A good lesson in a rushed unit

The past two weeks I have covered exploration and encounters. I was very unsatisfied with this unit simply because I knew there would not be enough time to explore deeply. Last week we did a map exercise where the students had to identify where explorers came from and the lands they claimed. This week we moved on to examine the first encounters between Native American’s and Europeans and looked at the middle passage. Despite my grievances with the unit overall, I enjoyed teaching and planning a one day lesson on the middle passage. We began by reviewing the motives for exploration, the territories European explorers claimed, historical bias and primary and secondary sources. Then I drew a visual of the triangular trade routes and had the students create their own in their notes. I emphasized that we would be discussing the part of the route that slaves were traded then transported along. I then displayed a clip from the film Amistad that very graphically represents the conditions of the middle passage. Finally, we closed by reading a primary source by Oladouh Equiano and a secondary source about the middle passage. Students were then asked to answer questions about these documents. I feel that this lesson went well because I was able to draw upon content that was very interesting to them to teach skills. If allowed more time I would have loved to spend more time discussing their responses to the film and their thoughts about exploration in general.