The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving

Transcription

1 The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving Overview In this immigration lesson plan, students learn and discuss myths and facts surrounding the first Thanksgiving and the first immigrants by engaging students in a thought-provoking and humorous read-aloud that challenges them to identify dominant and resistant readings of this national holiday. Adaptations are easily made for English Language Learners and readers at multiple levels. Objectives Students will be able to closely read an informational text in order to identify dominant and resistant interpretations. Essential Questions What are dominant reads of the Thanksgiving holiday in U.S. culture? What are resistant reads of the Thanksgiving holiday in U.S. culture? Key Terms dominant read - a commonly accepted interpretation of a text resistant read - an interpretation of a text that differs or contradicts the dominant viewpoint (for more information, see: Coffey, Heather. "Critical Literacy." University of North Carolina School of Education. Common Core Standards CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Page 1 of 2

2 The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving American Immigration Council November 2015 Grades 3-5 (adapt as appropriate) Texts & Materials The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving by Susan Coti (Teacher Version) The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving by Susan Coti (Student Version) Dominant vs. Resistant Reads (handout) Lesson Preparation Prepare Copies of The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving by Susan Coti (student version and teacher version) and Dominant v Resistant Reading handout. Lesson Procedure Read-Aloud First Read 1. Teacher reads aloud or have multiple student readers read aloud the student version of the text. Reading aloud is proven to increase student fluency and comprehension. Teacher pauses to check for understanding in the places marked in the teacher version in order to gauge comprehension, connect to student knowledge, and to promote discussion. Dominant vs Resistant Reading Second Read 2. Explain to students that every story has a dominant reading and a resistant reading, often more than one. Use the Cinderella model as an example in the handout to show what a dominant reading of a common story looks like and what a resistant reading is. If students still seem unsure, demonstrate another model as a class together. Then ask students to use the text as well as their own knowledge in order to identify what is the dominant reading of Thanksgiving and what is a resistant reading of Thanksgiving in the space provided. * Students can also draw their dominant and resistant reads in addition to or in place of writing their interpretations as appropriate to their age and ability. 3. Ask students to share their dominant read first, and then have them offer several resistant reads. Ask them: how they might share what they learned at the dinner table with their families? Page 2 of 2

3 Teacher Text The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving by Susan Coti Mother, Joseph ate all my weevils and grubs! Calm thyself Constance; Joseph allowed you to eat all the fleas from your bedding this morning. Be not greedy daughter. These animals give off such a stench. I can t stand it! It s not the animals, my dear; it s us! These are words you might have heard had you been sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in the year 1620 in the Mayflower, traveling to Cape Cod Massachusetts to establish a place to settle and call home. Most of the Pilgrims on this voyage (pilgrim is a word for a traveler who goes to far-away places) were Puritans, also known as Separatists, a religious group who separated from the larger group of Puritans in England. They established a sub-sect to escape the religious persecution of the King and the Church of England because their beliefs did not align with the Crown. They had tried living in Holland for several years but found it too worldly and materialistic. They did not want their children to grow up this way. And so they made the treacherous voyage across the Atlantic in a ship that was not designed for passengers. It was a cargo ship, and it held 102 people including the crew. These Pilgrims were not meek by any means. They were virtual zealots and revolutionaries! The Journey The journey took 46 days. The seas were rough. Everyone was crammed into the underbelly of the ship. There wasn t enough water to bathe and no one changed clothes. They wore the same clothes for the entire trip. Can you imagine the smell down there? Yuck! And the food? Cold and dry: dried peas and fish, salty beef and moldy cheese. There was also hardtack, a type of bread that was as hard as a rock. Both the adults and children drank beer because of the scarcity of water. Bugs crawled all over their food so that they took to eating their food after dark where they wouldn t have to see the insects as they tried to choke down their food. They were desperately hungry and filthy and so the quotes above may well have been true. There was a lot of illness as you can imagine, and five people died at sea. TEACHER: (Pause). Why do you think there was a lot of illness on the ship? Try to have students identify at least three examples. Live animals were on board too: ducks, geese, rabbits and chickens. These animals were kept in rowboats lashed to the deck. Pigs and sheep were also on the ship, but the people were not allowed to eat them. These animals were transported with the hope that they would provide the flocks and herds the Puritans would need

4 Teacher Text in the new land once they established their settlement. Finally, the Mayflower arrived in New England in November of The people were in bad shape. This was no Carnival cruise my friends; this was a living hell! The survivors stuck together, created a document called the Mayflower Compact and established a settlement in a place called Patuxet. Patuxet had already been explored. It had some cleared fields that were ready for planting. It turns out that European fishermen and traders had been there earlier and brought with them a smallpox epidemic that wiped out many villages in the Wampanoag and Patuxet Indian homelands. TEACHER: (Pause). Why do you think the European illnesses killed the Indians but not the Europeans? Landing in Plimoth The English explorers had renamed the area Plimoth (now known as Plymouth) before they abandoned it. The Puritans lived on the ship while they built their houses. They were so weak and ill that 44 died before the winter season ended including one whole family with four children. The Puritans are considered by most historians to be the true first American settlers because they did not come here to establish a colony under the British crown as the Jamestown settlers did. The Puritans travelled here to establish a new home under their own sovereignty. Thus, they are often referred to as the first true Americans. TEACHER: Now regarding the first American settlers, I d like to ask another question: why do we call the Puritans who landed in 1620 the first American settlers when Jamestown was founded in 1607 also by people from England? (Pause for discussion). TEACHER: What do you know about the first Thanksgiving? think/pair/share, etc). (Pause for discussion small group, I bet some of you might think it was a big love fest between the gentle, generous Native Americans and the desperate and grateful Puritans. Let s dig into the truths and the myths about the First Thanksgiving The First Thanksgiving You ve all heard of Squanto, right? He s usually depicted as an Indian who showed up one day in the Puritans settlement to their great amazement. Do you think he arrived with his hand held up in greeting saying: Me Squanto. I come in peace? In truth, Squanto had traveled to England with an English explorer named John Weymouth and spent several years there before traveling back to New England. While in England, Squanto learned the English language and even spoke with an English accent! He was later kidnapped by an English slaver who sold him to the Spanish in the Caribbean islands. He escaped, and with the help of John Weymouth made his way back home. He was bereaved to see that his village had been destroyed. His Patuxet people were no longer there

5 Teacher Text and so he moved to a Wampanoag village and was taken in. But the first Thanksgiving that occurred is not so clear. First of all, the Native Americans gave thanksgiving many times throughout many seasons for many reasons: for a good harvest, for peace among tribes, for the deer and other animals they killed for food, for weddings, births, Spring, a season without drought, for the moon and the sun. And the Puritans did too: for the ones who survived the voyage from England, for the chance to start a new life, for the safe passage of more Puritans who came to join them and for defeat of the savages who were considered a threat. In fact, the Wampanoag Indians were invited to the Puritans feast in order to forge a treaty that would secure the lands of the Plymouth Plantation for the Puritans. Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag, provided most of the food since he showed up with 90 of his people and the Puritans didn t have much food to offer. In truth, if Squanto had not taught them how to plant corn, they wouldn t have survived at all. Massasoit and Myles Standish, the English leader, did make a peace and friendship treaty that day that gave the Puritans the land they wanted to build their new town of Plymouth. And likewise, they did sit down for a feast together after they were able to secure this uneasy and hard-fought truce to live peacefully. Was it truly a Thanksgiving or a Harvest Feast as some experts claim? TEACHER: What do you think? (Pause and allow for discussion) The feasting lasted for three days, and they didn t eat turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes! Most likely they ate venison (deer meat), duck, goose, corn and beans. Only a generation later the children of that feast were killing each other in a brutal war known as King Philip s War. King Philip was not an English king, but an Indian chief. The new people who arrived at Plymouth distrusted the Indians, thought their religion and customs were wrong, and forgot how the Indians had helped their fellow Englishmen, women and children when these first survivors from the Mayflower came to the new land. A National Holiday The federal government officially designated the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in 1898 for the purpose of uniting the people of this country who came from many diverse backgrounds. It was not until the 19 th century that the traditional symbols of plentiful cornucopias, funny-looking hats, large turkeys and feather headdresses were associated with the holiday. At that point much of the Native American population had been killed or moved onto reservations and the threat of Indian Wars had ceased. With the rise of immigrants and American involvement in World War I, some American communities were worried about the disintegration of American values and sought to create a core national identity based on religious and shared values. The image of distinct and diverse peoples sitting down together for a meal proved to be a compelling symbol of unity. And so Thanksgiving Day was born, and the story of the First Thanksgiving in Massachusetts was placed into the consciousness of all Americans.

6 Teacher Text Then and Now The town of Plymouth Rock holds a Thanksgiving ceremony each year. Wampanoag people still live in Massachusetts and in 1970, one was asked to speak at the ceremony. This is what he said: Today is a time of celebrating for you a time of looking back to the first days of white people in America. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from the diseases that we caught from them. Let us always remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white people. Although our way of life is almost gone, we, the Wampanoags, still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be changed. But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important. Let s not forget that giving thanks is a very human behavior and has been practiced for thousands of years around the world. This Thanksgiving, remember the peace and friendship of that First Thanksgiving (or Harvest Feast you decide) and also remember how that peace was short-lived. Let us give thanks for this great country and keep moving forward so that ALL people can have the opportunity to give thanks in this land of plenty. Sources: Bates, Susan. "THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING." THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING. Web. 14 Nov < Larsen, Charles. "THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING: Introduction for Teachers." THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING. Web. 14 Nov < About Thanksgiving...>. Penner, Lucille Recht. Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners. New York: Scholastic, Print. Remini, Robert V. A Short History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins, Print. "The "First Thanksgiving"" The "First Thanksgiving" Web. 14 Nov < Studies/05/0101firstt.html>. Waters, Kate, Russ Kendall, and Inc Plantation. Giving Thanks: The 1621 Harvest Feast. New York: Scholastic, Print. Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: New ed. Print

7 Student Text The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving by Susan Coti Mother, Joseph ate all my weevils and grubs! Calm thyself Constance; Joseph allowed you to eat all the fleas from your bedding this morning. Be not greedy daughter. These animals give off such a stench. I can t stand it! It s not the animals, my dear; it s us! These are words you might have heard had you been sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in the year 1620 in the Mayflower, traveling to Cape Cod Massachusetts to establish a place to settle and call home. Most of the Pilgrims on this voyage (pilgrim is a word for a traveler who goes to far-away places) were Puritans, also known as Separatists, a religious group who separated from the larger group of Puritans in England. They established a sub-sect to escape the religious persecution of the King and the Church of England because their beliefs did not align with the Crown. They had tried living in Holland for several years but found it too worldly and materialistic. They did not want their children to grow up this way. And so they made the treacherous voyage across the Atlantic in a ship that was not designed for passengers. It was a cargo ship, and it held 102 people including the crew. These Pilgrims were not meek by any means. They were virtual zealots and revolutionaries! The Journey The journey took 46 days. The seas were rough. Everyone was crammed into the underbelly of the ship. There wasn t enough water to bathe and no one changed clothes. They wore the same clothes for the entire trip. Can you imagine the smell down there? Yuck! And the food? Cold and dry: dried peas and fish, salty beef and moldy cheese. There was also hardtack, a type of bread that was as hard as a rock. Both the adults and children drank beer because of the scarcity of water. Bugs crawled all over their food so that they took to eating their food after dark where they wouldn t have to see the insects as they tried to choke down their food. They were desperately hungry and filthy and so the quotes above may well have been true. There was a lot of illness as you can imagine, and five people died at sea. Live animals were on board too: ducks, geese, rabbits and chickens. These animals were kept in rowboats lashed to the deck. Pigs and sheep were also on the ship, but the people were not allowed to eat them. These animals were transported with the hope that they would provide the flocks and herds the Puritans would need in the new land once they established their settlement.

8 Student Text Finally, the Mayflower arrived in New England in November of The people were in bad shape. This was no Carnival cruise my friends; this was a living hell! The survivors stuck together, created a document called the Mayflower Compact and established a settlement in a place called Patuxet. Patuxet had already been explored. It had some cleared fields that were ready for planting. It turns out that European fishermen and traders had been there earlier and brought with them a smallpox epidemic that wiped out many villages in the Wampanoag and Patuxet Indian homelands. Landing in Plimoth The English explorers had renamed the area Plimoth (now known as Plymouth) before they abandoned it. The Puritans lived on the ship while they built their houses. They were so weak and ill that 44 died before the winter season ended including one whole family with four children. The Puritans are considered by most historians to be the true first American settlers because they did not come here to establish a colony under the British crown as the Jamestown settlers did. The Puritans travelled here to establish a new home under their own sovereignty. Thus, they are often referred to as the first true Americans. I bet some of you might think it was a big love fest between the gentle, generous Native Americans and the desperate and grateful Puritans. Let s dig into the truths and the myths about the First Thanksgiving The First Thanksgiving You ve all heard of Squanto, right? He s usually depicted as an Indian who showed up one day in the Puritans settlement to their great amazement. Do you think he arrived with his hand held up in greeting saying: Me Squanto. I come in peace? In truth, Squanto had traveled to England with an English explorer named John Weymouth and spent several years there before traveling back to New England. While in England, Squanto learned the English language and even spoke with an English accent! He was later kidnapped by an English slaver who sold him to the Spanish in the Caribbean islands. He escaped, and with the help of John Weymouth made his way back home. He was bereaved to see that his village had been destroyed. His Patuxet people were no longer there and so he moved to a Wampanoag village and was taken in. But the first Thanksgiving that occurred is not so clear. First of all, the Native Americans gave thanksgiving many times throughout many seasons for many reasons: for a good harvest, for peace among tribes, for the deer and other animals they killed for food, for weddings, births, Spring, a season without drought, for the moon and the sun. And the Puritans did too: for the ones who survived the voyage from England, for the chance to start a new life, for the safe passage of more Puritans who came to join them and for defeat of the savages who were considered a threat. In fact, the Wampanoag Indians were invited to the Puritans feast in order to forge a treaty that would secure the lands of the Plymouth Plantation for the Puritans. Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag, provided most of the food since he showed up with 90 of his people and the

9 Student Text Puritans didn t have much food to offer. In truth, if Squanto had not taught them how to plant corn, they wouldn t have survived at all. Massasoit and Myles Standish, the English leader, did make a peace and friendship treaty that day that gave the Puritans the land they wanted to build their new town of Plymouth. And likewise, they did sit down for a feast together after they were able to secure this uneasy and hard-fought truce to live peacefully. Was it truly a Thanksgiving or a Harvest Feast as some experts claim? The feasting lasted for three days, and they didn t eat turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes! Most likely they ate venison (deer meat), duck, goose, corn and beans. Only a generation later the children of that feast were killing each other in a brutal war known as King Philip s War. King Philip was not an English king, but an Indian chief. The new people who arrived at Plymouth distrusted the Indians, thought their religion and customs were wrong, and forgot how the Indians had helped their fellow Englishmen, women and children when these first survivors from the Mayflower came to the new land. A National Holiday The federal government officially designated the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in 1898 for the purpose of uniting the people of this country who came from many diverse backgrounds. It was not until the 19 th century that the traditional symbols of plentiful cornucopias, funny-looking hats, large turkeys and feather headdresses were associated with the holiday. At that point much of the Native American population had been killed or moved onto reservations and the threat of Indian Wars had ceased. With the rise of immigrants and American involvement in World War I, some American communities were worried about the disintegration of American values and sought to create a core national identity based on religious and shared values. The image of distinct and diverse peoples sitting down together for a meal proved to be a compelling symbol of unity. And so Thanksgiving Day was born, and the story of the First Thanksgiving in Massachusetts was placed into the consciousness of all Americans. Then and Now The town of Plymouth Rock holds a Thanksgiving ceremony each year. Wampanoag people still live in Massachusetts and in 1970, one was asked to speak at the ceremony. This is what he said: Today is a time of celebrating for you a time of looking back to the first days of white people in America. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from the diseases that we caught from them. Let us always remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white people.

10 Student Text Although our way of life is almost gone, we, the Wampanoags, still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be changed. But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important. Let s not forget that giving thanks is a very human behavior and has been practiced for thousands of years around the world. This Thanksgiving, remember the peace and friendship of that First Thanksgiving (or Harvest Feast you decide) and also remember how that peace was short-lived. Let us give thanks for this great country and keep moving forward so that ALL people can have the opportunity to give thanks in this land of plenty. Sources: Bates, Susan. "THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING." THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING. Web. 14 Nov < Larsen, Charles. "THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING: Introduction for Teachers." THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING. Web. 14 Nov < About Thanksgiving...>. Penner, Lucille Recht. Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners. New York: Scholastic, Print. Remini, Robert V. A Short History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins, Print. "The "First Thanksgiving"" The "First Thanksgiving" Web. 14 Nov < Studies/05/0101firstt.html>. Waters, Kate, Russ Kendall, and Inc Plantation. Giving Thanks: The 1621 Harvest Feast. New York: Scholastic, Print. Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: New ed. Print.

11 Name: Date: Directions: After reading The First American Settlers and the First Thanksgiving, what is the dominant reading of Thanksgiving? What is a resistant reading of Thanksgiving? Follow the model below. Example from Cinderella : Dominant Cinderella escapes her misfortune of being poor, orphaned, and mistreated by her step family because she is beautiful and is always kind to others, even furry creatures. Her fairy godmother is not just a stroke of good luck, but shows what happens to nice, hard-working people. In what would have been a fantasy only a night before, she marries Prince Charming, thereby allowing all her dreams to come true, and to be forever happy! Resistant Being beautiful as a woman carries a double-edged sword. If Cinderella hadn t been beautiful in the first place, her step sisters probably wouldn t have been jealous of her and she probably wouldn t have gotten the attention of Prince Charming either. Rather than a fantasy, her only escape was to marry, but if Prince Charming married her only because she was beautiful, she will be forever unhappy in life. Dominant Resistant