Madison Public Schools
4th Grade Social Studies
Written by:
Marisa Caruso
Laurie Schaefer
James Stricchiola
Reviewed by:
Matthew A. Mingle
Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Janine Loconsolo
Supervisor of Elementary Education
Approval date:
September 9, 2014
Members of the Board of Education:
Lisa Ellis, President
Kevin Blair, Vice President
Shade Grahling, Curriculum Committee Chairperson
David Arthur
Johanna Habib
Thomas Haralampoudis
Leslie Lajewski
James Novotny
Madison Public Schools
359 Woodland Road
Madison, NJ 07940
www.madisonpublicschools.org
Course Overview
Description
The fourth grade Social Studies course of study begins with investigating the motivation for
European exploration. It will transition into the colonization of the New World. It will conclude with
studying the tension that grew between the colonies and Great Britain.
Goals
This course aims to:
● Apply non-fiction reading strategies to understand the effects of exploration and colonization
of the New World.
● Understand the role slaves had in the colonies.
● Determine the reasons for and the events leading up to the creation of the Declaration of
Independence.
● Engage students in a variety of activities, such as writing, role playing, debating, drawing,and
problem solving, as a means to learning the content of the units.
Resources
Suggested activities and resources page
Unit 1 Overview
Unit Title: Exploration
Unit Summary: Students will learn how and why explorers set out for the new world in the late
1400s and 1500s. Furthermore, they will learn about European explorers who claimed land in
North America. Students will synthesize by ranking each explorer’s impact on history.
Suggested Pacing: 15 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● Why do people seek new lands?
● How did European exploration impact the New World?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● Europeans had different motives for wanting to leave their homelands. Their desires and
discoveries impacted the New World in various ways.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:Explorer impact on history assessment- page 32 timeline
Exploration Benchmark Assessment
Rubric for Benchmark Assessment
Objectives
(Students will be able to…)
Describe what
explorers took to and
from the New World
during the Age of
Exploration.
Identify motives for
exploration of the New
World.
Essential
Content/Skills
Content:
New World, Age of
Exploration, explorer,
archaeologist,
astrolabe, the
Americas, cash-crop,
nation-state
Skills:
Suggested
Assessments
Formal
Assessment-chapter 4
(see lesson masters
book)
Journal
Entry-Interactive
Student Notebook pg
25
Identify tools for
exploration.
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs, CCSS, NGSS)
6.1.4.C.2 Distinguish between
needs and wants and explain how
scarcity and choice influence
decisions made by individuals,
communities, and nations.
Pacing
5 lessons
6.1.4.C.9 Compare and contrast
how access to and use of resources
affects people across the world
differently.
6.1.4.C.16 Explain how creativity
and innovation resulted in
scientific achievement and
inventions in many cultures
during different historical periods.
Imagine traveling
without access to tools.
Examine objects from
an explorer’s ship.
6.1.4.D.19 Explain how
experiences and events may be
interpreted differently by people
with different cultural or
individual perspectives.
Categorize navigation
tools.
W.4.3 Write narratives to develop
real or imagined experiences or
events using effective technique,
descriptive details, and clear
event sequences.
Explain the impact
exploration of the New
World had on the
natives.
Content: conquistador,
Northwest Passage,
contagious disease,
East Indies, colony
Explain how the
exploration of the
Americas led to
settlement.
Christopher
Columbus, John
Cabot, Juan Ponce De
Leon, Hernan Cortes,
Jacques Cartier,
Francisco Coronado,
Henry Hudson
Samuel De
Champlain, Robert La
Salle
Skills:
Identify, organize, and
analyze key facts
about eight early
European explorers
who led expeditions to
the New World.
Trace and label
explorers’ routes and
identify the motives
for the explorations of
early European
explorers.
Predict the level of
impact European
explorers had on
Formal AssessmentChapter 5 (see lesson
masters book)
Explorer MatrixInteractive Student
Notebook pg 28-29
6.1.4.D.1 Determine the impact of
European colonization on Native
American populations, including
the Lenni Lenape of New Jersey
6.1.4.D.2 Summarize reasons why
various groups, voluntarily and
involuntarily, immigrated to New
Jersey and America, and describe
the challenges they encountered.
6.1.4.D.3 Evaluate the impact of
voluntary and involuntary
immigration on America’s growth
as a nation, historically and
today.
6.1.4.D.4 Explain how key events
led to the creation of the United
States and the state of New Jersey.
4.RI.7 Interpret information
presented visually, orally, or
quantitatively (e.g., in charts,
graphs, diagrams, time lines,
animations, or interactive
elements on Web pages) and
explain how the information
contributes to an understanding of
the text in which it appears.
6 lessons
North American
history.
Unit 2 Overview
Unit Title: Early Colonization
Unit Summary: Students will learn about the opportunities that presented themselves to settlers
embarking on life in the New World. Students will recognize and distinguish the similarities and
differences between life in the three early English Settlements as well as the original colonies.
Students will come to understand the challenges that faced the early colonists and why certain
settlements succeeded and others failed.
Suggested Pacing: 13 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● How did the challenges faced by the first English settlers affect the shaping of the colonies in
the New World?
● How do different groups of people learn from one another?
● In what ways were the early settlements alike? Different?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● People in each colony used the colony’s unique resources to overcome the challenges they
were presented with. They capitalized on their resources in order to prosper.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Suppose that you are moving from Great Britain to one of the North American colonies in the
1740’s. Write a farewell letter to your family.
Your letter should include:
● A date and salutation
● Paragraph(s) that identify the colony in which you plan to settle and then explains your
reasons for moving there.
● Paragraph(s) that compare your choice of colony with the two other regions of colonial
America (for example, if you were to choose Georgia- a southern colony- you would compare
it with the New England and Middle regions)
● Writing that has a clear voice that is appropriate for the time period and is free from spelling
and grammatical errors.
This assessment is based on a writing prompt in the interactive student notebook, pg. 43s.
Objectives
(Students will be able to…)
Explain the
challenges the first
English colonies faced.
Explain why some
English settlements
survived, while
others did not.
Essential
Content/Skills
Content:settlement,
Roanoke, Jamestown,
Plymouth, marsh,
colonist, democratic,
ally
Skills:
Suggested
Assessments
Formal AssessmentChapter 6 (see lesson
masters book)
Advertisement for a
particular settlementInteractive Student
Notebook pg 38
Compare and contrast
the three English
settlements of
Roanoke, Jamestown,
and Plymouth
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs, CCSS, NGSS)
6.1.4.B.4 Describe how landforms,
climate and weather, and
availability of resources have
impacted where and how people
live and work in different regions
of New Jersey and the United
States.
Pacing
6 lessons
6.1.4.D.1 Determine the impact of
European colonization on Native
American populations, including
the Lenni Lenape of New Jersey.
6.1.4.D.5 Relate key historical
documents (i.e., the Mayflower
Compact, the Declaration of
Independence, the United States
Constitution, and the Bill of
Rights) to present day
government and citizenship.
Locate settlements on
a map.
Analyze the causes
and effects of events
before and during
King Philip’s War.
6.1.4.D.19 Explain how
experiences and events may be
interpreted differently by people
with different cultural or
individual perspectives.
4.RI.3 Explain events, procedures,
ideas, or concepts in a historical,
scientific, or technical text,
including what happened and
why, based on specific information
in the text.
4.W.1 Write opinion pieces on
topics or texts, supporting a point
of view with reasons and
information.
Identify the
similarities and
differences among the
three colonial regions.
Content: economy,
plantation,
indentured servant,
industry, West Indies,
grant, assembly,
apprentice
Skills:
Identify key features
of six colonies:
Massachusetts Bay,
Rhode Island, New
York, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and
Georgia.
Gather and organize
information about a
colony into a
persuasive
presentation.
Compare and contrast
the New England,
Middle, and Southern
Colonies through
charts and writing.
Formal AssessmentChapter 7 (see lesson
masters book)
Completed Chart on 6
colonies- Interactive
Student Notebook pg
40-41
6.1.4.A.1 Explain how rules and
laws created by community,
state, and national governments
protect the rights of people, help
resolve conflicts, and promote the
common good.
6.1.4.C.2 Distinguish between
needs and wants and explain how
scarcity and choice influence
decisions made by individuals,
communities, and nations.
6.1.4.C.5 Explain the role of
specialization in the production
and exchange of goods and
services.
6.1.4.D.1 Determine the impact of
European colonization on Native
American populations, including
the Lenni Lenape of New Jersey.
6.1.4.D.2 Summarize reasons why
various groups, voluntarily and
involuntarily, immigrated to New
6 lessons
Jersey and America, and describe
the challenges they encountered.
Draw conclusions
from a map.
4.W.2 Write
informative/explanatory texts to
examine and convey complex
ideas and information clearly and
accurately through the effective
selection, organization, and
analysis of content.
4.SL.4 Engage effectively in a
range of collaborative discussions
(one-on-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse partners
on grade 4 topics and texts,
building on others' ideas and
expressing their own clearly.
Optional: Describe life
in Colonial
Williamsburg.
Chapter 9
Content:
Williamsburg,
capitol, craftsmen,
trades, politics, royal
colony, bills
Skills:
Identify important
sites in colonial
Williamsburg.
Describe aspects of life
in colonial
Williamsburg:
education, trades,
social life,
government, slavery,
and religion.
Compare and contrast
life in colonial
Williamsburg with
life in the students’
community.
Interactive Student
Notebook pg 120-121
6.1.4.D.2 Summarize reasons why
various groups, voluntarily and
involuntarily, immigrated to New
Jersey and America, and describe
the challenges they encountered
6.1.4.D.3 Evaluate the impact of
voluntary and involuntary
immigration on America’s growth
as a nation, historically and
today.
6.1.4.D.14 Trace how American
identity evolved over time.
3 lessons
Unit 3 Overview
Unit Title: Slavery
Unit Summary: Students will understand what enslaved Africans had to endure on their journey to
the New World and what life was like for slaves living in the colonies. Students will also understand
how the slave trade linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Suggested Pacing: 9 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● What factors contributed to the slave trade?
● How did the trading of certain goods between the Europeans and the West Africans promote
the slave trade?
● What effect did the slave trade have on West African cultures?
● How did previous explorations by European explorers inadvertently promote the slave
trade?
● How was the triangular trade an almost unbreakable cycle?
● How did some slaves manage to survive the ordeal of the Middle Passage and in the daily life
as an enslaved African American manage to find hope and comfort?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● People throughout history have been exploited. Supply, demand and most of all greed have
caused hardships. Throughout this, people have managed to survive and find hope.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information: Use interactive notebook pg. 46- Critical thinking A.
Students should work in groups to debate, then individually choose one option to support in written
form.
Objectives
(Students will be able to…)
Understand the
similarities and
differences amongst
West Africans.
Explain dilemma 1:
Trading slave for
guns in West Africa.
Explain dilemma
2:Surviving the
Middle Passage
Explain dilemma 3:
Living as a slave in
the colonies.
Describe ways that
slaves kept hope alive.
Essential
Content/Skills
Content: dilemma,
Middle Passage,
Triangular trade,
slave auction,
overseer, Griot,
spiritual
Map Skills: Geography
of West Africa,
Timeline, Societal
structure of West
Africans, Slave Trade
Skills:
Locate West Africa.
Define Slave Trade.
Define and apply term
dilemma to slavery.
Describe daily life in
West African Village.
Identify the struggles
of surviving the
Middle passage.
Describe slave life in
the colonies: the
choices, building a
culture and keeping
memories alive.
Suggested
Assessments
Formal AssessmentChapter 8 (see lesson
masters book)
Journal Entry pg. 50
Interactive student
notebook
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs, CCSS, NGSS)
6.1.4.D.9 Explain the impact of
trans-Atlantic slavery on New
Jersey, the nation, and
individuals.
6.1.4.D.13 Describe how culture is
expressed through and influenced
by the behavior of people.
6.1.4.D.15 Explain how various
cultural groups have dealt with
conflict between maintaining
traditional beliefs and practices
and adopting new beliefs and
practices.
4.W.2 Write
informative/explanatory texts to
examine a topic and convey ideas
and information clearly.
Pacing
8 lessons
Unit 4 Overview
Unit Title: Tensions Arise
Unit Summary:
This unit focuses on the reasons why Americans sought independence from Britain and how the
colonists responded to the British government’s desire to gain greater control over the colonies.
Suggested Pacing: 17 lessons (Begin during marking period 3)
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● How is power justified?
● How do societies resolve conflict?
● How can individuals make a difference in society? In history?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● People view power differently and base their actions accordingly.
● The resolution of conflict may involve aggression, compromise, cooperation, and change. Not
everyone will be happy with the outcome.
● People respond to conflicts in a variety of ways. People react to what is important to them
based on own experiences and a desire to change a situation.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Objectives
(Students will be able t0…)
Explain what
British actions
angered the
colonists in the
1700s.
Describe the
importance of the
French and Indian
War and the
resulting
Proclamation of
1763.
Essential
Content/Skills
Content:
Ohio River Valley, the fur
trade with American
Indians, British gain land in
North America, British
debts, British designates
newly won land for
American Indians
Suggested
Assessments
Create a news article
that describes the
events of the war and
the effects of the British
victory
Skills:
Identify the causes of the
war and name countries
involved.
4 lessons
6.1.4.D.4 Explain how key
events led to the creation of
the United States of
America.
Pull key information from
informational texts.
Skills:
Define domain specific
vocabulary.
9.1.4.A.1 Recognize a
problem and brainstorm
ways to solve the problem
individually or
collaboratively.
6.3.4.D.1 Identify actions
that are unfair or
discriminatory, such a
bullying, and propose
solutions to address such
actions.
Compare and contrast
British owned land before
and after the war.
Content:
The Quartering Act, the
Sugar Act, the Stamp Act,
The Stamp Act Congress,
Sons of Liberty, Boston
Massacre, Boston Tea Party,
Intolerable Acts, First
Continental Congress,
“No taxation without
Representation”,
Parliament
Pacing
6.3.4.A.1 Evaluate what
makes a good rule or law.
Locate areas/boundaries on
map.
Describe the causes
and effects of the
British tax acts and
the Intolerable
Acts.
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs, CCSS, NGSS)
6.1.4.A.9 Compare and
contrast responses of
individuals and groups, past
and present, to violations of
fundamental rights.
Complete cause and
effect chart to show why
British laws were
created and how
colonists responded.
Create a timeline of
important events
(British laws,Boston Tea
Party, etc.).
Formal AssessmentChapter 10 (see lesson
masters book)
6.1.4.A.1 Explain how rules
and laws created by
community, state and
national governments
protect the rights of people,
help resolve conflicts, and
promote the common good.
5 lessons
6.1.4.c.4 Describe how
supply and demand
influence price and output
of products.
List and identify main ideas
of British Laws.
Pull key information from
informational texts.
Explain the
arguments for and
against colonial
independence from
Great Britain.
Compare and
Contrast the views
Content:
independence,
Loyalists, Patriots, neutral,
traitor, tyrant, treason,
resolution, King George,
Parliament
Skills:
Chart explaining
Patriot and Loyalist
arguments for or
against independence
Letter Writing Activity
pg 65-66 Interactive
Student Notebook
6.1.4.D.19 Explain how
experiences and events may
be interpreted differently by
people with different
cultural or individual
perspectives.
3 lessons
of Loyalists and
Patriots.
Compare and contrast
opinions of Loyalists and
Patriots.
Identify people who shared
loyalist and patriot views.
Read, interpret, and
paraphrase opinions of
Patriots and Loyalists.
Describe and
analyze the
contributions of
specific individuals
and groups of
people in the
American colonies.
Content:
Benjamin Franklin, Samuel
Adams, Patrick Henry,
Mercy Otis Warren, John
Adams, the Committees of
Correspondence, the
Continental Congress
Interview one of the
individuals learned
about (compose 5
questions/answers that
indicate understanding
of person’s
actions/opinions)
Skills:
Pull key information from
informational texts.
Formal AssessmentChapter 11 (see lesson
masters book)
Research on internet to find
facts about specific
individuals.
Read, interpret, and
paraphrase key lines from
Patrick Henry’s speech.
Support ideas with
facts/evidence from text.
8.1.4.E.1 Evaluate the
accuracy of, relevance to,
and appropriateness of using
print and non-print
electronic information
sources to complete a
variety of tasks.
5 lessons