Title of Lesson: Your Colonial Experience
Topic: Colonial Life
Subject Area(s): Social Studies, Language Arts
Grade Level: 4th
Description or Outcome Statement: Students will learn the daily life among colonists and
write a narrative about one colonist. They will understand the differences among the colonists
through a final exhibition.
Specific Lesson Objectives:
1. During the lesson, students will understand historical fiction narrative elements.
2. After the lesson, students will understand how narratives can be used to display daily life.
3. While researching, students will learn about the daily life of specific colonists.
4. After researching, students will write a historical fiction narratives of a colonist’s daily life.
5. After the exhibition, students will understand the similarities and differences among
various colonial people.
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Georgia Performance Standards:
ELA4R1.a: Informational Texts: Locates facts that answer the reader's questions.
ELA4W3.a: Research and Technology: Acknowledges information from sources.
ELA4W2.a: Narrative Writing: Engages the reader by establishing a context, creating
a point of view, and otherwise developing reader interest.
Element: ELA4W2.b: Narrative Writing: Establishes a plot, setting, and conflict,
and/or the significance of events.
Element: ELA4W2.c: Narrative Writing: Creates an organizing structure.
Element: ELA4W2.d: Narrative Writing: Includes sensory details and concrete
language to develop plot and character.
ELA4W2.e: Narrative Writing: Excludes extraneous details and inconsistencies.
ELA4W2.h: Narrative Writing: Provides a sense of closure to the writing
Element: ELA4C1.c: Conventions: Uses and identifies correct mechanics (end marks,
commas for series, capitalization), correct usage (subject and verb agreement in a
simple sentence), and correct sentence structure (elimination of sentence fragments).
SS4H3: British Colonial America: The student will explain the factors that shaped
British colonial America.
SS4H3.b: Describe colonial life in America as experienced by various people,
including large landowners, farmers, artisans, women, indentured servants, slaves,
and Native Americans.
Essential Question(s):
1. How was colonial life different between the different occupations and social classes among
colonists?
2. What were the various peoples’ daily life like among the colonies?
3. How can narrative writing be used to describe a certain time period or person’s life?
Materials Needed:
 Computers for each student
 Internet access
 Weebly site (13colonies13.weebly.com)
 Lined paper
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Pencil
Microsoft Word
Narrative Rubric
Technology: Technology is needed for the online Turbo Quest. It is needed for the
math area task.
Procedures:
1. Motivation: Task 4 for Turbo Quest will be on the Active Board. The teacher will
come dressed as a colonial person. He or she will begin to act like the character and
read a historical fiction narrative.
2. Statement of Purpose: He or she will direct the students’ attention to the Task 4
Turbo Quest screen on the interactive board. He or she will read the task aloud. The
teacher will fully explain and discuss Task 4 procedures and how it relates to the
historical fiction narrative.
3. Body of the Lesson:
The teacher will discuss the elements of historical fiction narratives using the
narrative he or she read for the motivation. The elements will be plotted on a graphic
organizer. After the elements discussion, the teacher will have the students begin
Turbo Quest task 4.
Lesson continued in the Turbo Quest task 4.
http://13colonies13.weebly.com/task-4.html
Assessment:
 For a formative assessment, the teacher will monitor the progress of the students
throughout researching and narrative writing.
 For a summative assessment, the narrative writing will be graded based on the
narrative rubric.
Closure: The closure will be at the end of the unit through a class exhibition and colony
presentation. They will have to present their narratives as their colonist.
Accommodations:
 English Language Learners: In order to accommodate the ELL students, unknown
vocabulary or concepts would be discussed through examples and visuals. The student
could also work with the teacher in the back.
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SPED: These students will have teacher guidance throughout the whole lesson activity.
They will be given the rubric for self-assessment.
Reteaching: For remediation, students will be given other resources to research colonists’
daily lives that will include other websites, books, and/or video links. The students will be
able to show their understanding through a variety of choices (podcast, poster, or writing
piece.)
Extension: Students will write a diary that displays the daily life of their colonists among
multiple days. It will have an opening diary page and a closing diary page.