A Course in Rhode Island History #5: Unit I Guiding Questions

Image courtesy of http://farm6.staticflickr.com

I. Rhode Island Geography and Narragansett Bay 

Guiding Questions (DRAFT)

• How is Rhode Island’s topography the product of plate tectonics and the ice age?

• What are the basic landform regions and waterways of Rhode Island?

• Why is Narragansett Bay central to Rhode Island's history since the arrival of people here?

• How were rivers, streams and other waterways used by people in Rhode Island?

• How did religious separatism and border disputes with Connecticut and Massachusetts affect Rhode Island’s colonial boundaries?

• How did geography affect the settlement and the formation of Rhode Island’s towns?

And that is all for Unit I. 

Upon reflection, there is a lot of information in this section to cover in what I'm planning to be about one-and-a-half to two 90-minute blocks. That said, since students live amongst, see and interact with the landforms and geography around them, there will be opportunities to draw on experience and prior knowledge, and to encourage students to share that knowledge with the class. But it is Rhode Island after all, so while some students will have experienced much of this firsthand and traveled to a lot of places around in the state, there will be students who rarely if ever leave South County or even their own towns. 

The other key point is that there will be many opportunities to reinforce the content of this unit over the rest of the course. This unit is first so it can be referred to it repeatedly throughout the course.

A good pretest and some formative assessments along the way will help reinforce the main ideas.