7th Grade Bridge to AP – U.S. HistoryMr. Veliz

A Trip Through the Colonies:Journal Writing

Question to think about:

If your family decided to move to a foreign country, what three things would you want to know about daily life there?

Europeans in the 18th-century had similar questions about colonial America.

Your JobYou will assume the role of 18th-century journalist

whose assignment is to describe to your English readers what life is like in the American colonies.

Working in pairs, you will visit the 18 “slices of colonial life” and record notes about your findings.Be sure to consider the discussion question at each

station.

You will use the information gathered to write a “journal” about colonial life in America that might have appeared in an 18th-century English publication.

Directions for Writing a Journal About Colonial America

1. You are an 18th-century English journalist who has spent a year living and learning about colonial America.  While in America, you kept a journal to record your thoughts and impressions of the place, its people, and their cultures.  You want your journal to be published so that the people of England will better understand what life is like in colonial America.

2. You will use your notes from Student Handout 1.3B to write a journal with these guidelines:

1. Your journal should have an appropriate title.2. Your journal should be written for an audience that

has never been to America and knows little about life in the American colonies.

Directions for Writing a Journal About Colonial America

2. You will use your notes from Student Handout 1.3B to write a journal with these guidelines:

3. The intention of the journal should be to inform people living in England about American colonial life.

4. Your writing should be formatted like a journal.  Each entry should be dated and should describe some aspect of colonial life.  Be creative and imaginative in explaining how you learned about each of these aspects during your adventurous year in America.  Some of your experiences might have been humorous, others sad, and others strange.

5. Your journal should address at least 10 aspects of colonial society.  You are free to detremine which ones you want to include in your journal.

6. Your journal should be at least two pages in length.

A few more directions:Journals must be typed and submitted

electronically through Google Docs or Email (as an attachment).

Please do not use MS Works. If it is the only program that you have, use Google Docs.

Search the Internet, the library, or other sources for at least 2 to 3 pictures related to each aspect of colonial life that you have included in your journal. Save them to your flash drive, or, if in books or on paper, bring to class to be scanned.