Essential Question
Who came to the New World, why, and what kinds of societies did they plant?
This week the student studies who settled the New World and why: Jamestown (1607) and the Virginia tobacco economy, Plymouth and the Pilgrims (1620), the three colonial regions, Maryland as a Catholic refuge under Lord Baltimore, and the Catholic colonies of New France and New Spain. The week honestly and age-appropriately introduces the painful beginning of African slavery in the colonies. The research project continues into outlining and drafting.
Liturgical note: Lent (March) continues — the season of penance, prayer, and almsgiving. The week's saint, St. Isaac Jogues and the North American Martyrs, models the Lenten themes of sacrifice and offering one's life in love.
Threads at a Glance
The European powers compete for empire; mercantilism and the Atlantic world
The Civil War: From Bull Run to Appomattox
William Penn (and, in content, Lord Baltimore and Catholic Maryland)
The 13 colonies; draw the eastern seaboard, the three colonial regions, and label all thirteen colonies
Colonial American art — the limner portraitists and folk art; Puritan plainness vs. the Spanish mission baroque
Music in the colonies — psalm singing and the Bay Psalm Book; an intro to the European Baroque flourishing back home
St. Isaac Jogues and the North American Martyrs (missionaries of New France)
Industriousness (the colonial work ethic)
YOUCAT — Part Four intro: Prayer — what it is and its sources in Scripture
Sentence health — fixing run-ons, comma splices, and fragments
Research project (Part 2) — outlining and drafting
Weekly Writing Assignment
Continue the research project launched in Week 22. THIS WEEK: (1) sort your notes into 3-5 main points that together answer your research question; (2) build a formal outline (introduction with thesis, body sections, conclusion); (3) write a complete first draft, weaving in evidence from your sources with in-text citations. Do not worry yet about perfect polish — get a full draft on paper.
The Week
Close the Week
Add each date to your running timeline notebook — one color for World History, another for US History.
Unit Reading · Renaissance, Exploration & Reformation
by E. L. Konigsburg
A witty, surprising novel that imagines the friendship between Leonardo da Vinci, his mischievous servant boy Salai, and the duchess Beatrice — and the mystery behind the Mona Lisa's smile.
by Robert Bolt
The acclaimed play about St. Thomas More, who would not betray his conscience even when the king demanded it — and paid with his life. A gripping portrait of integrity in the storm of the Reformation.
by Louis de Wohl
A sweeping novel of St. Francis Xavier, the friend of St. Ignatius who carried the Gospel across the seas to India and Japan during the Catholic Reformation. Adventure and holiness on a global stage.
by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's most famous play: two teenagers from feuding families fall headlong in love, with tragic results. The classic introduction to Shakespeare for ninth graders, full of dazzling language about love, family, and rash choices. (Mature themes — young love and the lovers' suicides — make for rich discussion with a parent.)
by Miguel de Cervantes
An old gentleman reads so many tales of chivalry that he sets off to be a knight himself — tilting at windmills with his loyal squire Sancho Panza. The first modern novel: hilarious, tender, and wise. Best met in a good abridgment at this age. On the Cardinal Newman Society reading list.
by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño
The true-life story of Juan de Pareja, an enslaved man in the household of the great Spanish painter Velázquez, who secretly learns to paint and eventually wins his freedom and friendship. A quiet, beautiful novel about art, dignity, and faith. Listed on the Cardinal Newman Society reading list.