Introduction

Imagine that you are living in colonial eighteenth century America.  What is your everyday life like, how do you spend your time, how do you get along? What is your family like?  The American Colonies are forming their own identities as well as a bond of unity among each other in opposition to the distant oppressing rule of Britain across the Atlantic.  While many Americans embrace this change some do not, remaining loyal to England.  How do you respond?  Where do your religious and political beliefs leave you, how do they influence your life?  Who are your heroes, how do you respond to the rising leaders of your people?

The Task

Each group member will choose a role from the columns listed below.  (One group member per column)  Is there a Colonial role you are interested in that is not listed?  Ask me about it!
You will then research your chosen role on your own.
Afterwards, as a group, you will present your colony to the class.

Trades	Plantation Life	Family Life	Religion / Politics	Founding Father
Apothecary	Indentured Servant	Apprentice	Tory	Adams, John
Blacksmith	Plantation Woman	Colonial Woman	Whig	Franklin, Benjamin
Cabinetmaker	Plantation Master	Student / Child	Puritan	Hamilton, Alexander
Cooper	Slave		Anglican	Jefferson, Thomas
Printer				Washington, George
Shoemaker
Silversmith
Tanner
Wheelwright
Wigmaker

The Process

Each group member should take their own notes, to be turned in at the end of the project.  Write neatly!

Everyone:

Answer the following questions:

1. What is your name?
2. How old are you?
3. Where do you live?
• In which state?
• In town or in the country?
• What does your home look like?
• Who lives with you?
4. What do you look like?
5. What kind of clothes do you wear?

 

 

Individually:

1. Each group member will then need to describe his/her role in the colony.  Questions can be found for individual roles by selecting the link (Trades, Platation Life, Family Life, Religion/Politics, or Founding Fathers) in the table.
2. Feel free to ask (and answer) additional questions.
3. There are also helpful websites included in each section, but feel free to visit your local library or search the web on your own for additional information.

Group Collaboration:

1. Create a collage which displays the differences between the roles of people during Colocial Williamsburg and present day.
1. The collage needs to be a minimum of 22"x36" (posterboard size).
2. Only 50% of the images can come from magazines.  The other 50% of images need to be created by hand (drawn, painted, created on the computer, etc.)
2. As a group, write a brief description of the images in the collage and how they relate to present day.
3. The group will present what they have learned about the different roles of Colonial Williamsburg, and their collage to the class.

 

Evaluation

Rubric:

	0	5	10	15	20
Everyone Questions	Did not answer any questions	Answered less than half of the questions	Answered most of the questions	Answered all of the questions	Answered all of the questions correctly
Everyone Project	No attempt	Does not finish project	Finished project, poor craftmanship	Fished project, good craftmanship	Finished project, went above and beyond criteria
Role Play Questions	Did not answer any questions	Answered less than half of the questions	Answered most of the questions	Answered all of the questions	Answered all of the questions correctly
Role Play Project	No attempt	Did not finish project	Finished project, poor craftmanship	Fished project, good craftmanship	Finished project, went above and beyond criteria
Collaboration Project	No participation	Gives group partial information to do collaboration project	Gives group information needed to do collaboration project	Worked with others in group to get project done	Worked with group to make an accurate collaborative project

Conclusion

As we examine the life and culture of our origins we find them to have been much more alive and real than pages in a textbook.  We can see mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.  We can see a people with feelings, beliefs and heroes.  There is an unbreakable connection with our past in its foundation for the present.  In discovering where we have come from, we can better see who we are now and direct where we will go from in the future.