Lesson Plans

The American Nation: A History of the United States ©2000

by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes

Focus Lesson 1

Chapter 1: "Europe Discovers America"
Chapter 2: "American Society in the Making"

AP* Course Description

• Discovery and Settlement of the New World, 1492–1650
  • Europe in the sixteenth century
  • Spanish, English, and French exploration
  • First English settlements
    • Jamestown
    • Plymouth
  • Spanish and French settlements and long-term influence
  • American Indians
• America and the British Empire, 1650–1754
  • Chesapeake country
  • Growth of New England
  • Restoration colonies
  • Mercantilism; the Dominion of New England
  • Origins of slavery
• Colonial Society in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
  • Social structure
    • Family
    • Farm and town life; the economy
  • New immigrants

Key Components

• Instructor's Manual:
  Chapter 1, pp. 1–9
  Chapter 2, pp. 10–22
• Study Guide, Vol. I:
  Chapter 1, pp. 1–21
  Chapter 2, pp. 22–37
• Test Bank:
  Chapter 1, pp. 1–16
  Chapter 2, pp. 17–34

Key Web Sites

• Mission Churches of the Sonoran Desert
• Salem Witchcraft Hysteria
• Colonial Williamsburg
• Museum of African Slavery
• North American Slave Narratives
• African Americans in History
• Historical Text Archive (including information on colonial British America from Jamestown to Georgia)

Key Words and Terms

Suggested Pacing

Test Strategy

Key Concepts

• An understanding of historical analysis
  Understanding how historians work and the significance of analytical skills to their work is an important concept for students to learn and emulate in this course. AP* United States history students should be developing their critical thinking skills by reading documents, charts, graphs, political cartoons, and textbooks with speculation. This concept of analyzing what they read should be developed from the first day of class. The practical payoff is that it will help them to write effective—well-reasoned—essays for Section II of the AP* exam. Initiate critical thinking skills development by discussing the colonies' strengths and weaknesses in relation to location. Have students pay particular attention to the Chesapeake colonies' development.
  
  
• Using visual stimuli
  Throughout The American Nation, students will find a variety of visual stimuli. Students should be reading—not just looking at—the many tables, graphs, photographs, and cartoons for information that they can then use in class discussions and essays. In addition to enriching their study of U.S. history, these visuals provide students with practice in analyzing graphics for the DBQ.
  
  
• Comparing and contrasting colonies
  Students should understand the different political, economic, and religious developments of the individual colonies and then use this information to build their view of the larger regions of the British colonies—New England, Middle Atlantic, and Southern—as well as the divisions within the regions—frontier, Piedmont, Tidewater, and Chesapeake.
  
  Creating tables that list the colonies across the top and the various factors—political, economic, and religious—down the left side will help students categorize relevant information. Factors they should consider include the form of each colony's charter, the form of government for each, the environmental factors (location and climate) that influenced the type of economy that developed, and the religion that predominated in each colony.
  
  

Summing Up Student Understanding

1. The Instructor's Manual presents several documents at the end of each chapter. Combined with graphics from the student text, these source readings will be useful in providing students practice in writing DBQs. To begin, duplicate and distribute to students the documents on pp. 8 and 9 of the Instructor's Manual, and have students read them looking for similarities and differences between the two men's experiences in Virginia. Have students speculate about what an essay prompt might be that was based on these two readings and what they have learned about the first English colonies.
   
   
2. The maps that are included at the end of each chapter in the Study Guide are an excellent organizing tool to help students review the text chapter. Point out this feature to students and encourage them to use it.
   
   

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• American Issues: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Unger and Tomes—Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4
• The Power of Words: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Breen—Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4
• Constructing the American Past, Vol. I, edited by Gorn, Roberts, and Bilhartz—Chapters 1, 2, and 3
• American Experiences: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Roberts and Olson (secondary source readings)—Part One and Part Two