September · Week 1 · Day 2 · School day 2
Day 2: Sky Woman and the Mapmaker
Play with your child: Source and Map
Today’s goals
- Word study: Connotation: credible, credulous, incredulous L.11-12.4b, L.11-12.5b
- Reading: The World on the Turtle's Back: Sky Woman's fall and the twins RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2
- Math: Literal equations HSA-CED.A.4
- Social studies: Primary and secondary sources; sourcing a 1612 map C3 D2.His.11.9-12, D2.His.12.9-12
Materials
- The World on the Turtle's Back (Haudenosaunee creation story; any anthology or library retelling)
- A printed or projected copy of John Smith's 1612 Map of Virginia (Library of Congress has a free image)
- Analysis notebook and sticky notes
- Calculator
- Colored pencils
Swaps in [brackets] are fine. Use what you have at home or in the classroom.
The day, step by step
10–15 min Morning meeting and current events SL.11-12.1
- Question of the day: How do you decide whether a source is telling the truth? Students list two tests they use to trust a source (who made it, why, when, can it be checked).
- News brief from today's volunteer; class asks one sourcing question about it.
- Connect: today's map and today's story are both sources, but they tell different kinds of truth.
15–20 min Vocabulary and word study L.11-12.4b, L.11-12.5b
- Draw a feeling scale from negative to positive. Place credulous (believes too easily, negative), incredulous (refuses to believe), credible (worthy of belief, positive).
- Model sentences: The credulous buyer paid for a fake map. The jury was incredulous at the wild alibi. A credible witness kept her story consistent.
- Students write one sentence for each word about a source, a rumor or a news story.
- Check: is it a compliment to call a reader credulous? (No, it means easily fooled.)
30–40 min Literature and texts RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2
The World on the Turtle's Back (Haudenosaunee creation story; any anthology or library retelling)
- Context: the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca nations passed this story down orally; written versions are later records.
- Read the story aloud in parts. Annotate Sky Woman's fall from the sky world, the birds that catch her, the turtle and the animal that dives for earth.
- Annotate the twins: one twin creates useful and gentle things, the other creates hardships. Mark three things each twin makes.
- Discuss: what does it mean that the world rests on a turtle's back and is built from a small handful of earth?
40–50 min Algebra 2 HSA-CED.A.4
- Solve A = P(1 + rt) for r: A = P + Prt, so Prt = A - P and r = (A - P)/(Pt). Test it: P = $2,000, A = $2,300, t = 3 years gives r = 300/6,000 = 0.05, or 5%.
- Solve v = v0 + at for a: a = (v - v0)/t. A bike goes from 4 m/s to 19 m/s in 5 s, so a = 15/5 = 3 m/s².
- Practice: solve 2x + 3y = 12 for y (y = 4 - (2/3)x) and C = 2πr for r (r = C/(2π)).
- Exit ticket: solve d = rt for t, then find t when d = 150 miles and r = 60 mph. (t = d/r = 2.5 hours.)
Math center: rearrange F = (9/5)C + 32 for C and test it with 212°F (C = 100).
30–40 min U.S. history C3 D2.His.11.9-12, D2.His.12.9-12
- Define: a primary source was made at the time by someone involved (a map, letter, diary). A secondary source interprets the past later (a textbook, a documentary).
- Sort six items: Smith's 1612 map (primary), a 2010 history of Jamestown (secondary), a 1619 letter (primary), this week's textbook chapter (secondary), a Powhatan-era artifact (primary), a museum audio guide (secondary).
- Source the map with four questions. Author: John Smith (engraved by William Hole). Date: 1612. Audience: English readers and Virginia Company investors. Purpose: to show Virginia as rich and reachable and to promote the colony.
- Close look: the map is drawn with west at the top and marks many Powhatan towns. What does that tell us about who already lived there?
25–35 min Writing W.11-12.1b, W.11-12.9a
- Teach claim, evidence, commentary (CEC): a claim you can argue, evidence from the text, and commentary that explains how the evidence proves the claim.
- Model paragraph (paraphrase, since versions differ): Claim: the story suggests the world needs both twins. Evidence: in many versions the gentle twin makes rivers that run both ways, but the other twin makes them run one way and adds rapids. Commentary: life is easier and harder at once, so balance, not perfection, is the natural order.
- Students label the three parts of the model in color, then draft their own CEC claim about the twins.
25–35 min Independent practice and projects
- Finish your CEC paragraph draft about the twins.
- Solve I = Prt for t and find t when I = $90, P = $600 and r = 0.03. (t = 5 years.)
- Write the four sourcing answers for any map or photo in your home or classroom.
- Add five new words to your reading log glossary.
Projects: keep the reading log current and build the analysis notebook toward the literary analysis essay.
Device time (15 min): play Source and Map on the Student games page.
Today’s game: Source and Map
5–10 min Closing reflection SL.11-12.1
- Primary or secondary: a podcast about Jamestown recorded last year? (Secondary.)
- What does the turtle add to the creation story's meaning?
- Which variable did you isolate first in A = P(1 + rt)?
Support: Give a sourcing sheet with the four questions and sentence starters such as This source was made by ... in order to ....
Stretch: Compare Smith's map with a modern map of the Chesapeake and list two places where Smith's map is accurate and one where it is not.
Look for: Students can source a document with author, date, audience and purpose and can identify the three parts of a CEC paragraph.
Short day? Keep the reading, the sourcing of the map and the literal equation A = P(1 + rt).