Teaching
American History
For All
A series of lessons incorporating literacy strategies for
Mt Diablo Unified School District
5th, 8th, and 11th grade teachers,
in partnership with
University Of California, Berkeley
History-Social Science Project
5th Grade Lesson: Triangular Trade
Jamie Cairns, MDUSD 5th Grade Teacher
Linda Chandlee, MDUSD 5th Grade Teacher
Wendy Citron, MDUSD 5th Grade Teacher
Carli Fierros, MDUSD 5th Grade Teacher
Kimberly Leyden, MDUSD 5th Grade Teacher Leader
Kay Lunine, UCBH-SSP 5th Grade Teacher Leader
Alejandra Dubcovsky, UCB History Graduate Student
Lauren Weaver, MDUSD Grant Coordinator
Teaching American History for All
MDUSD/UCB H-SSP
5th Grade Lesson: “Triangular Trade”
Developed by: Jamie Cairns, Linda Chandlee, Wendy Citron, Carli Fierros, Kimberly Leyden, Kay Lunine, and
Alejandra Dubcovsky
Teaching American History Grant Focus Question:
How did definitions of citizenship change from the 17th century to the 20th century?
5th Grade Yearlong Question:
How did Americans change from being colonial subjects to American citizens?
Unit Focus:
Settling the Colonies.
Unit Focus Question:
What factors helped shape the economic and political development of the thirteen British
colonies?
Unit Working Thesis:
The economic and political development of the Northern, Middle, and Southern colonies depended
on the distinct people who settled in the region, the settlers’ different reasons for founding
colonies, and the varied resources available in the regions they settled.
Lesson Focus Question:
How did the thirteen colonies participate in the triangular trade?
Lesson Working Thesis:
The thirteen colonies exported raw materials to England and the West Indies, and imported
manufactured goods from England and slaves from Africa. This trade of goods and people tied the
British colonies, England, and Africa together in an interdependent relationship.
Reading Strategy:
Sentence deconstruction
Passage level analysis – identifying and organizing evidence
Writing Strategy:
Paragraph response
Suggested Amount of Time:
One to two class periods.
Textbook:
The United States: Making a New Nation. Orlando, Florida: Reflection Series, Harcourt
School Publishers, 2007, Chapter 5, pps 226-227
Other Resources:
Primary source – quote from Olaudah Equiano and images of the Middle Passage
Secondary source – triangular trade maps
Context of the lesson in the unit:
This lesson is part of Lesson 3: New England’s Economy. Earlier lessons in this chapter cover
other aspects of the New England colonies.
Lesson Procedure:
Day One:
1. Introduction
 Trade Activity – see directions.
 Pass out a copy of the simple triangular trade map and relate to activity.
 Note to teacher: Students will need map for Day Two.
2. Reading Strategy
 First, read pages 226 and 227 together.
 Pass out and discuss primary source images and quote.
 Pass out copy of text and sentence deconstruction.
 Students will circle verb and underline objects on copy of text.
 Teacher will complete sentence deconstruction with the students.
Day Two:
1. Reading Strategy
 First, review previous day’s lesson.
 Pass out organizing evidence worksheet.
 Teacher models how to complete the worksheet.
 Students will organize evidence about exports and imports using the text and the maps.
 Note to teacher: Students will need worksheets for Day Three.
Day Three:
1. Writing Strategy
 First, review as needed.
 Pass out guided paragraph writing worksheet.
 Students will need organizing evidence worksheet from Day Two.
 With modeling as needed, students will complete guided paragraph worksheet. Refer students to
organizing evidence worksheet (connect concluding sentence with thesis sentence).
History-Social Science Content Standards:
5.4 Students understand the political, religious, social, and economic institutions that evolved in the
colonial era.
Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills:
Chronological and Spatial Thinking
4. Students use map and globe skills to determine the absolute locations of places and interpret
information available through a map's or globe's legend, scale, and symbolic representations.
5. Students judge the significance of the relative location of a place (e.g., proximity to a harbor, on
trade routes) and analyze how relative advantages or disadvantages can change over time.
Historical Interpretation
3. Students identify and interpret the multiple causes and effects of historical events.
Reading/Language Arts Content Standards:
Reading
1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
Students use their knowledge of word origins and word relationships, as well as historical and literary
context clues, to determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and to understand the precise meaning
of grade-level-appropriate words.
2.0 Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials)
Students read and understand grade-level-appropriate material. They describe and connect the essential
ideas, arguments, and perspectives of the text by using their knowledge of text structure, organization, and
purpose. The selections in Recommended Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve illustrate the
quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students. In addition, by grade eight, students read
one million words annually on their own, including a good representation of grade-level-appropriate
narrative and expository text (e.g., classic and contemporary literature, magazines, newspapers, online
information). In grade five, students make progress toward this goal.
Writing
1.0 Writing Strategies
Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the students' awareness of the
audience and purpose. Essays contain formal introductions, supporting evidence, and conclusions.
Students progress through the stages of the writing process as needed.
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
1.0 Students write and speak with a command of standard English conventions appropriate to this grade
level.
Triangular Trade
Trade Activity
Purpose of Activity: To demonstrate an interdependent trade relationship
Materials needed: pencils, erasers, and paper
Procedure:
1. Select three students
2. Give Student A three pencils, Student B three erasers, and Student C three pieces of
paper.
3. Tell the three students that they must have one of each item in order to complete the
“writing assignment.”
4. Students need to identify what they have and what they need. They need to formally
trade with one person at a time.
5. Students exchange items so that everyone ends up with one of each.
6. Tell students that this relationship demonstrates interdependence.
7. On the board the teacher writes the words: Principal, teacher, and student. Discuss
with students how each relationship would not exist without the other. Explain to
students that interdependent relationships are not always equal by pointing out that
there are not equal numbers and that power is not equally distributed.
8. Discuss other examples of interdependence from students’ lives.
“Triangular Trade across the Atlantic” from Chapter 4, pg. 98 in Out of Many: A History of
the American People, Teaching and Learning Classroom Edition, Brief Fourth Edition By
John Mack Faragher
5th Grade Triangular Trade
Focus Question: How did the thirteen colonies participate in the triangular trade?
Circle the verbs/verb phrases and underline the objects.
Trading ships carried goods from England and raw materials from the English colonies and
the West Indies. The ships also carried people who were captured from Central and
Western Africa to become slaves. These people were sold as enslaved workers in the
English colonies. During this time, millions of enslaved Africans were forced to travel
across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the West Indies. This long ocean journey was
called the Middle Passage.
From: The United States: Making a new Nation. Pg. 226, Reflections Series, Harcourt
School Publishers, 2007.
Fifth grade triangular trade sentence deconstruction
Focus question: How did the thirteen colonies participate in the triangular trade?
Time
Who (subject)
marker/connector
Trading ships
Action
Who, What, Where
words
Objects
(verbs, verb
phrases)
carried
goods from
What conclusion can
you draw? What
questions do you
have?
and raw materials from
people who were captured from
The ships
also carried
were sold
During this time,
to become slaves.
as enslaved workers in the English
Colonies.
to travel across the Atlantic Ocean
were forced from
was called
From: The United States: Making a new Nation. Pg. 226, Reflections Series, Harcourt School Publishers, 2007.
Fifth grade triangular trade sentence deconstruction: Teacher Key
Focus Question: How did the thirteen colonies participate in the triangular trade?
Time
marker/connector
During this time,
Who (subject)
Who, What, Where
Object
Trading ships
Action
words
(verbs, verb
phrases)
carried
What conclusion can you
draw? What questions do
you have?
The ships
also carried
people who were captured from Central
and Western Africa to become slaves.
How did this happen?
These people
were sold
as enslaved workers in the English
Colonies.
They sold people?
How were the people
treated?
millions of
enslaved Africans
were forced
to travel across the Atlantic Ocean from How were they forced?
Africa to the West Indies.
This long ocean
journey
was called
the Middle Passage.
goods from England and raw materials What are trading ships?
from the English Colonies and the West What are goods? What
Indies.
are raw materials?
Why was it called the
Middle Passage?
Triangular Trade
Identifying and Organizing Evidence
Exports
Imports
British
colonies
(including
the West
Indies)
England
Africa
Focus Question: How did the thirteen colonies participate in the triangular trade?
Triangular Trade
Identifying and Organizing Evidence KEY
Exports
Imports
British
colonies
(including
the West
Indies)
*raw materials:
furs, lumber, tobacco, rice,
sugar, fruit, coffee, whale
oil, grain, dried fish
*molasses
*rum
*iron products
*manufactured goods:
cloth, shoes, and paper
*tea
*spices
*wine
*slaves
*gold
England
*manufactured goods:
cloth, shoes, and paper
*tea
*spices
*wine
*iron products
*silver
*raw materials:
furs, lumber, tobacco, rice,
sugar, fruit, coffee, whale
oil, grain, dried fish
*molasses
Africa
*slaves
*gold
*rum
*iron products
*silver
Focus Question: How did the thirteen colonies participate in the triangular trade?
Primary Source
The Middle Passage
“[T]he ship…was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself… The shrieks of
the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the
whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.”
Excerpt from Chapter Two of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Image from Carl B. Wadstrom’s An Essay on Colonization, Particularly Applied to the
Western coast of Africa... in Two Parts [London, 1794, 1795]
Triangular Trade
BASIC ANALYTICAL PARAGRAPH FRAME/OUTLINE
Focus Questions: How did the thirteen colonies participate in the triangular trade?
Thesis statement: The thirteen colonies participated in the triangular trade by exporting
and importing.
Evidence: The colonists exported _____________________ to ________________ and
___________________________.
Specific Evidence: Raw materials included _____________________________________
________________________________________________________________________.
Evidence: They imported ________________________________________ from England.
Specific Evidence: ________________________________________________________.
Evidence: The thirteen colonies also imported _____________________ from Central and
Western Africa to ___________________________________________.
Analysis: This trade of goods and people tied the British colonies, England, and Africa
together in an __________________________ relationship.
Concluding statement: In conclusion, _________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________.
Triangular Trade
BASIC ANALYTICAL PARAGRAPH FRAME/OUTLINE Key
Focus Questions: How did the thirteen colonies participate in the triangular trade?
Thesis statement: The thirteen colonies participated in the triangular trade by exporting
and importing.
Evidence: The colonists exported raw materials to England and the West Indies.
Specific Evidence: Raw materials included furs, lumber, grain, whale oil, and dried fish.
Evidence: They imported tea, spices, and manufactured goods from England.
Specific Evidence: Manufactured goods included cloth, shoes and paper.
Evidence: The thirteen colonies also imported people from Central and Western Africa to
work as slaves.
Analysis: This trade of goods and people tied the British colonies, England, and Africa
together in an interdependent relationship.
Concluding statement: In conclusion, through exporting raw materials and importing
manufactured goods and enslaved people, the thirteen colonies participated in the
triangular trade.
The thirteen colonies participated in the triangular trade by exporting and importing.
The colonists exported raw materials to England and the West Indies. Raw materials
included furs, lumber, grain, whale oil, and dried fish. They imported tea, spices, and
manufactured goods from England. Manufactured goods included cloth, shoes and paper.
The thirteen colonies also imported people from Central and Western Africa to work as
slaves. This trade of goods and people tied the British colonies, England, and Africa
together in an interdependent relationship. In conclusion, through exporting raw materials
and importing manufactured goods and enslaved people, the thirteen colonies were
involved in the triangular trade.