The Village Quest Project Sample Lesson

Introducing the idea of village settlements

Focusing Questions/Themes:

What makes a village?

Why do villages grow in certain places?

Vermont Standard(s):

Traditional & Social Histories: 6.5b: Demonstrate an understanding of the relationships among powerful people, important events and the lives of common people.

Movement & Settlement: 6.8aa: Analyze and evaluate the causes and effects, processes and patterns of human movements, both chosen and forced in the community, Vermont, and the world (e.g. the impact of transportation, technology)

Understanding Place: 4.6bb: Explore the interrelationship between the local environment and the local community heritage (e.g. settlement patterns, tourism, hunting, agriculture)

New Hampshire Standard(s):

11.2 Identify and discuss the human geographic features of neighborhoods and places including population density, economic activities, forms of shelter, and modes of transportation.

11.3 Discuss the attachments people have for a particular place and region as well as their sense of places and regions.

13.6 Describe the location and boundaries of various economic activities, including agriculture, mining, manufacturing, fishing, forestry, and tourism, and discuss the relative importance of these activities in New Hampshire and the U.S.

Length of Time needed:

90 minutes

Materials:

Hand lenses or loupes

colored pencils

oversized (ledger)

photocopies of early and contemporary maps (to use for comparison)

Procedures

1. Have students work together to create a basic map of their town. You can do this either on the chalkboard, a large easel, or on individual pieces of paper. What is the shape of the town? What towns lie to the north, south, east and west? What are the main watercourses and thoroughfares? What are the key geological features? How many villages or settlements are there? How many schools? Etc. (This serves as a good pre-assessment).
2. Then begin with a discussion framed by the following guiding questions:
   • If you were the 1st settler in your community, where would you settle? And, why?
   • When settling previously unsettled areas, why might a village "grow" in a certain place?
   • What might settlers look for in terms of geography and location when choosing a home site?
   • What architectural/man made elements and natural resources, at a minimum, would you say it takes to "make a village?" The core components are: (generate a list).
3. Introduction Activity
   
   One way to introduce the students to the village is to take a historical map and cut it into enough pieces for every student to have one piece. Have each student take one piece and focus your guiding questions on their individual pieces.
   Sample Map Puzzle Questions:
   • What are we looking at?
   • Who can tell me the scale of this map?
   • Are there letters & numbers, in bold, on your piece?
   • What do they say?
   • What does DIST stand for?
   • Can anyone locate a school on their piece?
   • How many schools are there (raise your hands)?
   • Is there a correlation between the School # and the DIST #?
   • Where is the school located in in your piece? At the Center? At the edge?
   • Why do you think schools are located in the center of your piece?
   • Who can locate a cemetery on their piece?
   • How many cemeteries are there (raise your hands)?
   • Why were there so many cemeteries and schools in the town?
   • What do you think this means?
   • Does everyone notice NAMES on their section?
   • What do you think the names indicate? Why are they important?
   • From your sections, can anyone give me proof that relatives lived close together?
   • Can anyone tell me of a natural features they see on their sections?
   • Who has a river or brook on their section?
   • What are the relationships between roads and brooks?
   • Who thinks they have the top of the map?
   • Who thinks they have the bottom of the map?
4. After you have exhausted questions and answers with students holding their individual pieces, you can have them fit them together to "discover" the town. (This activity is a wonderful addition and ends up teaching itself)
5. Research Activity
   Hand out ledger sized photocopies of an old map of your town. Have students locate water courses, geological features, old roads, places where building are grouped, community structures like churches, cemeteries and school houses. Using pencils or crayons, have students color-code the natural features of the land, water in blue and mountains or fields in green. Color code man made structures: schoolhouses, cemeteries, and mills. Circle what appear to be settlements, i.e. clusters of buildings
6. Drawing Conclusions
   • How do these clusters actually relate to natural features?
   • What elements are common to most clusters (hamlets, villages)?
   • Why are there so many schools in just one town? Why is this no longer the case?
   • What does this suggest about where hamlets grew? And how people traveled?

Assessment:

Product - Students have produced clearly colored maps, showing they recognize settlements, school districts, and key geologic and cultural features.
Tool/reference point: teacher's map/answer key

Performance - Their concluding discussion reflects an accurate/reasonable interpretation of the data.
Tool/reference point: checklist.

Extension(s):

1. Comparing old with contemporary maps, students attempt to find the location of their home on the older map, as well as the local schoolhouse they might have attended. (In class or homework)
2. Then, students walk to that school, and map their walk, attempting to record the time and distance from home to school. You might ask them to figure out the distance and time for their home to their current school as well. (homework)

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