This unit on the interaction of people to produce wealth and goods includes such topics as a barter vs cash economy and native American hunting, gathering, agriculture and trade. It combines information from lessons developed by two teachers on the same focus question but in different eras. The teacher may pick those parts that seem best suited for a particular class or may use them all.
 

FOCUS QUESTION VII: How have people and organizations interacted to produce, distribute, and consume wealth and take care of material needs in New Hampshire?

ERAS: I (Beginningstol623)and4(1801-1861)

INSTRUCTIONAL OUTCOMES: 

From the NH History Curriculum...
1.  Students should be able to identify and describe how the economy creates ties among people.

From the teacher's lesson plans...
2. Students should be able to explain the needs and wants of an Abenaki family or group and/or of a family or group in the first half of the 19th century and compare them to the needs and wants of the students' family or household today.

3. Students should be able to explain how each member of an Abenaki and/or of a family or group in the first half of the 19th century cooperatively contributed towards the needs of everyone and compare them to how the students' family or household works cooperatively today.

QUESTIONS TO EXPLORE (inquiry questions taken from NH History Curriculum):

1. What do I need to survive in New Hampshire? What do I want but not need? [Note: A teacher can vary the order of the methods or pick and choose those that will work best with a class.]

Methods:
A.  Brainstorm in small groups and make a list of things that students and their families NEED today for their survival. Discuss the lists as a class and compile a consolidated list for the entire class on the board. Are there items on the list that we could survive without? Identify these as WANTS, not NEEDS, on the list by starring them. Are the items that are left essential (absolute needs) for our survival? Ask them lo explain the difference between a want and a need and why these items might differ from person to person and household to household.

B.  Ask students to imagine themselves as a small animal living in the woods of New Hampshire. Ask: "What would you need for survival? Would your needs change with the seasons?" Discuss and compile a list. Compare this list with the first one of students' needs. Can you find any patterns or similarities?

C.  Assign as homework the chart on Things I need/Things I want. which is attached. In class share the homework assignments. Decide where the objects needed and wanted are made. Are any made in the community?

D.  Ask students individually on their own to fill in a copy of the Household Job Chart, which is attached.  Have them fill in the chart listing the jobs and responsibilities of each person living in their home. Explain how jobs may change seasonally and be sure they all fill in the chart accordingly.
Have them take the chart home to have those living there add items. In class have the students share in small groups their charts and consolidate for each group the information in like categories. (You will probably want to have this consolidation tabulated on poster size paper to be placed around the room for study and discussion.) Share each group's chart with the whole class and compare similarities.

E.  Ask students to think about the people who lived in the forests of New Hampshire about 500 years ago. Explore with the students the two questions, "What do you know about these people? What do you think their needs might have been?" (Sitting in a circle on the floor and passing a "talking stick" is an effective strategy for organizing this type of discussion.)  List ideas and responses on the board. Compare this list to the one created about their own needs and about the animal's needs. Keep the three lists on display and encourage students to think about adding to the list on Native American needs. Ask the students. " What else do we want to find out about the Abenaki people to help us expand on the list?" (Misinformation should be taken note of during this discussion and then
corrected as new information presents itself or is supplied by you to address misinformation. It is probably heller for the discussion if you do not correct it on the spot.)

F.   Read or have students read the information on the Abenakis that is attached. Then in small groups and using a variety of sources (see list below and the bibliographies in the NH History Curriculum), have students read and keep notes about Abenaki family life. What were their needs? What were lheir individual responsibilities? How did each member help with the needs of the whole group? Did these jobs change with the seasons? (and connecting with question 2 below) What did they do when they needed something but didn't have it? How did they keep food that they caught or grew so that it would last all year long? Within each group fill out another Household Job Chart (Again, you may want it lo he on poster board.) using information from their readings and notes. Share each group's
information with the class and compare results presented in the charts. Post the charts. At some point you may wish to compile a class chart consolidating all the information. Watch the movie "People of the Dawnland" (from the Our NH series on New Hampshire PBS) and ask students to watch for jobs being done by males and females. Compare what they see in the video to the information already recorded in their group's Household Job Chart. Add any information not already recorded, (and connecting to questions 2 and 3 below) Were there things shown in the movie that the Abenaki did not make themselves? Where did they come from? (The movie introduces trade with the early settlers.)

G.  Discuss as a class the Abenakis focusing on their needs and wants and how they made or obtained what they needed. This is a good time to be certain that any misinformation about the Abenakis is corrected.

2.   How do/can I and others get the things I need and want? How have New Hampshire people in the past gotten the things they needed and wanted?

Methods:
A.  See F. and G. above for some ideas which relate to this question.

B. Have each student pick one object from his/her homework assignment on Things I need/Things I want and, using a piece of construction paper, cut out a large circle. Have the students draw a picture of the item in the center of the circle and then around the outside of the object draw the cycle (steps) it takes to produce and distribute the object.  Discuss the pictures and discuss the complexity of the production and distribution. Compare this with how the Abenaki made and distributed items they
needed.

C.  Read aloud Donald Hall's book Ox Cart Man. Discuss how the whole household worked together and each person had a particular job to do. Compare this with their own Household Job Chart. (See above.) What are the similarities and differences between the family jobs in the Ox Cart Man and in their homes? Discuss what each student could have contributed to the family in the Ox Cart Man story. Discuss, if it seems appropriate in your class, what each student could contribute to her/his household today if the household needed help. Compare the needs of the household in the story with the needs of the Abenakis and with the needs of their own households. Compare how the needs are filled. (For a geography exercise you can have the class map the journey to Portsmouth on an outline
map of New Hampshire.)

3.   In what ways did people trade and exchange what they had for what they wanted or needed in New Hampshire history?

Methods:

A.  Use dictionaries to look up what bartering means. Look up service and good(s). Establish the differences between the two. Have everybody think of an example that can be shared of when they may have bartered for something either a good or a service. Share examples and discuss. Refer to the Ox Cart Man as an illustration of how farming households in the early years of this nation met their needs. Farming households seldom had much cash and it presented a hardship to them.

B.  Have each student bring to class an object they would like to exchange for something else. Review what bartering means and what is meant by a good and by a service, both of which we usually pay for with money today. Discuss what type of services could be given to each other at school. Discuss if the student wants to trade his/her object for a good or a service. Give the students a chance to show what they brought and to express what they would like in exchange, and then give them time to try to
negotiate a trade.  Debrief by discussing the ease and difficulties they encountered. Introduce the concept of the cash economy. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a cash economy? of a barter economy?

C.  Review and discuss the trade portrayed in the People of the Dawnland video. View the video if not already seen or, if appropriate for your class, show it again. Discuss how the Abenaki traded. Compare that with how the farmer traded and how they trade today. Bring the unit to an end with a
review of the three questions and comparisons of needs, wants, and trade in the pre-Columbian period, the early 19th century, and today.  Pick a final assessment if that is appropriate.

ASSESSMENT:
1. Included in the Methods are several activities that may be used for assessment.

2. Ask each student to prepare a written, oral or pictorial response to one or more of the following:
a.    How did the Abenaki people get all of the things they needed for survival?
b.   How did each member of the Abenaki family help out?
c.    Explain the differences between a cash economy and bartering.
d.   Explain how people in New Hampshire either in the early 17th or early 19th centuries worked together to produce, distribute and barter to take care of material needs. Use the rubrics from the NH Assessment Test to evaluate the students. Use the modified rubrics (see example attached) for students to do a self evaluation of their written work. Have a conference to discuss their evaluation and yours.

3.   This can be done as individuals or a small group (4 students) evaluation. Have each student bring in an item from home that reminds him or her of something they have seen or learned in class about the Abenaki. Use these for a display in the class. Have students draw a picture of or write brief descriptions of each object. (Or you can take photos of each object for each student or group of students. This is rather expensive unless you have photography available in the school district.) Give each student (or small group) a poster with two headings: WANTS and NEEDS. Have them attach their drawings or descriptions under the headings. Have the students give reasons for their placement orally or in a paper. You will need rubrics for the group evaluation which includes evaluating participation.

4.   Have students do independent projects presenting examples of wants and needs, family job distribution or bartering and trade. These may be from a different time period or area of the world. The reports can be written, oral, or pictorial, depending on the student and the project. Guidelines for
evaluation should be established when the project is approved.

SOURCES:
[For the Abenaki and ERA I. See also sources in curriculum under Focus Questions 1-111. Those preceded by an S are suitable for students.]

American Friends Service Committee. Wabanakis of Maine and the Maritimes. Bath, ME: Maine Indian Program, 1989.

Blaisdell,Katherine. Over the River and Through the Years for Children: Book One. Littleton, NH: Sherwin Dodge Printers, 1985.

Galloway, Colin. The Abenaki. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.

Eames-Sheavly, Marcia. The Three Sisters. New York: Cornell University Cooperative Extension, 1993.

Knotts, Sharon. A Village Along the Merrimack.

Public Service of New Hampshire, AmoskeagFishways, Manchester, NH. (Teacher seminars and information booklet.)

Landau, Elaine. The Abenaki. Danbury, CT: Grolier Publishing, 1996.

New Hampshire PBS. Our New Hampshire: People of the Dawnland. Durham, NH. (Educational TV program.)

[For ERA 4, see bibliographies in NH History Curriculum.]

Hall, Donald. Ox Cart Man. New York: Penguin Books, 1983.

NH STANDARDS: Economics 5, 6, 7, 9 (in part); History 16, 17, 18 (in part)