Lesson Plan: Characteristics of Colonies in North America
by Andy Szeto

Type of Lesson --  Using SnagIt and Tutorial Website

Lesson Plan Title – One Immigrant’s Story

Discipline and Topic – Social Studies – Primary Sources / Research

Target Population – Regular

Grade level:  11th grade, AP United States History, meet for two periods daily (45 minute each).

Population characteristics:  This lesson will be taught to an AP United States History class.  This group works well in cooperative learning situation.  Students will take the AP United States History in June. 

Lesson groupings:  Students will be asked to synthesize images, audio, and video resources online to an interactive map for one specific geographical area.  This lesson will take about one – two days to complete.   

Curriculum links -- This lesson fits in the colonial America unit in 11th Grade United States History. 

Objectives -- Students will illustrate their knowledge of colonial history by creating an interactive map on one geographical area (i.e. New England, Chesapeake or Middle colonies).    

Media Literacy Objectives

• Routinely and efficiently use online information resources to meet needs for collaboration, research, publications, communications, and productivity.
• Collaborate with peers, experts, and others to contribute to a content-related knowledge base by using technology to compile, synthesize, produce, and disseminate information, models, and other creative works.

Materials and Timing – SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, Online Resources and Mobile Lab.  This lesson requires two forty-five minute class periods.

Scope and Sequence --

Day 1 and 2:

1. The teacher will first illustrate the use of SnagIt to the class.  Show examples of interactive maps.  An example of an interactive map can be founded on the Colonial America Tutorial Module at: https://szetohistory2008.tripod.com/maps.htm

2. Ask students to select a geographical area (i.e. New England, Chesapeake or Middle colonies and  collect a few resources for the selected geographic area.  The following websites can be used for this purpose:

Authentic History: http://www.authentichistory.com/ 

Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/index.html   

Colonial America Tutorial Module: https://szetohistory2008.tripod.com/links.htm 

HippoCampus: http://www.hippocampus.org/?course=19

3. Use SnagIt to locate a blank map of the geographical area selected. 

4. For each colony, create a basic webpage to store the weblinks of the resources located.  They may include any resources in all supported formats.   

5. Using the hotlink feature on SnagIt, students will create hotlinks for the webpages and place them on the map.   

6. Students will present their work in an oral presentation.

7. Ask students to share their interactive maps in class.  Using the interactive maps, ask them to create a product that illustrates the differences among each geographical area during the colonial area. 

Supplemental Materials – Internet Resources

Evaluation of Students:

Evaluation of the Lesson – I will collect their interactive maps for future samples.  I will use these samples to make future instructional decisions about timing, technical support as well as resources.