Founding the 13 Colonies- Vocabulary & Reading & Analyzing a Table

Two lessons focused on American Colonial History are included in the resource, provide Social Studies Skill Building Opportunities for your middle school students. The Founding of the 13 British Colonies- Vocabulary Development and Reading and Analyzing a Table. The first, Vocabulary Building: familiarizes students with key terms so they can develop greater understanding of the founding of the 13 colonies. The second, The Founding of the Colonies Chart: Reading and Analyzing a Table: provides students with the opportunity to learn and practice various reading strategies, such as drawing conclusions, making inferences and comparisons, and identifying similarities and differences. The questions students will answer guide them through the reading of the table.

The first lesson, Vocabulary Development, provides students with two vocabulary development strategies. First, students identify which of the following 8 words they know (and how well, if at all, they know them) using the Road Signs to Understanding Words handout which front loads the 8 key terms: Theocracy, Proprietary, Democratic, Joint-stock Company, Elected Assembly, Profit, Debtors, and Buffer. From their, they explore each of the 8 words using the K.I.M. Vocabulary Strategy: Knowledge (information about the word, its part of speech, and its variations in parts of speech); Information ((Definition(s) of the word), and Memory Clue Draw a picture or symbol to represent the meaning). They then write an original sentence showing they understand the word.

In the second lesson, The Founding of the Colonies Chart: Reading and Analyzing a Table, students will read and analyze a table with information about the founding of each of the 13 colonies: Colonial Region, Colony/Date Founded, Leader(s), Reasons Founded, Type of Government. Students often need help in navigating information-heavy charts, especially if there are words and concepts they are struggling with. This lesson guides students through how to read and analyzing these key details. The chart is accompanied by 11 analytical questions with the final two questions asking students to reflect on what was most and least challenging about this assignment and why. Finally, there is a vocabulary assessment with 5 short answer critical thinking questions, in which students are asked show their understanding of the key terms by comparing, contrasting, and explaining the words.

The detailed, standards-aligned lessons provide interactive and collaborative ways to approach these activities and includes An About this Resource Chart that easily references all the materials in the resource, including the standards, objectives, learning targets, an Essential Question, 2 Guiding Questions, among other things. The two lessons should take between 2-3 days depending on how you approach the K.I.M. Vocabulary.