Lesson Plan: General History of Virginia

Teacher: Miss Brittani Bacchi School: Perkiomen Valley High School Grade Level: 11
I.

Content and Standards:

a. CC.1.2.11-12.D: Evaluate how an authors point of view or purpose
shapes the content and style of a text.
b. CC.1.2.11-12.F: Evaluate how words and phrases shape meaning and tone
in texts.
c. CC.1.5.11-12.B: Evaluate how the speakers perspective, reasoning, and
use of evidence and rhetoric affect the credibility of an argument through
the authors stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of

II.

III.

emphasis, and tone.

Prerequisites:
a. Students should have read Of Plymouth Plantation and watched the We
Shall Remain: After the Mayflower film.
b. Students must understand bias.
Instructional Objective:
a. Students will be able to explain who John Smith was and his purpose in
writing The General History of Virginia.
b. Students will be able to answer the essential questions about bias,

IV.

perspective, and purpose.

Instructional Procedures (BDA):
a. This lesson will take about 2 days of instruction.
b. I will introduce the students to the idea that we are reading about a
settlement somewhat different from the Puritan settlement we read about
previously.
c. I will begin this lesson with a 3 minute video from the History Channel
website, called Life in Jamestown.
d. This video will act as in introduction to the excerpt we will read from John
Smiths The General History of Virginia.
e. I will then explain/reiterate how John Smith and the other colonists
traveled to Virginia years before William Bradford and the Puritans landed
at Plymouth.
f. I will show another 5 minute video called Jamestown Founded in 1607.
g. I will have the students reflect on the video by writing what is similar to
Of Plymouth Plantation in their notebooks.
h. I will make a chart on the blackboard as the students share what they
discovered.

i. I will have the students get the textbooks from the shelf and open to page
42.
j. I will tell the students that they are to follow along as I read aloud and that
they should have pens/pencils in hand as we read. They can annotate in
their notebooks as we read, and I will be pausing at specific locations in
the text to give them a chance to stop and reflect on what we just read.
These pauses will be very brief.
k. I will ask essential questions during these pauses about the purpose, bias,
perspective, and relation to what we read previously.
l. We will continue this way until we get to page 44 where Smith describes
Pocahontas. We will read this section and then I will stop and show
another short video from the History channel website, called Pocahontas.
m. We will discuss the video and validity of Smiths account. We will talk
about why he might have chosen to include this in his story.
n. I will then continue reading the excerpt in the textbook if there is time,
keeping with the pattern of pausing and reflecting.
o. They will finish any reading that is left for homework.
p. Next class I will ask the students what they think of John Smith. What
kind of man do you think he was? What bias does he have?
q. Next, I will direct the students to the Critical Thinking and Reading
section of their textbooks on pages 46 and 47.
r. We will discuss purpose and Smiths purpose in writing The General
History of Virginia. Was Smith encouraging other people to settle in
Virginia? Why?
s. I will have the students take time to answer the questions in the text on

V.

their own.
t. They will then turn to a partner and share their answers.
u. We will all discuss as a class.
Materials and Equipment
a. History.com videos about Jamestown and Pocahontas
http://www.history.com/topics/john-smith/videos/pocahontas?
m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

Interactive white board for projecting

Computer with proper connections
Notebooks
The American Experience textbooks
Pens/pencils

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Assessment/Evaluation
a. I will assess the students based on participation in discussion and
engagement in the story through notebook reflections.
b. I will also assess the students by questioning them as we go about bias,
purpose, and prior knowledge.
c. I will assess the students understanding by having them share and explain

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VIII.

their answers to the textbook questions.

Accommodations or Modifications
a. I will offer typed notes to the student who is suffering from a concussion.
b. I will be sure to repeat instructions and questions.
Technology
a. History.com videos about Jamestown and Pocahontas
http://www.history.com/topics/john-smith/videos/pocahontas?
m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false

IX.

b. Interactive white board for projecting

c. Computer with proper connections
Self-Assessment