Roxana's Children: A Village Quest

Supporting Curriculum Created by VRP Teachers

Roxana’s Children: A Village Quest

by Peacham School Teachers, Vermont

Introduction
Steve Glazer, coordinator of Valley Quest to the 5/6 students of Peacham School, presented the idea of a Village Quest. The concept is to establish a treasure hunt that teaches and shares the environmental and cultural history of a place. The quest features a map, a set of clues, and a treasure box at the end of a hunt. He introduced the concept by designing a “mock” quest with the 5/6 students of Peacham School. Steve, Andrea, and Lynn identified four sites within the village, complete with clues and a treasure box to simulate the process and possibilities before the students designed their own quest.

Steve began by telling a story and sharing artifacts from the natural environment. He told them about the origins of Questing, which is called “Letterboxing” in southwest England. [find out more about Valley Quest]

When the project was completed our students had created the following

Clues
On this quest you will learn
About Roxana’s family as you twist and turn.
Find the map outside the door
Up above the pavement floor.

Walk in rods and you will see
The next leg of this mystery.
Follow the driveway around the bend,
You’ll find two houses but that’s not the end.

Stand with your back to the signs
Cross over the road between the lines.
Up the path, to the west, count white houses 1-5
Stop before the Post Office drive.

This building replica marks the spot
Where education was important to Roxana Watts
In this building they did teach
Chastina, Lyman, Alice, each.

Find the first letter, first row on the sign
Then go to 10th letter, on the second line,
Find the O in the state your in,
Then find any A and continue then.
Next the last letter in the FIRST is cool,
Finally the fifth letter in the name of the
Grammar School.

Now add this name to the word INN
Where Chastina and Alfred Rix of Roxana’s kin,
Lived in this house across the street
Look for eight front windows lined up neat.

North of this house look next to the door
For 6 times 100 plus 24,
Marks where Roxana’s grandson began his life,
Delivered by Dr. Farr on a wintery December night.

Around the curve
There’s a picket fence.
Go to the house with the little green bench.
In this house lived Issac and Ellen
And their young daughter by the name of Helen.
Two numbers look down from the door,
3 plus 8 equals 11, not 24.

At the end of the fence, up towards the hill, count 1-11
Sidewalk sections ‘till
You are done and you look up on high,
At a time teller up in the sky.
And there beneath you will find a design
That will say when the church was organized.
Attend did Roxana’s own Lyman, Issac, Alice, and Ella
And it was there that Chastina married her fella.

Go up the hill like Jill and Jack
Passing on the left the Blacksmith Shack.
Then you will see the Historical House, run by
Lorna Quimby.
There at the top of the hill will be,
A sign with outstretched arms like a tree.
Go straight to the monument across the green,
Where dead soldiers will not be seen.
Dedicated by Roxana’s child, Issac Watts,
Who read the names of those who were lost.
Gone from this world during the Civil War,
Where life and blood dropped on the floor.

Cross the road to the white fence
Guarding the graves
Of many folks that have passed this way.
Follow the road down to the bend,
Then go straight forward and comprehend,
Those folks from Peacham that have passed,
Sometimes slow, sometimes fast.

At the iron fence so near,
Follow it back to the rear.
Then go left behind,
See the rock with Martins name near the top.
Look to the side and you will see,
Roxana’s home for eternity.
This includes the graves of the “Stay at Homes”
Where they lie near their mother under
the grassy loam.

Behind the stone, here ends the quest
With a small box called a treasure chest.
Here also concludes this wonderful story
Of a Peacham family in all its glory.

The Unit in Detail

Vermont Standards Addressed:
–4.6 Understanding Place
Students demonstrate understanding of the relationship between their local environment and community heritage and how each shapes their lives.

4.1 Service
Students take an active role in their community

6.4b Traditional & Social Histories:
Demonstrate an understanding of the relationships among powerful people, important events and the lives of common people.

6.8a Movement and Settlement:
Analyze and evaluate the causes and effects, processes and patterns of human movements, both chosen and forced in the community, Vermont, and the world (e.g. the impact of transportation, technology)

Lesson One: Introductory Quest

The 5/6 students began by reading a set of clues and completed the quest when they found and opened the treasure box.

During these lessons, students will:

1. Adopt a particular place in their community.
2. Connect with that place through repeated visits.
3. Out in the field, learn to observe detail: and take the time to discover the characters and the story that inhabit their chosen place.
4. Back in the classroom, use these details as a basic for integrating diverse academic disciplines: art, writing, reading, mathematics, science, social studies, and technology.
5. Utilize community resources like the historical society, town office and library; deepen students understanding through primary and secondary source investigations.
6. Invite the elders and specialists in their community to participate in Valley Quest.
Making use of the content mastery that already exists within the community. Building relationships across generations.
7. Publish and distribute the completed Quest, in order
to share the students learning with the wider community. (pg.3, The Village Quest Project).

Outcomes:
•To learn about some of the history of Peacham village.
To provide a service to the community in the form of a walking tour within the village.
To continue the school’s belief about the importance of Place-based education.
To continue and strengthen the already existing relationships between students and community.

Lesson Two: Village Settlements

Focusing Questions:
What makes a Village?
Why do villages grow in certain places?

Materials:
enlarged maps of Peacham from the Beer’s Atlas, and Colored pencils

Procedures:
Students work to create a basic map of the town on chart paper. They locate rivers, roads, schoolhouses, etc.
The question is asked, “If you were the first settler in Peacham, where would you locate?” “Why?”
“Why did people move here?”

The historical enlarged map is cut into puzzle pieces. Each student takes a puzzle piece and is guided through inquiry about the town while assembling the puzzle.

Sample Map Puzzle Questions:
What are we looking at?
Who can tell me the scale of the map?
Are there letters and numbers, in bold, on your piece?
What do they say?
What does DIST stand for?
Can anyone locate a school on their piece?
How many schools are there/
Is there a correlation between school # and
District #?
Where is the school located on your piece?
at the center? At the edge?
Why do you think schools are located at the
center of your piece?
Who can locate a cemetery on their piece?
How many cemeteries and schools are in the town?
What does this mean?
Does everyone notice the names on their section?
What do you think the names indicate?
Why are they important?
From your sections, can anyone give me proof that relatives lived close together?
Can anyone tell me of any natural features they see on their sections?
Who has a river or brook on their section?
Does the brook ever intersect with the road?
If so, why do you think that is?
Who thinks they have the top of the map?
Who thinks they have the bottom of the map?
(Page 11, The Village Quest Project).

*The maps are handed out and students locate specifics: schools, rivers, brooks, roads, and buildings. They use the pencils to color in the different features and agreeing on a color key for the map.

Red–houses; Blue–water; Orange–churches, etc.

Discussion
How do these clusters actually relate to natural features?
What elements are common to most clusters (hamlets, villages)?
Why are there so many schools in one town?
Why is this no longer the case?
What does this suggest about where hamlets grew?
And how people traveled? (pg. 12, The Village Quest Project).

Assessment:
Clearly colored maps that show their understanding of the activity.
Discussion reflects understanding.

Lesson Three: Roxana's Children

Materials
Overheads
Quotes
Maps
Population of Peacham (1791-1990)
Roxana and her family – family genealogy

Procedure:
Students analyze the following quotes:
“my children all left home and some gone so far that I do not every expect to see them again”
(Roxana to her granddaughter Augusta, May 29, 1853)

“we are scattered all over the world and writing is the only means by which we can communicate with each other” (Dustan to his sister Sarah, March 14, 1863)

Discussion
Student generated questions:
Where did they go?
Why did they leave?

Do they really mean all over the world?
Have they gone west?
How long did it take to get to the west?

1810-1860
How many people lived in Peacham in 1810?
How many less people in 1860?

How many people live in Peacham today?
How many sheep are in Peacham today as compared to the early and mid 1800’s?

Assessment: Discussion reflects understanding

Lesson Four: Village Walking Tour

Procedure:
Using Lynn Bonfield’s map of PEACHAM SITES OF
ROXANA BROWN WALBRIDGE WATTS,
students locate and identify eight sites on the walking tour.

These Include:
The Soldier’s Monument
Peacham Cemetery
Peacham Historical Association
Congregational Church
Home owned by Watts-Choate Family
Peacham Academy Plaque
Birthplace of Julian Walbridge Rix, 1850
Choate Inn

When students return to school, they decide which sites to adopt for a more in-depth study and choose their partners. They also decide as a class where the quest will begin and where it will end.

Assessment:
Evidence that students were able to read a map and locate sites within the village.

Lesson Five: Designing the Quest Map

Materials: masking tape, paper locations for quest

Procedure:
On the classroom floor, students lay out the quest map using tape and paper. Using the resources that they have, students think about and discuss the site locations that they have chosen for the quest and complete the “hands on” replica of the map they will eventually use.

Assessment:
Correct placement of the sites on the map complete
with connecting roads. Map also shows the beginning of the quest as well as the end.

Lesson Six: Site Inquiry

Materials: Clip board, paper, and pencil, Digital Camera

Procedure:
Students find their selected sites in the village. They create careful, detailed drawings while quietly observing and thinking about it. They also draw one small close up of a feature on this site that intrigues them. While students draw, they look for and think about historical connections as it relates to the story of Roxana and her children.

Upon return to school, students are able to look at digital images to complete their drawings with more detail and to make comparisons between sites and to think about and discuss the architecture of their sites.

Assessment:
Students have created detail drawings of their site, which is recognizable and meets the standard for
becoming part of the Quest map.

Students have offered feedback to their classmates
on their drawings.

Lesson Seven: Research–Primary Source Investigation

Materials:
Roxana’s Children
The Biography of a Nineteenth-Century Vermont Family
Lynn A. Bonfield
Mary C. Morrison

Procedure:
Students are given resource materials to read up on the content that is related to their individual sites. They will summarize this information for a future activity
for sharing.

Assessment:
Students will demonstrate understanding of the text
through their written summary.

Lesson Eight: Writing the Quest–Clues

Procedures:
Explain to students the importance of clues. There are two different types of clues to move people through the quest. Movement and teaching clues.

Movement Clues—are used to orient people to the area and move them through the Quest. They keep visitors from getting lost and are especially important at junctions. Landmarks, cardinal references, and clock references are good movement clues.

Teaching Clues— interpret what visitors see.

Guiding questions:
“What are the unique/interesting visual and historical elements that you might want to include in your clues?”
What are the sites?
Where is the beginning and the end?

What are the clues that move you through space and clues that teach?
A good clue will move a visitor in the right direction. A better clue involves is more of a sensory experience.
A better clue is more intriguing.

Each group should come up with a specific “moving clue” as well as a “teaching clue.”
Writing Activity:

Students work with their partners to write one or more compelling clues.
1. Students decide “ teaching features.”
2. Brainstorm about the features.
3. Students select about three of the most important
facts about this feature.
4. Sequence these facts.
5. Students complete their clue.
6. Mentally walk the clues to see if and where it

Report Out:
Students read what they have so far and give and receive feedback to one another.

Assessment:
Students have produced a draft of clues that teach and clues that move.

Lesson Nine: Historical Writing

Procedure:
Students will write a short summary of their site including information about location in the village, content knowledge of their site and how it relates to Roxana and her children.

Assessment:
Students will share their summaries with their classmates. Writing will be assessed according to standards.

Lesson Ten: Finishing Up!

Procedure:
Divide up the students to work on the following jobs:
—Artist
Design a compass rose that indicates North and is in keeping with the designed Quest.
Look at examples of a Compass Rose.

—Designers
Decide what the cover/format design for the Quest. Make sure that credit is given to both the creators and the historian. What would a nice design look like?

Making the Sign in Book
Make a sign-in-book AND a replacement book as well. Write a “Welcome” from the class as a first entry.

—Stamp makers
Each student will design a stamp and will then make a rubber stamp with the art teacher. The students will decide which stamp to put in the treasure chest.

—Thank you letters
Write Thank You letters to Lynn Bonfield, Andrea Lewis, and Steve Glazer for helping with this project.

Assessment:
Student completion of their part of this lesson.

Extension
A small group of students will create a bulletin board with a timeline:
US History; Peacham History; Roxana’s Family