Passengers bound for Virginia (1635) | Rubric | New England | 1635 passenger list index | Inquiry Unlimited

Once the passenger list activity is completed, what student results might you expect?

Assessment: Passengers bound for colonial Virginia and New England (1635)

I. Give examples of two new concepts, idea, or skills that you "know you know" since participating in this data analyzing activity? Explain how you "know you know" it.

1. "I learned a new skill now that I got to sort that data. When I was looking through the New England bound people, I heard people pointing out things that I did not even notice. Then I started noticing things too. Then I learned to look closely and observe things better. I also learned to keep track of things better." JJ

2. "In the New England bound passengers the ages were pretty much all ages of people in families. In the Virginia bound passengers they were very different in ages. The Virginia ship had teenagers through adults." (KP)

3. "Some of the people were related to each other by the last name on the New England ship." (RG)

4. "Joseph and John were popular names. People bound for Virginia were between the ages of 21-30." (JL)

II. You have discovered an additional passenger list of people bound for New England in the 1600s! Reproduce the actual listing including information for 5 realistic, but imaginary people as passengers on that ship. Mirror the way the information was recorded on our sample passenger list, using data and patterns that you observed from completing the age span activity.

1. John Jacob Jinglehimer Smith, 38 1. John Jesope, minister, Batcombe, 40

2. Sarah Smith, his wife, 32 2. Ann Jesope, his wife, 39

3. John Jacob Jinglehimer Smith Jr., his son, 7 3. Joseph Jesope, his son, 12

4. Ellyan Smith, his daughter, 11 4. Elizabeth Jesope, his daughter, 11

5. Joseph Smith, his son, 2 (JJ) 5. Jacob Smith, his servant, 35 (KP)

III. Justify why you would expect the type of people that you included in your original, reproduced passenger description to be heading for New England.

1. "In my New England names I think that I did good because I included a family, names that were used a lot, a servant, the ages, and where they lived and so did the person who made up the passenger list." (KP)

2. "I picked these names because they were the most common names when I tallied them from the ship." (RG)

IV. If you were to discover an additional passenger list of people bound for Virginia in the 1600s, what age groups would you expect to find on the ship based on your prior knowledge? Why?

1. "I would expect to find younger people because there were no children with the Virginia passengers." (KP)

2. "People on that ship were between 14 and 30. Some were older." (JJ)

3. "Ages groups around 14-20 because in Virginia tobacco grows and mostly men smoke tobacco." (CH)

4. "I would say between 11-20 because they are young and strong to work." (NV)

5. "I think 20-40 because the 20 year olds would work on a tobacco field and the older people boss everyone around." (MD)

V. Prior to engaging in this activity, most of you had never analyzed a passenger list! If you were to do it again, you would bring the prior knowledge from participating in the activity to your new task. From your perspective, what prior knowledge would be valuable for a novice to interpret information from a passenger list?

1. "I would tell someone to see if they were set up in families and what range were the ages." (KP)

2. "A novice would need to know how to make a graph and read a graph." (SS)

3. "I would tell him/her to look for what is similar." (NV)

4. "I would tell the novice that they would have to sort names and organize ages." (MD)


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Copyright 2002 Marjorie Duby. This is the intellectual property of Marjorie Duby.