Schenectady City
  School District

108 Education Drive
Schenectady, NY  12303
518.370.8100

 

   The Albany Institute of History and Art
Colonial Life in America
Grade  4

A museum educator guides students in their viewing of colonial artifacts and artworks to discover the reasons for the original 17th century Dutch settlement of upstate New York.  Life for the Dutch settlers and their relationship to native Americans and other residents of colonial Albany is discussed, especially related tot he fur trade, agriculture, and commerce.  Suitable for schools studying New York State and American history during the colonial era.

Objective  Students will gain a clearer understanding of Colonial life in Albany by viewing and learning about actual artifacts from the time.  Students will also understand the relationship between early Dutch settlers and Native Americans in regard to the fur trade, agriculture and commerce.

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This integration plan was used by a Social Studies Teacher of Grade 4  Bought Hills School.

The program directly relates to the fourth grade curriculum.  This class will be studying the Dutch settlements in New York and how they settled with the purpose for trading with Native Americans in our social studies text prior to the video conference.  After the video conference students will complete a webquest based on the content covered in the videoconference and textbook.  Website links from the Albany Institute of History and Art will be used as a resource.  At the completion of the webquest, students will write an essay exploring the economic relationship between early Dutch settlers and Native Americans.

The following New York State standards will be met:

Social Studies
Standard 1 Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Standard 2  Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

Standard 4 Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the U.S. and other national economics, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and non-market mechanisms.

Time Required
Planning:  a few hours to create webquest and the project VIEW training day to set up video conference.

Pre-lessons and activities:  2 days to read about and discuss early settlement in New York, specifically the early Dutch Settlement and their economic relationship with Native Americans.

Implementation:  time to do a test call from the classroom with appropriate equipment, the projectview training day to schedule the video conference, and the day to actually have the video conference

Post lessons and activities:  one lesson to discuss what was covered in the video conference.  Another lesson to go over format of the webquest using the Museum's website links.  At least two computer lab periods to complete the webquest.

Assessment:  One class to plan the culminating essay and at least one to write it.

Logistical Planning
Review the following procedures ahead of time:

  • Looking at the camera, not the video screen, when speaking
  • Getting comfortable with seeing yourself on screen
  • Speak loudly and identify yourself before you speak
  • Be ready for a delay between questions and answers

Techniques and Tools

  • Classroom discussion
  • Webquest results
  • Essay exploring relationship between early Dutch Settler and Native American rubric to score webquest and essay