Matthew Mitchell
8th Grade U.S. History
Colonial America
Rational:
The beginning of my curriculum in 8th grade U.S. history is colonization, so thus I have chosen to
begin the year with a mini DBQ on the Puritans and Pilgrims. This lesson will serve a vital purpose in the
classroom during the beginning of the year in both teaching content and the skill of historical thinking
that will be going on all year. The Puritans and Pilgrims are most certainly misunderstood today and
thus it is essential to have the students really dive into documents that show who each group was and
how they were different. These documents will not address all of the differences between the two
groups, but they will focus on their religious beliefs and reasons for migrating to New England. I have
gathered information for this lesson through both primary sources, like William Bradford’s journal, and
secondary sources like Edmund Morgan’s Puritan Dilemma.
In regards to technology used in creating and teaching this lesson there were and are a variety
to be used, however resources at my school have limited the potential for more. In gathering
information I used different websites and catalogues to find the primary sources and programs like
Zotero and Wordle. The primary source catalogues like digitalhistory.com and pilgrimhall.com were
very helpful in both sources and the additional content and explanations that they provided on Puritans
and Pilgrims. Wordle has provided a great bell ringer for the class as students will look at the words
used by William Bradford and John Winthrop in the sources that they will be reading to get an idea of
important themes and ideas that they will encounter. If I had computers for each student, there
responses would be created and posted in a blog or saved on Google Docs.
It should be noted that this lesson still has a couple of needs that will be addressed before it is
given. The first is a transcription of a few of the sources, specifically Bradford’s, because they will be a
little difficult for my students to understand and follow. Another addition will be specific guided
questions for each document for lower students. There is a general document analysis sheet for each
document, but many of my students will need a different scaffold to be successful. Finally the power
point will have a few more slides added to it to be used with my Smartboard for each document. I am
eager to apply these finishing touches and use this lesson to take my students deeper in content and the
practice of historical thinking.
Colorado Standards:

Eighth Grade History Standards:
o 1a - Use and interpret documents and other relevant primary and secondary sources
pertaining to United States history from multiple perspectives.
o 1b - Analyze evidence from multiple sources including those with conflicting accounts
about specific events in United States history.
Digital Tools Used:
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
In preparation of this lesson:
o Zotero
o Google Docs
o Internet sites for Primary Sources (In bibliography)
With the Lesson
o Power Point s/projector
Objective:

I will analyze the differences in religious beliefs and reasons for migration between the Pilgrims
and Puritans.
Historical Inquiry Question:

What are the differences in religious beliefs and reasons for migration between the Pilgrims and
Puritans ?
Agenda:
Task and Allotted Time
Bell Work
3 minutes
Secondary Source Analysis
10 minutes
Document Analysis for the
Puritans
15 minutes
Whole Group Discussion
10 Minutes
Document Analysis for the
Pilgrims
Student Activities
Students will analyze the
Puritans and Pilgrims based on a
wordle of 2 of the documents to
be studied. They need to note
what words seem most
prevalent and what those words
imply about both groups.
Have students read the excerpt
from Morgan’s Puritan Dilemma
and define the basic differences
between the Puritans and
Pilgrims.
Students will analyze Doc A and
Doc B in pairs will completing a
graphic organizer for analysis.
Have students swap partners to
compare and discuss findings.
Write a summary of what the
Puritans believed about religion
and why they migrated. Students
add info to their overall T-chart
for Puritans and Pilgrims.
Students will analyze Doc C and
Doc D in pairs will complete a
Teacher Activities
Ensure that students are
analyzing the words and thinking
critically about what they might
mean for the Puritans and
Pilgrims.
Teacher models how to analyze a
document and walks the
students through the analysis of
the excerpt from Morgan’s
Puritan Dilemma.
Pass out Documents A and B and
the graphic organizers. Aide
students with vocabulary and
document analysis.
Facilitate discussion and
comparison. Instruct the
students on creating a t-chart for
the Pilgrims and Puritans.
Pass out Documents C and D and
the graphic organizers. Aide
graphic organizer for analysis.
15 minutes
Whole Group Discussion
10 Minutes
Assessment and Application
SCR
20 Minutes
Have students swap partners to
compare and discuss findings.
Write a summary of what the
Pilgrims believed about religion
and why they migrated.
Students add info to their overall
T-chart for Puritans and Pilgrims.
Students need to construct an
argument comparing and
contrasting the Pilgrims and
Puritans using evidence from
their documents.
students with vocabulary and
document analysis.
Facilitate discussion and
comparison. Have students
complete a quick written
summary of the Pilgrims in a tchart.
Explain what needs to be
included in their SCR arguments
and assist students as needed.
Make sure that they support all
of their ideas with evidences.
Class Materials

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Document Analysis Graphic Organizer
Guided Questions for each document for lower students (to be created)
Documents A – E
o 2 for Winthrop and the Puritans
o 2 for Bradford and the Pilgrims
o 1 Secondary Source from Edmond Morgan’s The Puritan Dilemma
Power Point Presentation
o With Wordle.com Pictures of Documents
o With SCR Prompt (Assessment)
Annotated Bibliography
1. “A Model of Christian Charity --- by Gov. John Winthrop, 1630,”
http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/charity.html.
This site not only was useful for its document, but it also allowed for me to compare it to
the version of the source on Digitalhistory.com that had already been modified.
2. “Digital History,” John Winthrop,
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=200.
This site was useful for its commentary on Winthrop and the Puritans and it had two
documents from Winthrop already modified. However these modifications seemed to
focus on the Puritans fear of God and left out the hope that they found. I thus used the
site from Virginia.edu to fix this. Also their bibliography and sourcing did not actually
state the needed origins of the official document and text, this was a hassle.
3. “Digital History,” William Bradford,
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=219.
This site was useful for its commentary on Bradford and the Pilgrims, but like its sources
from Winthrop it also lacked quality sourcing of information.
4. “From the Bradford Journal - Emigration,”
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordjournalemigrate.htm.
This site was useful in that it gave a few short passages from Bradford’s journal, Of
Plimoth Plantaion. These will need to be modified into a more modern friendly language
for my students to understand. However I will show students both my transcription and
the original text.
5. Wordle.com
This site proved worthwhile in helping me create an engaging bell ringer that will get the
students heads wrapped around the themes and words chosen by Bradford and Winthrop
in the documents that they will read.
6. Edmund S. Morgan, The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop, 3rd ed.
(Longman, 2006).
This book was an amazing examination of the often misunderstood Puritans. Not only
did reading this book expand my knowledge, but it will also be a useful source for my
students to access for this lesson.
Document E – Excerpt from Edmond Morgan’s The Puritan Dilemma.
Please note that his tone is speaking as though he was a Puritan in the 17th Century.
Those who did take it [An alternative way to deal with the problem of the Church of England
than the Puritans] were called Separatists. They would have nothing to do with the Anglican Church at
all –and some went so far as to cut themselves off even more completely by immigration to Holland and
then to Plymouth Plantation in New England. Every age has its own separatists. They are the
intransigents, the undeviating purists who have to be right whatever the cost, who would sacrifice the
world rather than compromise their own righteousness. But most Puritans saw that the problem of sin
could not be escaped so easily, and most were sufficiently charitable towed their neighbors to think that
England and her churches were still worth saving. The churches were corrupt, yes, but not so corrupt as
to lose the name of church. They should be purified of their unregenerate members, their heretical
clergymen, their unwarranted ceremonies, their bishops and archbishops, but they were nevertheless
churches and must be embraced as churches. They had brought the means of salvation to many of their
members and might still do so. To deny them would be to deny Christ and to arrogate a righteousness
that belonged only to Him [God].
This was part of the same large paradox that had troubled Winthrop from the beginning, the
paradox that required a man to live in the world without being of it.
Source: Edmund S. Morgan, The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop, 3rd ed.
(Longman, 2006), pg. 27.