This unit plan teaches 4th grade students about European exploration and colonial America through the use of technology and collaboration. Over eight days, students will: 1) Learn about European explorers from the 15th-16th centuries and their reasons for exploration through maps, timelines, and group projects. 2) Study the establishment of the 13 colonies and compare life in the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. 3) Create podcasts and posters comparing social classes and family roles in different colonies as well as English, French, and Spanish settlements. 4) Use primary sources and reflection writing to understand slavery's influence on the colonial economy.

1. Assure Method Unit PlanIntroduction: This Unit Plan will be teaching students about European Exploration which led to Colonial America. This unit will center itself around using 21st Century technology, Web 2.0 applications, and collaboration between students and the teacher.Analyze Learners

2. My Unit Plan was written for students in a 4th grade classroom. The students would be between 9 and 10 years old. My goal is to cover who and when each part of North America was discovered, when the first colonies were established, and how colonists created a life for themselves in the different colonies.

3. State Objectives http://wveis.k12.wv.us/Teach21/public/cso/cso.cfm

4. SS. O. 4. 5. 1 Create timelines to sequence and infer connections between events in major historical periods in U.S. history (e.g., discovery, colonization, revolution).

5. SS. O. 4. 5. 5 List the European explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries, explain their reasons for exploration and the information gained from their journeys and then show how their travels in North America affected both North America and the rest of the world.

6. SS. O. 4. 5. 12 Select, analyze, interpret and use information from various sources for reconstructing the past (e.g., documents, letters, maps, photos, newspaper articles) and prepare short reports that explain who, what, when, where, how and why events occurred as they did.