus on the illustrations. In addition, you may want to have students share their suggested changes in a letter to the author or illustrator of the resource.
Have students share the stories of the harvest celebration of 1621 that they wrote and revised through the lessons in this guide. They could send the story to their school or local paper, or read and discuss the story with other classes in the school.
Promote change in your school. If the school hosts a “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner, have students put on a dinner that presents the history of the harvest celebration of 1621. Or, instead of a traditional Thanksgiving celebration, have a celebration that “gives thanks” for all cultures. Students could be encouraged to dress in their own cultural dress and share their own traditions of thanksgiving.
Ongoing Assessment
We have provided detailed content information in the Resources
section for each of the exhibit themes used in Sharing What You Have Discovered.
We encourage you to refer to this information when designing a rubric to assess
student work. This information can also serve as a starting point for rubrics
for any of the other Culminating Performances we have suggested.
The following graphic organizers were developed to further students’ online understanding and enhance offline work. They are available in a pdf format.
The Origins of Thanksgiving KWL Chart
Use this worksheet to help
students identify their preconceptions and track the information that they
have learned.
Primary Sources 3*2*1 Graphic Organizer
This worksheet will help
organize students’ ideas from The Evidence page.
Primary Source Graphic Organizer
Use this worksheet to help
students identify and categorize different kinds of primary sources.
The Wampanoag Cultural Chart
Use this chart to help
organize your ideas from The Wampanoag page.
The English Colonist Cultural Chart
Use this chart to help
organize your ideas from The English Colonists page.
This guide has been prepared using the guidelines of
the National Council for History Education, the
National Council for Social Studies, and the Massachusetts Department of Education.
We are confident that much of the content
and many of the themes, skills, and
processes presented in this guide are important parts of all states’ curriculums.
Please feel free to adapt the activities to meet your own state’s curriculum
standards.
National Council for History Education
From Building a United States History Curriculum
Central Strands and Significant Questions to Be Carried
Throughout Courses Across the Grades
Strand 3 The gathering of people and cultures from many
places
Strand 5 Family and local history
Strand 6 The changing character of American society
and culture
Major Eras and Topics within the Chronological Narrative
of United States History
Three Worlds and Their Encounters in American (Beginnings
to 1607)
A) Life in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans
and Africans
C) European societies, trade, explorations of the 15th
and 16th centuries
D) First contacts between Americans and Europeans; the
consequences
The Colonial Era: An Emerging American Identity (1607-1763)
Early settlements and colonies
Colonists’ relations with Native Americans
The family and the role of women in the British colonies
National Council for Social Studies
| Strand |
Early grades |
Middle grades |
| 1. Culture and Cultural Diversity |
explore and describe similarities and differences in
the ways groups, societies and cultures address similar human needs
and concerns |
compare similarities and differences in the ways groups,
societies, and cultures meet human needs and concerns |
| 2. Time, Continuity and Change |
demonstrate an understanding that different people
may describe the same event or situation in diverse ways, citing reasons
for the differences in views |
demonstrate an understanding that different scholars
may describe the same event or situation in different ways but must
provide reasons or evidence for their views |
| 3. People, Places, and Environments |
h. describe ways that historical events have been influenced by, and have influenced, physical and human geographic factors in local, regional, national, and global settings |
|
| 4. Individual Development and Identity |
g. analyze a particular event to |
e. identify and describe ways regional, ethnic, and national cultures influence
|
| 5. Individuals, Groups, and Institutions |
B give examples and explain group |
demonstrate an understanding of |
| 7. Production, Distribution, and Consumption |
describe the influence of |
explain and illustrate how values and |
| 9. Global Connec-tions |
b. give examples of conflict, |
b. analyze examples of conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among groups, societies and nations. |
| 10. Civic Ideals and Practices |
f. recognize that a variety of formal |
Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks Alignment
From the History and Social Sciences Framework Pre-Publication
Edition, approved by the Board of Education, October 22, 2002
| 3rd grade |
5th grade |
|
| Concepts and |
History and Geography |
History of Geography |
| Learning |
New England and Massachusetts Cities and Towns of Massachusetts 3.12 Explain how objects or artifacts of every day life in the past tell us how ordinary people lived and how everyday life has changed. Draw on the services of the local historical society and local museums as needed. (H, G, E) |
Pre-Columbian Civilizations of the New World and European Exploration, Colonization, and Settlement to 1700 5.6 Describe the early relationship of the English settlers to the indigenous peoples, or Indians, in North America, including the differing views on ownership or use of land and the conflicts between them such as the Pequot and King Phillip’s Wars in New England. (H, G, E) |
The TfU framework, developed
collaboratively by educators at the Harvard Graduate School of Education,
emphasizes understanding as a capacity to think and apply knowledge flexibly.
It is predicated on the assumption that learning activities should engage
students in active performances that both develop and demonstrate understanding.
TfU consists of four elements that help educators answer four key questions:
1. What topics are worth understanding?
Focus curriculum on Generative Topics that connect to students' interests
and experience, are central to the subject matter, and can be approached through
multiple entry points.
2. What about these
topics needs to be understood?
Overarching goals, or throughlines, describe the most important understandings
that students should develop during an entire course. The understanding goals
for particular units should be closely related to one or more of the overarching
understanding goals of the course.
Define explicit Understanding
Goals that address key content, methods, purposes, and forms of expression
in the target subject area; structure goals in a progression that relates
goals for individual lessons and units to overarching goals; state these goals
publicly.
3. How can we foster understanding?
Engage students in performances of understanding, also called Understanding
Performances, that cause students to stretch their minds and think with what
they know, not simply recall information or rehearse routine skills; include
a range of performances that engage multiple learning styles and modes of
analysis; and design a sequence of performances that ramp students up from
their beginning capabilities to the target understanding goals.
4. How can we tell what students understand?
Incorporate Ongoing Assessment of student products and performances, using
public criteria that are directly related to understanding goals; conduct
frequent assessments of draft performances that generate suggestions for improving
student work; involve learners in peer- and self-assessments.
TfU recommends using these four elements together in a coherent way to guide the design and implementation of curriculum focused on developing and demonstrating learners' understanding of important topics.
For More Information on Teaching for Understanding
Martha Stone Wiske, ed.
Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research with
Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998.
Based on a six-year collaborative research project of school teachers and researchers
from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the book describes what teaching
for understanding looks like in the classroom and examines how teachers have
learned to design and enact such practices.
Most important, it offers
a model to support the ongoing learning of teachers and students.
Tina Blythe and Associates, The Teaching for Understanding Guide. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998.
This workbook is a practical, "how-to" companion to Teaching
for Understanding: Linking Theory with Practice. It walks teachers through
the four critical steps of this highly successful process. Classroom examples,
tips, and worksheets help clarify the process. The Guide shows how to choose
topics that engage students' interest and connect readily to other subjects,
set coherent unit and course goals, create activities that both develop and
demonstrate students' understanding, and improve student performance by providing
continual feedback.
Education with New Technologies
http://learnweb.harvard.edu/ent
This networked community is designed to help educators develop powerful learning
experiences for students through the effective integration of new technologies.
The site will help users navigate the expanding territory of new educational
technologies with guidance from established principles for teaching and learning
(e.g. Teaching for Understanding).
The following resources were developed to enhance teachers’ and students’ exploration of the 1621 harvest celebration. They are available in a pdf format.
Probing Questions About the 1621 Harvest Celebration
This list of
questions that historians have about the harvest celebration can be used to
prompt students’ curiosity about what really happened.
John Smith’s Map of New England in 1613
Map of Wampanoag Country in the 1600s
Primary Source: Excerpt from a
Letter by Edward Winslow, 1621
This excerpt is the only
eyewitness account of the 1621 harvest celebration.
Modern Translation of
Edward Winslow’s Letter
This translation
of Winslow’s letter includes definitions of words from the original text.
Culminating Performances Image Library
Students may
use these images to create their own museum exhibit.
Path to 1621 Timeline
Timeline and text from the online activity.
Winter:
Deer
Woman: Our relative the deer gives us many gifts. My brother now hunts
and brings the deer to my mother and I to clean and skin. We will smoke and
dry the meat so it will last. One deer can feed a family for a long time. To
be given a deer is a great gift!
Wetu
Young Woman: In our winter village, we have many long, narrow houses.
Our house has two fire hearths with two families living together. My dad and
uncles built our house frame very carefully. It’s covered with the bark of huge
trees, so it’s sturdy enough to support the wintertime snow. My mother says
that the round shape of our house helps to keep us all warm. Sometimes it is
too hot inside, so we go out and jump in the snow!
Oral Tradition
Girl: Grandfather is sitting by the warm fire inside our house. He
and the others are telling stories that they, too, were told as children. The
stories are entertaining and I laugh a lot. But Grandfather reminds me to pay
special attention to these spoken words. Some day, I too will recite the same
words to my own children, and then they will teach their own children. This
is how we keep our history of our families, villages, and nation alive.
Spring:
Fish
Girl: Tisquantum visits the English often. He took pity on them because
they did not know how to plant. He showed them how to put fish into the ground,
mound up the Earth and plant the corn seed. In the summer their corn will grow
tall.
Rattle
Woman: Our Wampanoag New Year takes place in spring with a celebration.
We thank The Creator for all life. We thank Mother Earth for her gifts and celebrate
all new beginnings. Together, we give prayers and give thanks through songs
and dances. Then we share our foods and have a small feast.
Hoe
Woman: Before planting in the spring, my family gives thankful prayers
to Mother Earth who grows all our food. My daughter and I dig holes and some
years use herring fish for fertilizer. We cover the fish with soft earth and
make mounds. After a few weeks, we plant four or five corn kernels in each mound.
Later, beans and squashes are planted alongside the corn.
Summer:
Storage
Young Man: Our storage pits are dug into the ground and lined with
stones and bullrush mats. We store our corn in very large, woven bags for winter
use. We also store seeds for spring planting. When the English first came here,
they dug up and took corn bags away from a family’s storage pit. To us Wampanoag,
stealing is a crime.
Strawberry
Man: It is strawberry harvest time. My family and neighbors gather
to celebrate and give thanks together. We give prayers, feast, dance, and play
games. Games such as football have more of a purpose than fun. We often play
them to settle an argument between people or families. A celebration can last
a few days.
Canoe
Girl: During the summer months, my mother and father paddle our family
out into the ocean in our large dugout mishoon. We travel to Capowack (Martha’s
Vineyard) and Natocket (Nantucket) and visit our friends along the way. We fish
from our mishoonash too. This is my favorite way to travel to many different
Wampanoag villages.
Autumn:
Weapon
Young Man: One time at the fall of the leaf, my father and uncle and
many of our men joined with Massasoit and went to the wetuash of the English.
My family thought it might be dangerous because we heard much shooting of English
guns. As it happened, our People were welcomed. They stayed there for three
days!
Turkey
Man: My sons and I hunt mostly in the fall and winter months, because
by this time baby birds and animals are grown. The meat and furs are better
in the colder weather. We hunt deer, turkey, beaver, and many others. I each
my children that it is important to have respect for the lives of these beings,
and to give thanks to them, and The Creator.
Footprint
Young Woman: Soon after harvesting and gathering our foods, my family
rolls up the mats on our warm-weather house. With the help of tumplines worn
over our foreheads, we carry the mats on our backs to our inland village. In
the valleys and forests, we will stay warm, protected from the cold, winter
winds.
Giving Thanks
Mary Brewster: We celebrate the Sabbath each Sunday. The only other
holidays we celebrate are days of humiliation and days of thanksgiving. Days
of thanksgiving are called when something very good happens and we want to thank
God in a special way. We spend the day at church. Sometimes we fast all day.
William Bradford: Now that we have finished our harvest, I sent four
men hunting for wildfowl. We will celebrate with feasting and sports. Such rejoicing
is a fit celebration for a good harvest!
Edward Winslow: When I was a boy in England when all the crops were
in, we had a celebration called "harvest home". We ate good food, sang and played
games. ‘Twas goodly entertainment!
Food
Elinor Billington: Beer, bread and meat are the fittest foods for
an English body. Here we will do very well for meat since God has provided great
store of game and fish. Bread and beer are harder to come by. We planted some
of the Indian corn in our fields. I will try to use it for our bread corn or
for pottages. We have no beer at all so my family must drink water.
Remember Allerton: Our harvest is all gotten in and great numbers of
wildfowl have returned to the land. The governor called for a celebration of
our first harvest. We shall eat wildfowl like geese and ducks! I will help make
pottages made from corn and dishes of pompion as well. Father says the feasting
will last for several days!
Resolved White: Massasoit has come and some of his men went hunting
and brought back five deer. Now we will have venison as well as wildfowl. Mother
says if I eat too much venison my belly will go "twang"!
Clothing and Washing
Elinor Billington: I wash my hands and face when I rise, and before
and after meals, and before bed. I take a bath perhaps one or two times in the
spring or summer of the year. It is dangerous to bath overmuch or in the cold
weather.
Remember Allerton: My clothes and those of the other children are very
sturdy. I wear a coif on my head in part to keep my hair clean. I wear an apron
over my petticoat to keep dirt off my petticoats. My apron is made of linen
and is washed when it gets dirty. My petticoats are made of wool and cannot
be washed.
Stephen Hopkins: When I was very small boy I wore gowns and petticoats.
When I was seven I got my first suit of man’s clothes – a doublet and breeches
made of wool. I remember how proud I was the first day I dressed in those breeches.
It meant I was no longer a babe but could begin learning the work of men.
Children’s roles
Remember Allerton: There is much work to do. Today, I plucked ducks,
fetched wood for fires and helped serve dinner! I helped mind some of the smaller
children, too. I am weary from all the work. I hope I have time to play with
my friends later.
Stephen Hopkins: When they were not helping my wife prepare food, I
let my children watch the Native men from a distance. We have never had so many
Native men in our town before – there must be nearly a hundred! We have only
about 30 Englishmen in our town. This troubles me.
William Bradford: Since we made the agreement with Massasoit many Indians
have traveled to Plymouth. Those native to this land are strange to see and
different from us in every way. We do not speak their language and there are
only one or two of them who can speak English.
Entertainments
Mary Brewster: There are many here that long for the entertainments
of England. There are many sports that I do admire such as running foot races
or wrestling. These make a body strong and fit. There are others like dancing
and football that are not to my liking at all!
Resolved White: Massasoit has come to our town with almost 100 men!
Captain Standish leads our 30 men in military exercises. They march and fire
muskets. ‘Tis fine entertainment! Perhaps Massasoit is impressed with our skill.
Edward Winslow: In this wilderness, the men of our town must be skilled
at firing muskets in case we are attacked. Captain Standish helps keep the men
trained in the arts of war.
On every activity page, students are able to click on the Visit the Expert button to hear what a historian has to say about the topic. The text below is from the Visit the Expert segments.
Home Page
At Plimoth Plantation, we have studied all the information we could uncover about an event that took place here in 1621. We call that event the 1621 harvest celebration. You have probably learned to call it "The First Thanksgiving." But that may not be the right name. First, the event wasn't a "first" at all. Native People had been giving thanks in this land for thousands of years before 1621. Second, as far as the word "Thanksgiving" goes, people in 1621 never called it a "Thanksgiving." It was simply a harvest celebration.
Fact or Myth?
Many people think that "history" and "the past" are the same thing. But they aren’t! The past is what actually happened. The past can never change. You would’ve have to have lived at the time to truly know about the past. History is how we think and write about the past. History is always changing. So events that occurred in 1621 (the past) will never change. But how we think about these events (history) has already changed a lot!
The Evidence
Primary sources such as this one can answer a lot of questions about the past. But they also raise a lot of questions. When historians study primary sources (information written or spoken or drawn by people who were there), they go beyond what they see, hear, and read. They have lots of questions about what happened. They wonder, "If the Wampanoag stayed for three days, where did all of them sleep?" and "What else did people eat besides venison and wildfowl?" Don't you wonder how differently an English child and a Wampanoag leader might have described the harvest celebration?
The Wampanoag People
Wampanoag today still rely on oral history, a tradition that is centuries old. These traditions have been carried on to this day and much is passed on by the oral stories with Wampanoag families. Specifically, there seems to be no known oral record of the 1621 harvest celebration, but it is an event that would likely have been of importance as shown by the visit of Massasoit and his family.
The English Colonists
People from the past are not just people like us, dressed up in old-fashioned clothes! People from the past looked at the world and life very differently than we do. So it is a mistake to think that they would make the same decisions that we would. That is why some of the choices they made are hard—or even impossible—for us to understand today.
The Path to 1621
Can we ever really know what the harvest celebration of 1621 meant to a colonial child? Can we know what raced through the mind of a Wampanoag boy when he spotted an English ship on the horizon? Maybe not. But part of what a historian does is to make good guesses about the thoughts and feelings of people in the past. To do this, a historian uses all the tools for investigating the past. Including writings and oral traditions, paintings and objects, of the people who actually lived the events. Many of the words in this activity are those of the people who lived back then.
Culminating Activity
A few years ago, historians at Plimoth Plantation decided to look at the 1621 harvest celebration in a whole new way. They knew there was more to the story than the "Pilgrims" and "Indians" having dinner together. They decided to set aside what they thought they knew and look at the event with fresh eyes. They also realized that it was important to look at the events of 1621 from both the English and Wampanoag sides of the story. A lot of their research and new ideas about 1621 have gone into the creation of this web site.
including Plimoth Plantation publications, and web sites
Many of these publications may be purchased through Plimoth Plantation’s shops or by mail order. For more information, call 1-800-262-9356 or go to www.plimoth.org.
Primary Sources
William Bradford. Of
Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647. Edited by Samuel Eliot Morison.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1952.
Dwight B. Heath, ed. Mourt’s
Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
[1622] Reprint edition.
Cambridge: Applewood Books, 1986.
Sydney V. James, Jr., ed.
Three Visitors to Early Plymouth. Plymouth: Plimoth Plantation, 1963.
Reprint edition. Bedford:
Applewood Books, 1997.
Edward Winslow. “Good Newes
from New England.” [1624] In Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, edited
by Alexander Young. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1841. Reprint
edition.
Bedford: Applewood Books,
1996.
Secondary Sources
Diana K. Appelbaum. Thanksgiving:
An American Holiday, An American History. New York: Facts on File Publications,
1984.
David Cressy. Bonfires and Bells: National Memory and the Protestant Calendar in Elizabethan and Stuart England. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
Richard P. Gildrie. “The Ceremonial Puritan Days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving.” The New England Quarterly 136 (Jan. 1982): 2-16.
Rosemary Gonzales, Doris Seale and Beverly Shapin, “A Guide for Evaluating Children’s Books for Anti-Indian Bias,” How to Tell the Difference, Berkeley, CA: Oyate, 2000.
W. Deloss Love, Jr. The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1895.
Jane C. Nylander. Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home 1760-1860. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Paperback edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
Sandra L. Oliver. Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Food, at Sea and Ashore, in the Nineteenth Century. Mystic: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1995.
Elizabeth H. Pleck. Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity, Consumer Culture and Family Rituals. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Elizabeth H. Pleck. “The Making of the Domestic Occasion: the History of Thanksgiving in the United States.” Journal of Social History 32(4) (Summer, 1999): 773-389.
Doris Seale and Beverly Shapin, “The Native Experience in Books for Children,” Through Indian Eyes. Philadephia: New Society Publishers, 1992.
Doris Seale, Beverly Shapin and Carolyn Silverman. Thanksgiving: A Native Perspective, Berkley, CA: 1998.
Janet Siskind. “The Invention of Thanksgiving: a Ritual of American Nationality.” Critique of Anthropology 12(2) (1992): 167-191.
Children’s Museum of Boston’s staff, Native Advisory Board and Teacher Collaborators, “Teaching Thanksgiving – Including the Wampanoag Perspective,” Many Thanksgivings.
Online Secondary Sources at
Plimoth Plantation
Thanksgiving Articles On-line
“As American as Pumpkin
Pie”
“Native Traditions of Giving
Thanks”
“Partakers of Our
Plenty”
“Fast and Thanksgiving
Days of Plymouth Colony”
Books for Children
Joseph Bruchac, “Native
American Poems and Songs of Thanksgiving,” The Circle of Thanks: Mahwah,
NJ: Bridgewater Books, 1996.
Paula Jennings, Strawberry Thanksgiving, Cleveland: Modern Curriculum Press, 1992.
Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac, with Plimoth Plantation. Photographs by Sisse Brimberg and Cotton Coulson. 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving. Washington: National Geographic, 2001.
Russell M. Peters, A Wampanoag Tradition: Clambake. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1992.
Kate Waters. Photographs by Russ Kendall, in Cooperation with Plimoth Plantation. Giving Thanks: the 1621 Harvest Feast. New York: Scholastic Books, 2001.
Plimoth Plantation Teacher’s Guides
Field Guide to Plimoth Plantation.
Plymouth, MA: Plimoth Plantation, Inc., 1995.
Journey to the New World. Plymouth, MA: Plimoth Plantation, Inc., 1996.
Life in 1627 Plymouth. Plymouth, MA: Plimoth Plantation Inc., 1996.
People of the East: 17th-century Wampanoag Life. Plymouth, MA: Plimoth Plantation, Inc., 1996.
Video
Colonial Life for Children: Plimoth Plantation.
Wynnewood, PA: Schlessinger Media, 1998.
Online Resources
The Library of Congress:
Developing Lessons Using Primary Sources
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/primary.html
Pilgrim Hall Museum: Thanksgiving
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/thanksg2.htm
Boston Children’s Museum
http://www.bostonkids.org/teachers/TC/
Teaching for Understanding
http://learnweb.harvard.edu/ent/home/index.cfm