Wonderscape Academy11th grade

September · Week 1 · Day 2 · School day 2

Day 2: Sky Woman and the Mapmaker

Week 1 planDay 3 →

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

  1. 10–15 min Morning meeting and current events SL.11-12.1

    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).
    2. News brief from today's volunteer; class asks one sourcing question about it.
    3. Connect: today's map and today's story are both sources, but they tell different kinds of truth.
  2. 15–20 min Vocabulary and word study L.11-12.4b, L.11-12.5b

    1. Draw a feeling scale from negative to positive. Place credulous (believes too easily, negative), incredulous (refuses to believe), credible (worthy of belief, positive).
    2. 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.
    3. Students write one sentence for each word about a source, a rumor or a news story.
    4. Check: is it a compliment to call a reader credulous? (No, it means easily fooled.)
  3. 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)

    1. Context: the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca nations passed this story down orally; written versions are later records.
    2. 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.
    3. Annotate the twins: one twin creates useful and gentle things, the other creates hardships. Mark three things each twin makes.
    4. Discuss: what does it mean that the world rests on a turtle's back and is built from a small handful of earth?
  4. 40–50 min Algebra 2 HSA-CED.A.4

    1. 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%.
    2. 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.
    3. Practice: solve 2x + 3y = 12 for y (y = 4 - (2/3)x) and C = 2πr for r (r = C/(2π)).
    4. 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).

  5. 30–40 min U.S. history C3 D2.His.11.9-12, D2.His.12.9-12

    1. 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).
    2. 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).
    3. 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.
    4. 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?
  6. 25–35 min Writing W.11-12.1b, W.11-12.9a

    1. Teach claim, evidence, commentary (CEC): a claim you can argue, evidence from the text, and commentary that explains how the evidence proves the claim.
    2. 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.
    3. Students label the three parts of the model in color, then draft their own CEC claim about the twins.
  7. 25–35 min Independent practice and projects

    1. Finish your CEC paragraph draft about the twins.
    2. Solve I = Prt for t and find t when I = $90, P = $600 and r = 0.03. (t = 5 years.)
    3. Write the four sourcing answers for any map or photo in your home or classroom.
    4. 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

  8. 5–10 min Closing reflection SL.11-12.1

    1. Primary or secondary: a podcast about Jamestown recorded last year? (Secondary.)
    2. What does the turtle add to the creation story's meaning?
    3. 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).