LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Power sharing and the Lord Proprietors of North Carolina

This lesson examines the essential question: How did government instability under the Lord Proprietors effect the development of North Carolina? The lesson has been modified for novice low English language learners.

A lesson plan for grade 8 English Language Development and Social Studies

By Pamela Glover and Laura Packer

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Learning outcomes

The student will understand the relationships between the Lord Proprietors, the Governor, the Council and the Assembly, and how their different roles led to conflict.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

4.5 hours

Materials/resources

  • word maps, one per student pair
  • one copy of budget and role instructions per student
  • bilingual dictionaries
  • one thesaurus per pair
  • one overhead copy of each attachment for teacher

Technology resources

  • one transparency of each attachment
  • overhead projector

Pre-activities

The students will have previously studied the effects of geography on the development of NC.

Activities

Day One

(90 minutes)

  1. Use the Geography flow chart to review how geography affected the development of NC.
  2. Mini-lecture: The teacher will explain flow chart of Lord Proprietors. Students will create their own flow chart.
  3. Teacher will pronounce key vocabulary, ELLs will repeat (reading Proprietary Colony attachment).
  4. Ask students to read text and underline the key vocabulary.
  5. Pair students for word map work. Give each pair a Word Map and one key vocabulary word. The students will identify what the key word is like (or a synonym), what it is not (an antonym), and examples that demonstrate understanding of the vocabulary word.
  6. Students will use dictionaries and thesauruses to complete the word map. Students will orally present the vocabulary to the rest of the class. Teacher will post the vocabulary maps.

Day Two

(90 minutes)
Simulation

  1. Explain that a simulation is pretending to be a certain person (role) to see what happens.
  2. Explain a budget. For example your family has a $200 food budget, but no money for shoes. So when you take $35 out of groceries for shoes, you have to rethink the food purchases.
  3. Pass out the School Budget.
  4. The students will use a school board/student council/teacher/principal analogy to understand differences between the proprietors/council/assembly/governor. Explain the roles in the simulation. Assign roles to students.
  5. Assign a 3-person school board. The school board presents the $4,000 budget reduction demand to the principal at a mock meeting. The principal in turn will explain the budget reduction to the Student Council and Teacher teams. (Because the school board only has a short beginning and ending role in the simulation, these students can be researching the topics of Day 3, part II to be presented as supplemental to the teacher’s mini-lecture.)
  6. The student group and teacher group have 20 minutes to make a decision based upon the budget. A scribe in each group will keep records of the ideas discussed.
  7. Each representative must present two options to the principal for budget reduction.
  8. The principal should be coached to reject their solutions if they include a pay cut in her salary. The reps will take the decision back to the groups.
  9. Groups decide on alternative action. (The hope is that the student council and teacher groups will realize that they may argue their case directly to the school board.)
  10. Debrief orally. Why might the principal have denied the recommendations? How did the student council and teacher groups make their recommendations and what was their reaction to the principal’s denial?
  11. Quick write: students respond in writing to prompt “The problem between the student council, teachers, and principal was …”

Day Three

(90 minutes)

  1. Students will write and explain an analogy using the Lord Proprietor graphic organizer, the simplified text, and their experience from the role play.
  2. Academically gifted student assignments should be presented to the class to explain conflicts between colonists and Proprietors: Navigation Act, Plantation Act, Vestry Act; evidence of government instability: Culpepper’s Rebellion, Cary’s Rebellion, Proprietor’s fear that King would recall the land possession; and economic instability: boundary disputes, reduced tax potential, inequitable tax collection, piracy, shipping disputes, reduced immigration to NC.
  3. Using the Government Instability and Economic Instability attachments, the teacher would review the presentations and illustrate the causes and effects of both.

Assessment

How did North Carolina’s government instability affect its growth? Write a paragraph in explanation (use the Writing Assessment Rubric).

Supplemental information

Modifications

  • drawing, gesturing, pointing, to demonstrate understanding
  • graphic organizer for vocabulary (Word Map attachment)
  • simulation to demonstrate the interaction between power holders
  • bilingual dictionary

Alternative assessments

Add simple illustrations to the government instability organizer using the Limited English Alternative attachment. For example: taxes changed - little and big money bag, change in governors - stick man leaving a building, new hat on stick man walking in.

Critical vocabulary

proprietor, governor, assembly, council, disagreement, instability, economics, immigration

Comments

When assigning student pairs, put the ELL with a buddy who can translate, or the ELL can be paired to observe and repeat the buddy’s work.

Day 3, Part II. AG Assignments should be researched ahead of time by students for presentation to the class.

This lesson plan was developed during the English Language Development Standard Course of Study lesson planning institutes hosted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and LEARN NC, June and July, 2004. It includes specific strategies, instructional modifications, and alternative assessments which make this lesson accessible to limited English proficient students. Please note that this lesson has been aligned with the goals and objectives of the N.C. English Language Development standards.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Development (2005)

  • Objective 0.03: Demonstrate comprehension of verbal cues of concrete academic concepts and informational materials through non-verbal responses such as pointing, drawing, gesturing.
  • Objective 0.03: Read and determine the meaning of images, signs, and written words through body language or simple words and phrases (e.g., picture dictionaries and survival signs).
  • Objective 0.03: Recognize and repeat simple vocabulary.
  • Objective 0.06: Produce simple sentences using guided writing strategies.

    • Social Studies (2003)

    Grade 8

    • Goal 1: The learner will analyze important geographic, political, economic, and social aspects of life in the region prior to the Revolutionary Period.
      • Objective 1.05: Describe the factors that led to the founding and settlement of the American colonies including religious persecution, economic opportunity, adventure, and forced migration.
      • Objective 1.06: Identify geographic and political reasons for the creation of a distinct North Carolina colony and evaluate the effects on the government and economics of the colony.
      • Objective 1.07: Describe the roles and contributions of diverse groups, such as American Indians, African Americans, European immigrants, landed gentry, tradesmen, and small farmers to everyday life in colonial North Carolina, and compare them to the other colonies.