Lesson Plan

Little Ship Under Full Sail

 Social Studies – Language Arts – Technology        

“Readers make leaders!” – J.L. Panagopoulos ©

 The story starts with little Juliette Gordon singing a song: 

 Jeff Davis rides a milk-white horse

And Lincoln rides a mule –

Jeff Davis is a gentleman,

And Lincoln is a fool!

 ·       By reading this song what period of time do you think the story begins?

        Where might a person live or be from if they favored Jeff Davis, the president of the Confederacy over Abraham Lincoln the president of the United States?

         (This song was taken from the family journal and writings of Juliette Gordon Lowe, the founder of Girl Scouting.  This is considered information from a primary source.)

 ·       If a story is based on history with historical characters surrounding a historical event, what type of genre is it? My writing is “just” not historical fiction it is “documentary” historical fiction.  What does the word “documentary” in this type of genre mean? (Check out my website: http://www.newadventuresinwriting.com - New Adventures in Writing.com for more information concerning genre and documentary historical fiction.)

 ·       Reading and Journaling go hand-and-hand.  Recommend to your students that they write down questions they might have about the story as they read.  Also suggest that they create a glossary of words that they might find confusing or interesting.

 ·       As your students read the first few chapters of Little Ship Under Full Sail, they will meet many historical characters that lived during the time of the American Revolution. (Nellie Lytle and her family were kidnapped along the western boarder of Pennsylvania in an area where the Iroquois Confederacy was well established.)

 Have your students learn more about the Iroquois Confederacy, the “current” states they covered during the time of the American Revolution and the names of the different tribes of Indians that were part of the Confederacy.  (Check out http://newadventuresinwriting.com       For more information concerning the Iroquois Confederacy.)      

 ·       Have your students’ draw a picture of what they think Nellie’s cabin might have looked like in the wilderness of Pennsylvania.  You can email me some of their pictures and I will select a few to place on the writing blog for Little Ship Under Full Sail.  (Pandex@prodigy.net blog site: http://visitmyclass.com/blogs/jlpanagopoulos/default.aspx   )

·       Create a local history research/writing project.  No matter where you live in the world you have local history and  information.  To do this project with your students ask them to write down five basic local history questions and find the answers:

1)   When was your city/town/village founded or incorporated?

2)   What were the names of some of the first settlers to your area?

3)   Why did these first settlers come to your area?  Was it easy to get to?  Was the land very fertile?  Was there a specific resource that drew them to the area?

4)   Where did your county, city/town/village get its name?

5)   Where did the first settlers in your area come from? Did they travel to your area together?  Were they family?

Now, with these questions you can begin your research.  Are there books or publications about your area that you can share with your students?  Do you have a local historical society, genealogy society or museum in your area that you might be able to get a guest to come and speak to your class about local history?

 Does your library or your local community library have plat map books that will show your students where the first settlers lived?

Make sure you teach your class about making research notes and recording information they find for future reference and writing.

 Also, help your students to discover which Native Americans lived in your area and at what time period.

 ·       Gender roles in history - Many people today still believe that only men (historically) were strong and women were not.  Well, this is not true.  Most typical historical stereotypes in books, on television and videos show women to often be second class citizens or timid, shy, reserved and uneducated, but that is not a true representation.

 Most historical families knew that they must have a strong nuclear family with many children to survive the harsh realities of settlement life.  Women, it has been said by historians, brought civilization to new settlements, often demanding churches, schools and teachers for their children which placed a large responsibility on the shoulders of our historic forefathers to settle down.

 Please check out these web sites for more information concerning women in history and their contributions:

      * Women's History in America Presented by Women's International Center

     http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm

 

     * Women in History:

     http://www.historynow.org/03_2006/historian6.html

 

     *Women’s History

     http://resources.kaboose.com/kidslinks/social-studies/womens-history/Womens_History.html

 

     * Women’s History

     http://womenshistory.about.com/

 

     * Women in World History Curriculum's Website

     http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/

 

     * Women's History Month

     http://www.history.com/minisites/womenhist

 

     * Historical Figures

     http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/figures.htm

 

     * Women who changed history:

     http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/women/

 

     * Women in History Quiz:

     http://www.primate.wisc.edu/people/hamel/whistory.html

 ·       During your IP videoconference please make sure you have worked with your students for proper videoconferencing etiquette.

1.    Make sure your students have read Little Ship Under Full Sail.

2.    Make sure your students have created questions to ask the author.  If their question has been asked, make sure they have a back-up question.

3.    Make sure your students sit quietly until it is time to ask their questions or to share their information.

4.    Make sure your students sit politely (no heads on tables, no tapping of pencils or hands thumping near the microphones) and listen to the author as she answers questions.  Students may interact and respond to the authors questions but they must be attentive to make sure

    they can hear and participate.

5.    Make sure, if you were able to find a historic picture of your community to share, that you tell the author in the beginning of your program so time will be scheduled for the viewing of your photo.

Let me know if links are down Author@prodigy.net