Students in fifth grade are eager to explore and discover. Imaginative, interested in the way things work, and aware of the world outside their own experiences, they are ready to learn new things. Fifth grade is an excellent time to study history in depth. Students are enthusiastic “time travelers,” willing to ask questions about the past and follow clues to the answers.

The Lessons of 1704 unit takes advantage of students’ developmental readiness to explore the famous attack on Deerfield in 1704. By examining the culture of the English, French, and Native Americans involved in the conflict and studying the events that led up to the attack, students come to understand both why the attack happened and what the outcomes of the attack were. Then, by analyzing accounts of the attack from the 18th through the 20th centuries, they become aware of the ways in which history and myth are constructed.

The unit is student-centered and inquiry-based, and it teaches students basic research skills using primary and secondary source materials. Learning to ask questions of these sources, and to think critically about the bias and intent of the authors or creators, encourages critical thinking skills, academic independence, and the development of media literacy.

Above all, The Lessons of 1704 unit makes teaching and learning about history interesting and engaging. Students’ own curiosity is engaged time and again as they immerse themselves in the past.

The unit was developed as a part of the Turns of the Century project, in collaboration with the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA). It makes use of source materials from the PVMA collections and library and other historic resources. Photographs of all of the source materials that are utilized in this unit have been digitized and stored in a digital library accessible through the PVMA web site. The Lessons of 1704 unit prepares students for the sixth grade Turns of the Century unit. All of the “Turns” curriculum units are designed to satisfy grade-appropriate requirements of the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Frameworks. The Lessons of 1704 unit also satisfies some grade-appropriate requirements of the Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework.

In The Lessons of 1704, students learn the basic skills needed to do research and to “read” primary and secondary sources, to see what they can reveal about the cultural characteristics and attitudes of the English, French, and Native Americans in the Deerfield area in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. At the same time, they learn about the attitudes and behaviors of these three groups toward one another. Then, they use what they have learned to analyze the 1704 attack on Deerfield and the various events that led up to it. Their study of cultures and attitudes not only helps them understand how Queen Anne’s War affected the peoples of the Deerfield area, but also it helps them understand why conflicts happen and how they can escalate. The unit then leads students through an analysis of a wide variety of “accounts” of the attack, from contemporary writings, to an early 20th century movie, to late 20th century “action figures.” These “accounts” all reflect a distinct point of view, which students learn to “read” and understand. Throughout, the unit encourages students to question motives and attitudes before reaching conclusions about the causes and effects of an important event in American history.