Question/Problem 2: Identify and summarize the reasons why English settlers came to America and founded colonies as soon as they arrived

Objectives

Description of lesson/activity

Resources

1. understand the reasons why people came to the colonies.

2. understand how and why communities were founded.

3. use the appropriate methods and tools to interpret primary resources.

4. understand the relationship between the text and the context of the Mayflower Compact.

5. understand that the Mayflower Compact was the first of many efforts to establish government by compact.

1. Prior to teaching this lesson, the students should understand the various reasons why people came to the colonies. They should also be familiar with the historical context of the Mayflower Compact. Who were the Pilgrims? Why did they leave En gland? What role did the Compact play in their settlement vision? How was Plymouth actually governed?

2. There is a method to reading primary documents. To introduce students to this method, it is effective to use cooperative groups.

   • In their first reading, students should peruse a copy of the document to familiarize themselves with it. In their groups, they can discuss characteristics of the compact including its brevity, style of English, signers, etc. After their initial exploration of the document, have students read the Compact again.

   • In their second reading, help students figure out the meaning of words and phrases. This is where the student should be able to use reference tools like dictionaries, encyclopedias, and background histories. (For example, see Roots of the Republic edited by Stephen L. Schechter (Madison, WI: Madison House, 1990.)

   • Next have students read the document in order to prepare an outline of it. Like other writings, a document should contain a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning is referred to as the preamble. In it students should look for state ments of people (how do signers refer to themselves) and principles (for what reasons have they written the document). The middle portion of the document contains the body of operating provisions that answer the question of how the signers' principles should be implemented. This part of the document may also have subparts. The end of the document should contain provisions for ratifying and amending the document as well as a list of signers. A document might well omit one or more of these elements, in which c ase we can refer to it as an "incomplete" document but a document nonetheless.

3. In order to better facilitate students, the teacher should also refamiliarize her/himself with not only the document, but with some of the most recent scholarship about it. _Roots of the Republic_ edited by Stephen L. Schechter contains a chapter on the Mayflower Compact that provides the reader with a user±friendly and informative commentary on the Compact that could even be used by students.

4. Now let's take closer look at the Mayflower Compact and see how it can be better understood using these basic reading techniques. Middle school students will need help and teachers may simplify the outline. However, once students break down th e Compact, it will serve as a guide for simple outlines of longer documents. A blank outline with the first word of each line can be given to them to jumpstart the effort. Outlines can be made into posters for display.

MAYFLOWER COMPACT OUTLINE

I. Beginning (paragraph 1)