3 Lessons! History and SEL: European Explorers and Best-Self Traits

You get it all! ALL of the Google Drawing and Slide templates/graphic organizers mentioned below are provided in this resource, for all 3 lessons!

This is a collaborative, three part, research project on New York Explorers. Referencing "Best-Self" traits from RULER's meta-moment tool, students will answer analytical questions that will encourage students to form a deeper understanding of the connections between SEL, history and our world today. They will conduct research, collect historical evidence and construct a well formulated paragraph to report their findings.

Lesson 1: Students will use (teacher provided) non-fiction sources conduct research on one of 5 explorers and use the provided graphic organizer to record struggles and accomplishments.

Lesson 2: Students will work individually or as a small group to complete a "Best-Self" portrait for the explorer they are studying. They will analyze struggles and accomplishments from the explorer's life and infer how the explorer might have used his "Best-Self" traits to overcome his struggles. Students will discuss and record their deeper understanding of how these various historical events impacted others.

Lesson 3: Independently, the students will use all of their prior findings and a Google Slide template, to publish a final piece to share with others. (Actual student work sample included.)