Keeping It Engaging -Social Studies (Establishment of NC)

If you are like me, you like to keep your lessons hands on. As I was planning my social studies lessons this Fall, I noticed that while we were using time travel sunglasses and working in small groups, it just wasn't enough. One evening while planning my lesson, I called my colleague and as we put our heads together thinking about hands on activities and students engagement, this what we came up with for teaching about Roanoke Colony.

Roanoke Colony (a part of the larger lesson plan on exploration of NC)

The class will participate in the Roanoke Island CSI Project. The students will be
grouped into 6 CSI teams and their task is to use the clues provided to make an inference
as to what happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke. (This will be conducted during language arts
time as well, focusing on the inferencing strategies RL 4.1, implicit and explicit information.) Students
will write a paragraph stating their theory and use the evidence found in the
clues to support their theory.

The class will watch “Roanoke Island” video and students will be responsible for writing down

5 things they learned

5 things that surprised them

2 questions

https://youtu.be/o99Y4Brq-GY Part 1

https://youtu.be/YYb7P7wDvxI Part 2

Alternate Activity: Google Classroom- Students will listen to the article found in the included website and complete the questions included on the Lost colony of Roanoke. Students will take a short quiz based on the passage.

http://www.ducksters.com/history/colonial_america/lost_colony_of_roanoke.php

Here is how I set up my classroom and what the lesson looked like. My students were very excited and engaged. I strongly suggest doing this first thing in the morning. That way when students come in they are immediately curious and excited about this activity. It will also give you the most time set up (early in the morning or the evening before).