Understanding By Design – Backwards Design Process
(Developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, 2002)
Stage 1 – Desired Results
Standards:
1. Historical Skill:
Tier One Building a Personal and Intimate Connection to the Past.
 Seeing history as the story of people and their voice rather than dry and disconnected events.
 Seeking personal or local connections to history whenever possible. (extension activities)
2. CA content Writing Standard: Writing Applications (Genres and their characteristics) 2.1 Write
Personal Narratives.
3. CA Content History/Geography Standard: 5.3.2 Students describe the cooperation and conflict that
existed among the American Indians and between the Indian nations and the new settlers; Describe
the cooperation that existed between the colonists and Indians during the 1600s and 1700s (e.g., in
agriculture, the fur trade, military alliances, treaties, cultural interchanges).
Understanding (s)/goals
Essential Question(s):
Students will understand that:
1. Explain how the Powhatans and colonists
1. In Jamestown, Virginia in the early 1600’s, the
interacted with each other. Include examples
Powhatan People and Europeans experienced
of both cooperation and conflict.
both cooperation and conflict. (agriculture,
cultural exchanges, alliances)
2. Have you developed a character appropriate
to the assigned setting? Have you included a
2. Students will write a personal third person
dialogue between characters using the correct
narrative that develops a character
punctuation and indentation.
appropriate to the setting of Jamestown,
1607. They will incorporate dialogue and
3. Are your story events based on historical
interaction between two cultural groups
facts?
(Powhatan and colonists). They will present a
problem and solution through rising events
and a climax.
3. Describe the relationship between Powhatans
and the Jamestown colonists.
Student objectives (outcomes):
Students will be able to:
1. Historical Skill:
Building a Personal and Intimate Connection to the Past
-Seeking personal or local connections to history whenever possible
-Seeing history as the story of peoples’ lives.
2. Writing Skill:
Write a third person narrative including: character & setting development, a problem & solution, rising events
& climax, and dialogue using correct punctuation and indentation.
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Performance Task(s):
Other Evidence:
1. Historical: Students will include an interaction
1. Historical: Students will make the setting and
between an English colonist and Amerindian
characters believable for the time period.
based on historical evidence.
2. Writing: Content-Include problem, rising
2. Writing: Use dialogue between two or more
actions, climax, and clear resolution.
characters using correct indentation and punctuation.
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
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Read Literature Book: Blood on the River, Jamestown 1607, by Elisa Carbone.
Read the online biography of John Smith at www.harcourtschool.com/HSS
Pull excerpts (if desired) from John Smith's primary source regarding Virginia:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccernew2?id=J1007.xml&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part
=all
Write a personal narrative set in Jamestown, 1607. Main character can be a Powhatan Indian or an
English Settler. Develop a character appropriate to the time using historical facts. Must include a
historically plausible interaction between the Europeans and the local people (Powhatan). Students
will need to develop the character and show personality through character's actions. Students need to
have two characters engage in dialogue using correct punctuation, quotation marks and correct
indentation. They need to use descriptive writing to describe a historically accurate setting. Story
must have a problem and solution with events rising to a climax.
Extension: Research what happened to the main character of Blood on the River, Samuel Collier, who
was a real person who became a colonial leader as an adult.
Extension: Have half the class take the viewpoint of a colonist and half the class take the viewpoint of
a Powhatan. Have students write dialogue journals to each other through letters. Have them share
his or her opinion about a historical event. The "pen pal" writes a rebuttal with their point of view
using historical data.