Title:

Subject:

Mystery
Social Studies

Grade:

Description:

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

Duration:

90 Minutes

Author:

Shawna McCoy

Instructional Unit Content

Standard(s)/Element(s)
Content Area Standard:
SS4H2 The student will describe European exploration in North America.
b. Describe examples of cooperation and conflict between Europeans and Native
Americans.
TAG Standards
Advanced Communication Skills
10. The student supports and defends his/her own opinions while respecting the
opinions of others.
Advanced Research Skills
5. The student gathers, organizes, analyzes, and synthesizes data from multiple
sources to support or disprove a hypothesis.
Higher Order Critical Thinking Skills
11. The student draws conclusions based upon relevant information while discarding
irrelevant information.
Summary/Overview
The focus of this lesson is to solve a mystery to understand the cooperation and
conflict between Europeans and Native Americans.
Enduring Understanding(s)
At the end of this lesson the student will understand

a. How location helped the Native Americans establish settlements and utilize
the resources available in their area.
b. How the Native American and European explorers affected each other during
the European establishment of their settlements.
Essential Question

How does environment affect how you live?

What influence did the Europeans and Native Americans have on each other?
What were the strengths and weaknesses of the relationships between Native
Americans and Europeans?

Concept(s) to Maintain
Evidence of Learning
What students should know:
a. Location affects a societys economy, culture, and development.
b. The movement or migration of people and ideas affects all societies involved.
What students should be able to do:
a. Understand the feelings of the Native Americans.
b. Describe how the environment affected the European settlements.
c. Describe ways that Native Americans and European settlers could have worked
together.
d. Supports and defends his/her opinions while respecting the opinions of others.
e. Gather, organize, analyze, and synthesize data from multiple sources to support
or disprove a hypothesis.
f. Draw conclusions based upon relevant information while discarding irrelevant
information.
Suggested Vocabulary
climate
resources
culture
environment

Procedure(s)
Phase 1: Hook
1. Students will watch a short video about what detectives do. After the video, the
teacher will ask the students to write down what steps they would take to solve a
mystery and discuss. Modification: Students can choose to work individually,
in pairs, or in a small group no bigger than 4.
Phase 2: Examine the Content
2. Share the Mystery. Distribute The Lost Colony of Roanoke to students. After
reading, students will work individually to develop a list of tentative hypotheses.
Modification: They can also work in pairs. In addition, they can choose to
listen to an online version of the story.
3. North Carolina of Archives and History want to reopen the case of these missing
colonists to share at a presentation for the Roanoke Island Festival. Dr. Kevin Cherry,
the Deputy Secretary, would like to hear all of the hypotheses to this long standing
mystery. Divide class into Historical Study Teams. Each team will develop a team
hypothesis for the disappearing Roanoke Colony mystery.
4. Have each team watch a video about the The Lost Colony of Roanoke and jot
down any notes that will help them determine what happened.
5. Before the lesson, cut out and mix up the clues before giving them to the
students. Then distribute the clues, chart paper, a glue stick, and markers to each
group. Ask them to sort the clues however they like and determine cause and effect
relationships.
6. Based upon data found within the clues, each team will refine its hypothesis and
propose a solution to the mystery.
Phase 3: Synthesis Activity
7. Each Historical Study Team will create a presentation to share its hypothesis with
North Carolina of Archives and History. Modification: Students can choose the
type of presentation they want to create. It will be limited to 1 minute.
7. After each group presents, have a class discussion about the similarities and
differences of the hypotheses.
Summarizing Activity
Write/tweet a 140 character (including spaces and punctuation) summary of your
learning from today.
Resource(s):

Anchor Text(s):
Roanoke: The Lost Colony--An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen
Technology:
http://www.history.com/topics/jamestown/videos/mystery-roanoke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv-vLhl4l0U#t=41 ( detective video)
Handouts:
Handout 1: Roanoke Content Sheet
Handout 2: Roanoke Clues
Handout 3: Tweet Sheet

The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island

It is one of American history's most enduring unsolved mysteries:
What happened to the colonists at Roanoke? Since no one knows
still, we can all make our own conclusions, based on available
evidence.
On July 22, 1587, a group of settlers from England arrived at the
island of Roanoke in what is now Virginia. They were led by a man
named John White-the only settler whose fate is known. Shortly
after they arrived, they concluded that they did not have the
resources to survive in the hostile territory. John White decided to
return to England for help. He was unable to return for three
years.

John White arrived at Roanoke on August 18, 1590. Not one

settler remained. John Whites daughter and granddaughter were
among the missing. There was no sign of foul play and no
suspicious remains. The only clue was two carvings, one in a post,
and the other in a tree. The first read Croatoan. The second
read Cro. Croatoan was a nearby island, where the settlers
might have gone. Unfortunately, John was unable to investigate.
No one is sure where the settlers went, if anywhere.

Roanoke Clues
The first expedition to Roanoke was led by Sir Richard Greenville.
The expedition arrived at Roanoke in 1585. Greenville left 107
settlers, all men, at Roanoke under the charge of Ralph Lane.
Greenville then returned to England in order to gather additional
supplies for the settlement.
The first group of settlers built a fort at Roanoke, but struggled to
survive. It didn't help matters that they were constantly fighting
with the local Native Americans. When English explorer Sir Francis
Drake passed by the settlement and offered to take them back to
England, the colonists agreed.
Not long after the first group of colonists left, Captain Greenville
finally returned with new supplies only to discover that the
settlement had been abandoned. He left a small group of men on
the island and then returned to England.
A second attempt at starting a colony at Roanoke occurred in
1587. This time 115 colonists travelled to Roanoke led by John
White. They hoped to find the men that Greenville had left a year

earlier. However, upon their arrival, all they found at the

settlement was a human skeleton.
The second group of colonists began to build their settlement on
Roanoke. Not long after their arrival, a girl named Virginia Dare
was born. She was the first child born in the Americas to English
parents.
Unfortunately, the colonists continued to have disputes with the
local tribes and some colonists were killed. They also discovered
that they were ill-prepared to build a thriving colony. John White
decided to return to England in order to gain supplies and
reinforcements for the colony.
After returning to England, White could find little help for the
colony. England was in the middle of a large battle with Spain and
the Spanish Armada. As a result, White was unable to return until
three years later in 1590. When White arrived he found the colony
completely abandoned.
The only clues that White found included the word "Croatoan"
carved into a fence post and "Cro" carved into a tree.
White found no sign of a struggle, however, and figured that the
colonists had moved to Croatoan, which was what they called a
nearby island (Hatteras Island). He also had reason to hope
because he had told the colonists to carve a Maltese cross if they
were being forced leave. Since he found no cross, he figured the
colonists were okay. White was unable to search the nearby island
for the colonists because of a bad storm and was forced to return
to England.
It is said that they have supposedly left Roanoke Island and
started settling in the Chesapeake Bay. And that they built rafts
or a boat of some sort using materials torn apart from their
houses. Close to twenty years had passed before John Smith and
his group started the well-known settlement of Jamestown (where

the popular story of Pocahontas takes place). This settlement was

near the Chesapeake Bay. The evidence in this tale is that the
ruler of the natives did indeed admit to killing the colonists. They
said that they had been in their land (Chesapeake Bay area) and
were then annihilated to prevent more English settlers form
stealing their land.
On theory is the whole population of Roanoke Island was killed by
a disease. It is true that the English had brought over some
diseases. However, note, there were no bodies found and the
houses had disappeared.
Another theory is the colonists were killed by the Native
Americans. A little over a year had passed since they first started
the colony, before explorers decided to check up on their hopeful
progress. What these explorers found was one dead body. It was
verified that it was the work of the Natives. From this past event
we know that the Natives were capable of such atrocities and also
capable of hiding the bodies. The Indians had a sufficient
amount of time to tear down the buildings too. However there
has still not been enough evidence to verify this theory.