Lesson title: Exploring Sheridan Road

Length: 1 hour and 15 minutes

MI Grade Level Content Expectations/CCSS/NGSS/anti-bias standards
GLCEs:
5 U1.2.2 Use case studies of individual explorers and stories of life in Europe to compare the
goals, obstacles, motivations, and consequences for European exploration and colonization of
the Americas (e.g., economic, political, cultural, and religious).

Common Core:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.6 Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting

important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.

Teaching Tolerance:
Diversity 10 DI.3-5.10 I know that the way groups of people are treated today, and the way they
have been treated in the past, is a part of what makes them who they are

Big idea(s)/enduring understanding(s)

European exploration to the Western Hemisphere was motivated by a variety of reasons
(gold, God, and glory)

Explorers left Europe to find treasure, but they did not always find what they were looking for

Explorers had to read maps to reach their destination and explore the New World

Maps allow people to reach their destination, but they were not always accurate

Essential question(s)
1. Why did the explorers leave?

2. What were the explorers looking for?

3. How was the exploration of the school different than the exploration of the New World?

Lesson objective(s): Students will be able to

1. Read a map and navigate Sheridan Road as a group of explorers
2. Find treasure (gold, silver, disease, etc.) throughout the school (mostly
indoors)
3. Work with a group successfully to explore the school
4. Discuss what they discovered and their feelings towards what they found
5. Discuss how other explorers impacted their ability to find treasure throughout
the school
6. Write a reflection journal about their exploration of Sheridan Road including:
where they found their treasure, the route they took around the school to find their
treasure, and what they learned about exploration.
Lesson procedure
Transition:
Say: Class, class. Yes, yes. Please put away your silent reading book, you will not need
anything on your desk. (Wait until all students their desks cleared and closed and eyes up front).
Introduction (10 minutes)
Today, we are going to start our unit on explorers. Ask: what do you think an explorer is? What
do they do? Somebody who looks for something. They travel to another place to find something.
They go on an adventure. As students are sharing their ideas of what an explorer is/does, write
it down on chart paper so we can go back as a class and look at our definition of an explorer at
the end of the unit to see if it changed at all.
Say: Those are all great ideas! I hope that today and throughout this unit we can have an even
better understanding of an explorer and what they do.
Transition: To learn about explorers, we are going to do our own exploring today. I will split you
all up in groups of 4 and you will explore around the school.
Split up students into groups of four. Have a variety of groups with varying levels and interests.
Make sure that the English Language Learners and the special education students are in
different groups so that they can get as much attention as possible in their small group. The
groups should also not include close friends since a lot of friends have hard time working
together in groups.
Review hallway procedures: Walking feet, no talking (this may be slightly adapted because they
will be working in groups). However, students may not speak above a volume 1 because other
classrooms will be learning. There will be one class out at a time so there are not 95 students
roaming the school at the same time. If students are being too loud, they will sit on the couches
by the conference room with a teacher (indigenous person) as a roadblock and they will wait an
allotted amount of time before being able to look for the treasure again.
Activity (30 minutes)
Times:
1:15 1:45 Kelcey
1:45 2:15 Anna
2:15 2:45 Rob
2:45 3:15 Megan
Once students are split up into groups, say: I am going to give each of you a map with a
route. Each map looks the same, but the routes are different, since you have different
destinations. The map is just of the school and includes some directions and a place for a
legend/key. Each group will be given a basic map of the school with a route on it, telling them to
go east/west/north/south so they can find their treasure. Provide each group with a bag of
supplies- pencils, colored pencils/crayons, clipboards
Ask: why do you think you would need a map? To find something and know exactly where to go.
Ask: do you think the maps were always accurate back when exploration was new? No
Say: Right. So, you have to follow this map of the school and a route to find something. Each
map has specific directions to follow, so you must stick to your route.
Review north, south, east and west. North is facing the 4 grade hallway, east is facing the
th

office, south is facing the 5 grade hallway, and west is facing the 6 grade hallway.
th th

Say: Each group will have something to find throughout the school, but they might not find the
same thing. Your job is to follow the map to find your treasure. You will be given a stopwatch to
make sure that you are only using your 20 minutes. Students are only given 20 minutes
because the explorers may have run out of supplies, or had a time limit to tell the king. Before
the end of 20 minutes, you must be back in front of the gym to head back to class. You will use
a colored pencil to mark the route you took, following the route directions you are given. Make
sure to include this route in your legend as well. When you find your treasure, mark it on your
map, both exactly where you found it and on your key/legend. Also, mark the time that you
found it. That way, if more than one group finds the same treasure, we will know who found it
first. You will only have 20 minutes to find your treasure. If you find the treasure before your 20
minutes is up, you may begin exploring the school for other treasures. You must also mark your
route on the map to find the other treasures using a different colored pencil. Before exploring for
other treasures, you must find an indigenous person (Mr. Briggs, Mrs. Heibeck, Ms. Corrie, or
myself) and say what you are looking for and where. For example, you would say, Ms. Laylin, I
am going to look for the Fountain of Youth and I think its in the gym. From there, you can go
explore. When you find another treasure, you must include it on your map. It should be
written/drawn on your map and also included in your legend/key. After each treasure that you
find, you must check in with a teacher before continuing your exploration.
Ms. Corrie, Ms. Heibeck, Mr. Briggs, and myself will be stationed at various places throughout
the school. You may ask us for help if you need it, but we might not answer you completely, or
correctly. Each time a group asks us a question, provide them with a surgical mask, which
represents disease, since typically the explorers got the diseases from the indigenous people.
Make sure that you follow the maps and routes exactly as they say, or else you might get lost
and have to start all over. When I call your group, the first person that I call should come up and
grab their map. After your group has been called and you have your map, your group may line
up at the door. You will have 20 minutes to try and find your treasure. If you find your treasure
with time left over, you may look around the rest of the school and see if you can find anything.
Remember to check in with a teacher before starting to look for more treasure. Make sure you
include this treasure on your map.
Call students names in groups and have the first student come up and grab a map. Afterwards,
have them line up at the door. Once every group is called and lined up, I will have them begin to
explore the school.
As you are grouping students, tell them that each student will have a specific role that will be
assigned to them. One person is the captain, one is the time keeper, one is the navigator, and
one the recorder (making sure all the information is written down).
Each of the four teachers will be stationed throughout the school to help in any way. However,
the teachers are not required to answer all their questions because the indigenous people were
not always truthful with the explorers because they did not want them invading their home.
After 20 minutes, tell students to go back to the classroom. It does not matter what teacher says
to come back.
Transition
Say: as you enter the classroom, please go back to your original seat.
Wait until all students are back and seated, waiting quietly for the next direction. If students are
talking, you can say class, class and they will respond yes, yes. Another possibility is to say I
will wait. They typically will quiet down quickly when that is said.
Closure
Fill out the maps together as a class. Have one group share out their route and what they were
looking for. As you are completing this on the document camera with different colored pencils,
make sure students are also completing their maps and filling it out, even if it wasnt their route.
Some students may have found the same item, but they took a different route, make sure thats
noted.
Ask: did you think this was difficult? Why or why not?
Ask: what did your group find? What was the treasure? We found silver, gold, disease, land,
people, etc. Ask: why do you think that some groups found positive things while other groups
found negative treasures? When the explorers left, they didnt always find good stuff. Do you
think that the explorers found similar stuff to what you found? Probably. Ask: why do you think
they left in the first place? Maybe they wanted to find some new things and didnt like their home
country. Say: right, they could have been looking for gold, land, or new opportunities. Though,
as we learned, they may not have always found good things, they may have found stuff like
disease. Over the next couple of weeks, we will learn more about explorers that came to the
New World and the impact that they made.
Ask: why do you think the teachers didnt always tell you accurate information? Because the
explorers didnt always have accurate information when they were looking for treasure
Ask: why was what you found important to the Europeans? They were looking for these items to
bring back home
Ask: what do you think could have been some struggles for the explorers? Getting lost, running
out of time, upsetting their king, getting diseases, running out of supplies
Ask: why did many explorers go back to the New World after going home? They didnt find what
they were looking for, they were greedy
Ask: how did their exploration affect the New World? Took over indigenous peoples land, took
resources, increased trade, spread disease
After having a discussion, have students write a paragraph (reflection journal) explaining what
they learned about in their exploration of the school and how they think it will connect to the rest
of our explorers unit.
Assessments
Students will write a paragraph explaining what they learned about in their exploration of
the school and how they think it will connect to the rest of our explorers unit. Their paragraph
should include where they found their treasure, the route they took around the school to find
their treasure (and if they stuck to it completely), and what they learned about exploration.
Each group will also turn in their map, showing the completed legend/key and filling in
where the various treasures were located throughout the school.
Differentiation
To differentiate, I will split up the English Language Learners and special education
students into various groups, they will not all be together in one group. For some students, they
will be given a map that tells them how many steps to take, while others will say how many
paces to take. For the learners who are struggling, it will tell them steps; for the learners in the
middle will say paces; and the advanced learners will not be told the number of steps.
Those are two different things and students must understand vocabulary for that. Other students
will not be told the number of steps/paces to take because they have to be able to read the map
without that guidance.
Accommodations
To accommodate, I will split up the English Language Learners and special education students
into various groups, they will not all be together in one group. I will be very intentional with the
groups because I will make sure that each ELL/special education student has at least one
buddy that can help them read a map. I will also pull these students aside beforehand and teach
them how to read a map so they know how to do so before being told to explore the school. This
will allow students to be as successful as possible while exploring the school.
Materials Needed
Maps for 6 groups
o Including different routes (but may be the same between classes)
Pencil
Colored pencils
Paper
Clipboards
Note-taking sheet
Reflection journal
Surgical masks
Treasures: gold, silver, land, trade, indigenous people, Fountain of Youth